Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
As I sit down to write this, I’m just about to finish my second day of Spring Quarter. This means that as long as everything goes according to plan, as of two days ago I was 1/6th done with college! But just because I’ve finished my second of twelve quarters, does that mean I’ve gathered 1/6th of all the knowledge I’ll learn while at college?
I certainly hope not.
It’s definitely exciting to be able to say that I’m well on my way to graduating, but when I think about what that really means it’s scary. While I totally expect (and am hoping) to continue to learn a lot after graduation, I question whether I’ll know enough and have enough skills when I graduate to be successful in the “real world.”
Mastering my Craft
“Has it ever seemed to you that less competent people rate their competence higher than it actually is, while more competent people humbly rate theirs lower?”
This is a genuine cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect. When I first heard about it, I had what I thought was an interesting thought relating it to my college education. It’s general idea is that as people learn more about topics, they realize that the topic is a lot more advanced than they initially thought and as a result, they actually don’t know very much about it. Many people look at this in a negative light, thinking that life gets more complex as you get to know about more things. However, when I applied this phenomenon to my education I came upon an interesting conclusion.
It Only Gets Harder From Here
As I continue to learn about the complexities of the world, I’ll begin to learn things that I don’t even think about now. Many of the classes I’ve taken so far have been intro level classes, meant simply to introduce topics. For example, as I take the next series of economics I’ll be introduced to new complexities that stretch my thinking even further. What I’m saying is that even though I’ve finished 1/6th of all my classes at school, as I learn more about each subject, more questions will arise which will in turn make me learn more in each class. These classes, many of which will be upper division (read harder), will be difficult but ultimately will be where I learn the breadth of my college knowledge.
By taking these more in depth and challenging courses in the next three years, I’ll not only finish my remaining 10 quarters of college, but I’ll learn way more in the last 2 quarters of my senior year than I have in the first 2 of freshman year. While this makes the rest of my college career look very challenging, it’s also comforting because I trust that by the time of graduation, I’ll have put myself in a great position to succeed.
Image Credit
http://theodysseyonline.com/northern-iowa/the-best-college-memes-ever/192312