EDITORIAL
Jennifer Hill
Issue date: 1/23/03 Section: Editorial/Opinion
Last year I'll admit I was the first to attack controversial issues in this column in soapbox like fashion, yet something has happened to me in the last year. I've grown more introspective and thoughtful and words have grown scarce to reflect the ideas forged from life at this university. Perhaps I should start calling this column "Jennifer's Ramblings," and I apologize to those who are looking for hotheaded debates regarding the latest political and social incidents. Yet, I cannot neglect the words that are coming straight from my heart, for those to me are more sincere than the most well constructed debate I might construe.
Sometimes the best things in life are the things you have to fight for. The sweetest victory is always after you have flung every ounce of sweat and passion into the thing you're fighting for. Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking, which as my friends often tell me, is dangerous for me to do. However, this last year at UAH, as my time here is drawing short, I've begun to consider exactly what a college education means to me. My parents always told me that college was a luxury, while I consider it a dire necessity to exist in a modern functioning society.
Throughout the past year, I'll admit, staying in college has become difficult. I'm a full-time student in addition to working two full-time jobs and at times, I have felt like I will never complete college even though I'm only in my fourth year. Yet, something has always kept me from truly giving up. I know that the thing I fight the hardest for will mean the most to me in the long run.
While striving to be the perfect student, I've learned that you won't always take the gold. Things will not always fall into place. And last of all, every single duck will not go in a perfectly straight line--one will always waddle off, refusing to conform. What matters most of all is that you complete what you start. I won't and cannot let my frustration, stress, or disappointments deter me from my goal. Nothing stands between you and your future except your own decision to turn away.
In these dismally cold days of January, don't give up. No matter how much you feel like the cycle will never end, it will. Just as spring returns, so does the inspiration to keep going, to push yourself a little further beyond your comfort zone and the mental limits we confine ourselves to. Never be satisfied with mediocrity, it will only hold you down.
Sometimes the best things in life are the things you have to fight for. The sweetest victory is always after you have flung every ounce of sweat and passion into the thing you're fighting for. Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking, which as my friends often tell me, is dangerous for me to do. However, this last year at UAH, as my time here is drawing short, I've begun to consider exactly what a college education means to me. My parents always told me that college was a luxury, while I consider it a dire necessity to exist in a modern functioning society.
Throughout the past year, I'll admit, staying in college has become difficult. I'm a full-time student in addition to working two full-time jobs and at times, I have felt like I will never complete college even though I'm only in my fourth year. Yet, something has always kept me from truly giving up. I know that the thing I fight the hardest for will mean the most to me in the long run.
While striving to be the perfect student, I've learned that you won't always take the gold. Things will not always fall into place. And last of all, every single duck will not go in a perfectly straight line--one will always waddle off, refusing to conform. What matters most of all is that you complete what you start. I won't and cannot let my frustration, stress, or disappointments deter me from my goal. Nothing stands between you and your future except your own decision to turn away.
In these dismally cold days of January, don't give up. No matter how much you feel like the cycle will never end, it will. Just as spring returns, so does the inspiration to keep going, to push yourself a little further beyond your comfort zone and the mental limits we confine ourselves to. Never be satisfied with mediocrity, it will only hold you down.