This is a shout out to all those who study, the so called, difficult careers, the ones that have to study pass the point of exhaustion and are threaten to give in and let them consume their everyday lives… This is a moment of reflection, because I am an advanced student of one of this careers (I prefer not to disclose which) and I also have the opportunity to teach in a class scheduled in the third year of studies. I see students come that are still naïve dreamers that are beginning to lose the energy they started with that made them believe they could conquer the world.
I find it quite sad, because they start to resent the place in which they stand and I fear they will drop out altogether, which is fairly common. They see all the path that lies ahead and think only of the sacrifices they had made so far and decide it is not for them. Endless nights of study only to fail the exam, being weight down by books you try to read while getting stuck without understanding what it is talking about can bring tears even to eyes of the toughest and, on a personal note, something not to be underestimated is the envy they feel towards their friends.
Friends that are partying and relaxing on the weekends because they study careers that are not as demanding that do not understand why you cannot join then. Friends hat happily boast of how much they are accomplishing and look down on them because they disregard the content and focus only on the waypoints ticked. As alien as it sounds I can confirm it is true from personal experience.
They find themselves under peer pressure when those people are not they peers, they may be the same age but their reality is so different that they lost the privilege of an opinion simply because they can’t relate. If you decide to study a demanding career you need to realize at the very beginning that the weekends studying, the missed parties, the throbbing headaches and, to be honest, the lack of social life, will be a part of you life for, at least six years, and not only that last year of high school when you are getting ready to take the admission tests and you are willing to study around the clock.
You will see how your friends graduate and start working when you are not even close to finishing your studies, and like it or not, you will not have a positive feeling when you see in your social media feed, photos of them traveling or moving in with their special someones when you are holed up in a library and still dependent of your parents financial support. I am not saying you cannot work or date, but then, instead of six years, they will turn to eight or ten.
Is up to you to decide if the degree is worth the path and I can assure you, that even if you are a straight A student, that you will struggle, it will not go as planned and you will not have the same drive you had at seventeen when you are twenty, and even less when you are twenty five. The decision is yours to make, but don’t be foolish and disregard advice because you feel invincible. The world will be a better place with educated people, I want you to succeed, and to do that, you need to be aware of the toll it will have in your life.
