The promise of college for our generation

[Taylor]

When was it ever stated that College/High School/Life was supposed to be fun? "Fun" is such a subjective concept - I'm sure there are millions of people in the world that would have absolutely no interest in FIRST, its competitions, or its philosophy. In fact, I'm sure there are many people and cultures that would despise what FIRST is and what it stands for. They would say it is hypocritical at its very core - it is trying to get attention away from glamorized sports and entertainment, but uses sport and entertainment as its foundation for its culminating activity.
Mind, I'm not one of those people. But I hope you see my point.
College in and of itself is not students cutting class, it's not boring professors giving boring lectures, it's not a 24-hour drunkfest at some fraternity house, it's not impossible final exams designed to flunk half the students.
Not to say these things don't happen, but to me that's like saying America is a country of toothless inbred obese people. Which may be a pervasive view of America from the perspective of other countries - the pendulum swings both ways. What stereotypes do you have of citizens of France? Mexico? Afghanistan? Japan? Kenya? Does that mean everybody in those nations are exemplified by a stereotype, true or untrue as it may be?
No, college is an opportunity. College is the chance to better oneself by spending time with the professor after class, to reason through the "boring" lecture on microbiology. Some things just aren't fun - does that mean we don't need these things?
College offers so many opportunities, challenges, rewarding experiences, both in and out of the classroom. It is unfortunate that the view of it is biased by the poor decisions of some of its students and faculty. Some students choose to skip class/sleep through lectures/waste time and brain cells through inappropriate behavior. If only they knew what they were missing.
I was just discussing with a colleague earlier that it's too bad that we don't realize the opportunities available to us until after they have passed. If I had college to do over again, it would certainly be different.
Don't let your college experience be flavored by the poor choices by other people, no matter who they are. Life is what you make of it - what you get out of college is proportional to what you put into it.
"It has been my experience that people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln.

So ends Part One - Part Two to come.