Growing up, I was always taught that diligence was a key to success- that if I never gave up, anything was possible. It was not until the fifth grade that I realized that diligence only made up half the picture. The other half was being able to be happy everyday. My early years of school were filled with bad grades, difficult circumstances, and so on. At the end of fourth grade, it did not dawn on me that I could not be diligent if I was not happy with what I was doing. Then, in fifth grade, I met Ms. Churchwell who helped make learning fun and school a lot happier place to be. By the end of the year, I was having a blast and good scores came with it simply because I was more content with my environment and life. Thus, it occurred to me that Joy was able to bring out the best in a person.
As a college student now, I expect to find a passion that can help give the same joy as I did in the fifth grade. I hope to have many experiences in the real world so that I can come out of college ready to tackle real world problems. Beyond just grades and scores, one aspect I really want to work on is finding out who I am and how to be the best version of myself. This is probably a problem I am going to struggle the most in but also the most rewarding once I accomplish it.
In the first semester, I hope look for programs to join and adapt to the new environment. One concern I have is how well I can learn virtually v. in person.
I definitely agree with you that being happy is a driving force and it can really impact how we do in school and how we interact with others. My parents pushed me to do many sports in my early childhood, from soccer to dance to tennis and more, but I was not happy. After numerous attempts, I decided that I was most happy sticking to swimming, and I have been swimming until this day; if COVID-19 was not an issue, I would probably be swimming for Baruch’s team right now. I am also really excited to find programs that will help me gain the tools to tackle real world issues; although I am not sure about what I want to do in the Business world yet, I know that I want to have a tangible impact on others. I am currently in a Consulting club at Baruch where I am exploring this passion.
I actually went through I similar experience involving learning and being happy. I was raised under the impression that studying and all things school related was the key to success. I failed to realize that being happy and trying new things was part of success too.
I think it is very important to be happy throughout your school journey. Personally, being happy motivates me to do my work. I am also looking forward to exploring who I am and I agree that it will be a challenge to become used to the virtual environment.
Growing up, I also thought diligence was the sole key to success, I constantly pushed myself to higher expectations and sort of got caught up with all my work. I still struggle a little bit with figuring out how to balance happiness with diligence while in college, as it seems like I keep getting bombarded with work. I also hope that as college progresses I will be able to find something that I can be passionate about and truly enjoy doing.