In high school, the only source of stress I ever experienced came from being overwhelmed. Going from school, to work, to practice, to drama, to homework, and finally falling into bed around 2 am was tricky, but it was my routine. I knew it. I loved it. I always had somewhere to be, something that had to be done, and someone counting on me to do it. Almost always with a hard deadline and an expressed regiment of how it needed to be done. Whether it was an essay for French or a worksheet for math, I knew what was being asked of me, and when I had to do it.
Now, as I am suddenly thrown into this new lifestyle full of freedom, I am a little weary. Weary because as a high school student, the most common worry teachers would throw at us is “your professors won’t spoon feed assignments to you” or “nobody will be around to make sure you do your homework”. Being seniors we always brushed it off, saying nobody tells me to do my work now anyway. Which for me, was true. My mom was never on top of me, telling me to do my work, because I just did it.
But as I enter this lovely world of independence, I have noticed an emotion that is pretty foreign to me, I am perpetually confused. Not about what I’m learning in class, which is something I know several of my classmates (are they still classmates after high school?) are concerned with. We had an entire discussion about fully understanding class materials. What I don’t get, is how I am suspected to know how to navigate all of this course material and these unfamiliar websites, with no direction.
So, as a conclusion I’ve found that making sure I understand or finish assignments is not my issue (yet). The issue is figuring out what in God’s name I’m supposed to be doing. Meaning, why do all my professors hide my homework? I know there’s something I need to do, there must be…but I have no idea where it is and how to do it. What’s with that? Anyway, hopefully my stress induced sarcasm made you laugh if you can’t sympathize. I’m off to hunt for my geography homework…