I often ask myself this question: "why am I in college?" I go to class, I do the readings, and still I am often confused about what is going on. I do not retain information, I cannot follow basic instructions, and over all my performance is low. Maybe I am just stupid. I have no idea why this shit happens to me.
You're not stupid. You're in college. Be grateful you have that opportunity. Some people think you can do well without an institutional education but it's not something to take for granted if you have the opportunity and use it right. I think you just may be suffering from a lack of self confidence. It may take work to eliminate the doubt within you, but fear and doubt will only hold you back. I could post a motivational video or picture but ultimately we must do the work ourselves, I'll still post one. Attitude is everything. One does not have a set intelligence throughout life, our thoughts can reshape it.
If it were easy then everyone would be doing it and there would be no point. You are there because it is difficult and you have earned your place. Do you think students at the top universities in the world wake up every day thinking "wow this is a complete cakewalk. I don't need to do any work at all today"? No, they don't. It's because it's a competitive environment where they had to work their butts off to get there and they have to work even harder to stay there. Most of them will have work loads which will make them wish a bus would hit them to end it all. But they keep going regardless. The fact that it's hard means it's doing you good. It won't end when you get a job in the real world. Jobs are hard. Every day at my job I feel like I'm just barely holding on. But everyone else is in the same position. However, we are all there doing the jobs we do because we are all very smart people. The fact we are each struggling is irrelevant. If we were stupid we wouldn't be there doing the jobs we're doing in the first place. We're doing jobs we struggle with because the job requires smart people, even if they have to struggle through each day. There are people at my job smarter than me, but that only means they get given harder work which I don't have the faintest clue how to do.
I've got news for ya. When most people grow up, they realize they don't have a clue how to do this "adult" thing. Life is just a bunch of mistakes that we make until we learn from them. That's where wisdom comes from. Don't sweat your insecurities. Everybody has them. It's how you handle those insecurities that determines your true measure. Don't let your doubts get the upper hand. Keep working hard and you'll come out of the other side with real knowledge, experience, and confidence.
Spend less time questioning...and more time doing. The energy you use questioning why things are the way they are could be put towards improving. Now get back in the game soldier!
This is assuming he actually gives a shit about what he's learning. I find that it's quite difficult to absorb info when I am just thinking about having a burger for dinner and care about nothing else.
Great thread. It is an interesting question. I agree that college can be a joke and it can be a lot of bullshit. However, according to a study, people who graduate from college tend to make more money. Also, with all this useless knowledge you learn from college, there will be may be a couple things that actually are useful that you may accidentally remember and will make sense and could help you. It could be something like an intern experience. Or it could even be something that maybe a classmate told you. Or it can even be something that a proffesor told you from a casual conversation and it was an idea in life that made sense. It's the little things in college that can be a good experience. Even though I hated college, I can't deny some of the things I learned.