A life lesson learned
By Jenni Ramminger
One would think that being in college opens pathways to a higher education. However, when those paths are crossed by common distractions day in and day out, the true desire within students to academically succeed is entirely too overwhelming. We may find ourselves pondering the reasons as to why we are unable to remember the facts of history or terms in biology like we did in our high school days, but the truth does not lie in early memory malfunction or attention deficit disorder, as so many may like to blame.
Rather, it lies in the oh-so-many, college-related distractions that were unapparent in our earlier years.
Shortly after moving away from home, many college students begin to stumble upon the freedoms that they once fought so hard for.
Whether these freedoms include the right to eat whenever they want, the right to sleep deprivation if they so choose, or even the right to watch any and all forms of television that now cultivate the minds of the youth, all lack of restrictions share common ground- they are the source of stubborn distraction for students everywhere.
For example, how are we supposed to study in a room where the sound of Maury Povich’s voice buzzes from the TV? It blurs the line between the voice in our own heads attempting to study chapters and the voice that imitates the talk show host, playing and replaying daily events in our own lives that we know are talk show-worthy.
And how, may I ask, are we to cram for a physics test if the show by which our social lives absolutely revolve around interrupts? And, while we’re on the subject of ultimate distractions, how are we supposed to exit the heart-to-heart we’re having with our roommate when it involves college relationships? Are we supposed to say “Excuse me, roommate and best friend, I need to apply myself to my statistics problems in order to better prepare myself for the career I am hoping to secure in 4 years thus cannot be there for you when you need me to listen to and sympathize with you?”
The point of such exaggerations is to prove the simple fact that, as college students, we face many more issues that prohibit our ability to study and effectively learn new things than do even the busiest of professionals. Rather than being absorbed by work-pertaining problems or a plethora of important phone calls that would at least point in the direction of success, we college students are plagued with the meaningless yet important decisions of how in the world we are going to find something to eat in our empty refrigerators, what in the world do we want to do with our lives now that real life is getting closer, who in the world we turn to with financial aid questions, and why in the world our mothers never told us how cumbersome laundry is.
Although high school preparation for college is becoming more of a focus among schools districts around the country and within the state of Ohio, such preparation classes fail to address the most common of distractions that abound while living on college campuses.
One must of course take into account the fact that there is no longer the comfort of a quiet “home” in which to study.
In fact, there is hardly a quiet room anywhere within the walls of a college dorm. This predicament is not only due to the fact that a roommate is typically on the other side of the room, carrying on their own agenda, but is also due to the obvious actuality that parties, loud music, slamming doors, and obnoxious voices are rarely trapped by the thin walls that are typical to most dorms.
Also, one must realize that sleep deprivation does lead to a decrease in academic performance. Sleepless nights of partying upon late nights of studying tend to lead college students down the path of procrastination, which we all know is detrimental to the intentions of studying.
In my somewhat biased yet experience-based opinion, the words of B.F. Skinner best apply to the struggle of studying despite distraction. “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” So enjoy the afternoons of soap operas and Mario Kart, and the nights of sleepovers and fraternity parties, because meaningful education lies merely in our own experiences.