Signature Assignment 2

When I was eighteen years old, I too, contributed to this statistic and dropped out of my freshman year of college. I struggled to find a balance between studying for all of my classes. I had just gotten married and wanted to spend time with my husband in ways only newlyweds know-how. But most of all I felt this overwhelming sense of disappointment. I had romanticized college as being a place where I would be encouraged to actually learn, explore and expand the horizons of my mind. But in reality, it felt very similar to high school, doing busy work assignments for the sake of getting a grade. I realized that high school had not properly prepared me to learn how to learn and I ended up struggling even in the classes where learning was encouraged and I felt incompetent and out of place. 

It is only now after a decade has gone by that I find myself in the throes of college life once again. Though, it is different this time. I find I am actually applying myself in assignments, when I get overwhelmed, I am able to take a deep breath and push through rather than shutting down, and most importantly I feel as though I have learned how to learn which makes me a more curious student. Even with all of the juggling that I do with school and work I have found myself taking a step back multiple times to notice this shift from the student I was to the student I am now. So, what changed?

Looking back, if someone asked me at eighteen years old, “why are you enrolling in college?” I would have responded “because I want to” or “I am excited to get a college experience”. If I am being honest with myself though, the real reason why I enrolled in college was that I felt like I was supposed to, it was the next step in life that every person just does. I would have also been the first member of my family to finish college and that was a heavy burden I felt pressure to withstand. All of these reasons though were extrinsically motivated, motivations that were outside me (Berger, 2021, p. 415). Now, as a twenty-eight-year-old, I have decided to come back to traditional higher education only because I know what career path I want to achieve. Not only do I have a clear image of why I am back in school, but I also find myself engaging in my classes by asking questions, digging deeper, and pushing myself to learn and explore more. In my time away from college, I have learned how to learn and I am now experiencing what I so desperately wanted to experience when I was younger; the romanticized version of college is no longer a fantasy but a reality. One could make the argument that the reason why I am a better student now than in my earlier years would be because my motivations are intrinsic, my own personal gratifications (Berger, 2021, p. 415). 

As to the advice I would give my friend; I would ask them to ask themselves why they enrolled in school, to begin with. To be as brutally honest with themselves as they can be. If they find their reasons are extrinsically motivated, I would tell them to drop out, go out into the workforce and explore as many different types of jobs as they can in hopes that they will learn about their own intrinsic motivations. If they are in fact intrinsically motivated but life has thrown unforeseen curveballs their way, I would tell them it is perfectly fine to take a break and to come back when they are on stable ground again. If they are intrinsically motivated but struggling to balance the workload or have fears of being incompetent in their classes, I would give them tips for finding a system that works to keep them organized and I would also encourage them to stay open-minded and ask questions when they do not know something because curiosity outweighs competency any day.

Reference

Berger, K. S. (2021). Invitation to the life span (5th ed.). Macmillan Higher Education.

Word Count: 679 words. I counted ONLY the Answer section, not the essay prompt, the Reference section, etc.