"Just getting by" College requires more than 'just enough'

by Ray Buffington, editor-in-chief

There are some things in life you can complete by “just getting by”.

Paying the minimum on your almost-maxed-out credit card bill (I still regret the day I entered Buckle’s outlet store armed with a Mastercard), working only 40 hours a week even though there is a pile of paperwork left to do when the weekend comes (All that data entry can wait… it’s Friday!), just having the oil changed on your car while it is making a suspicious rattling sound in the engine (Hey, it still runs, right?), skipping a shower and only slathering on a good layer of deodorant because you are late to class (Thank God for cologne), and living off crackers and Ramen because you haven’t been to the grocery store yet (I needed to lose a pound or two anyway).

These are the mundane, everyday things that almost everyone participates in when it comes to “just getting by” for it bears no extreme consequence. At least, until you find yourself stranded on the highway with a broken-down car, a declined credit card, smelling like covered up body odor, with your breakfast of the bottle of water and three-week old leftovers from Josie’s that was all that was left in your refrigerator. However, one thing I believe you should never “just get by” when completing, which many students do anyway, is college.

Many moons ago, when I was a naïve little freshman attending my first college class, the first one there, sitting in front, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was shocked when I was handed a syllabus that deemed “making a 60 or above” was considered passing. The standards from high school that I was accustomed to had definitely changed. Even as the professor was explaining how a “D” in the class meant you were home free from the berating of angry parents and taking another round of the same class, I couldn’t fully grasp why anyone would want to settle with a “just getting by” score during the possibly most important four years of their lives.

Then, I became astounded at what I heard my fellow classmates saying. I would hear, “Man, I have a 40 right now, so I gotta get a 95 on this test to get a 60 in here,” or “No, I didn’t study. A ‘D’ isn’t hard to get. Besides, this class doesn’t have anything to do with my major,” and “I’ve missed like… five classes. But I’m not worried about it.”

Are these students really that nonchalant about their future careers? Do they really think that businesses and large corporations ignore the classes that have nothing to do with the job they are applying for? Is this an OK state of mind for our future leaders to have?

Granted, there are classes we are forced to take that give us information that we will not use as often as the information our primary classes give us (I’m a writer, which means the things I learned in courses such as Calculus and Statistical Methods will be, for the most part, lost in the abyss of the recycle bin in my brain in order to make room for a larger lexicon), but that doesn’t mean we should not give the class our best. All classes should be treated with equal attention, regardless of whether or not the information sticks in the crevices of your cortex at the end of each semester.

This mentality of doing the bare necessities and nothing more in order to walk across the stage is really quite frightening. We are the future leaders and creators of the world. I personally wouldn’t want an architect who earned a 65 in his or her physics class to be building anything that I would have to walk under. Nor would I want a doctor who made a 69 in his or her psychology class to be prescribing me anti-depressants and other mind or mood altering drugs.

The fact is we are going through a vital part of our lives, a time of recreating our minds and bettering ourselves in order to froge a future that does not have us living in a gutter with a brown paper bag-wrapped bottle, an empty stomach, rags for clothes, and the massive guilt of not having worked in life to achieve a better one.

Before you start giving me wedgies, swirlies, noogies, and point at me shouting “Nerd!” and “Professor’s Pet!” in the hallways, let me center align this view for you. While it should be the main focus during these years, college shouldn’t be the only thing to rule your life. Along with being studious, a college student must have some venting time. That’s right! Along with textbooks and spirals, partying is also a necessity to a college student’s learning years.

One can’t possibly endure days upon days of studying and not have a little R & R without facing the dreaded “burn-out” factor.  Forcing yourself to read and memorize until your eyes and brain bleed is just as bad as “just getting by,” and has been the cause of death for college enrollment. There is nothing wrong with letting loose during the weekend, or even during the week if you are luckily low on the test quota during those five days, in order to loosen up the vice of learning that is permanently attached to your head when you enter college. Compromise and time management are the keys in order to have a happy college student with a good GPA.

I know I sound like a nagging mother, but this is a true concern I have. There have been mornings when I have thrown tantrums because I stayed out until 3 a.m. the night before when I have an 8 a.m. class and I don’t want to get up. Thoughts of “Oh, I am sure I won’t miss anything important,” and “This class is not important to my major, so a ‘C’ wouldn’t hurt,” have crossed my mind plenty of times. But I trudge on and just keep reminding myself that this is eventually all going to be worth it.