I looked forward to my higher institution life when I was still in secondary school. I believed that learning would be easier at university because I would be living on my own terms, not under my parents' or a boarding school's authority, which would restrict my movement and plan out all my activities. I would do what I wanted, when I wanted. The high institution in my mind was a place where I would be free, since classes were flexible, I was only majoring in one subject, lectures were fixed at your convenience, and if you were not okay with the schedule, you could deliberate for a better time.
The stress of the higher institution started right from day one of my registration as a student of the school, right up to registering as a student of my faculty/department. We were about 400 in my class, so you could imagine what it was like to do a manual/offline registration, unlike these days when you can do everything online. Since I was far from home, I needed a place to stay, which also became a struggle.
We had no timetable for lectures, so I thought my first impression of school was correct, not knowing that every lecturer would liaise only with the class representative for available periods between 6 am and 8 pm daily and would have the class representative fix the class and make the announcement to us. Sometimes classes are fixed for 8, and we do not find a venue, so we sit around for hours waiting for a venue big enough to accommodate our class. Finding a venue big enough for our class sometimes seems impossible, and because of that, we settle for whatever we can find, which makes the class too rowdy and unideal for learning. Imagine leaving your house as early as 6 in the morning for four classes only to come back late in the evening, having only one or two of the classes held.
School was always fun only on weekends because we had no classes fixed on weekends, but week days was usually a terrible and stressful time. I used to take myself to be above average intelligence. I would say to myself that no matter the situation, I will never fall below average, but my first semester results made me understand that you really have to put a conscious effort into your studies in the high institution to come out with a good result in the end. Imagine having classes, assignments, projects presentation of different sub-courses all at the same time. During those times in school, it was as if the hours were too short in a day, and I needed extra hours to top up the 24 hours I originally had.
Aside from your education, you still had your life outside of the conventional learning, learning how to live and manage on your own for those of us who haven’t really been independent in our lives, having to learn how to live and tolerate the behaviours of others, for those of us who stayed in the school hostels for a while and also to leave with room mates and learn and understand what it meant to be contented with what you have.
My name is@rishagamo, and this is my response to the Hive student week 31 prompt. “EDUCATION AND WORK LOAD: THE WEIGHT WE CARRY WHILE LEARNING”
