Nhan Nguyen |
He's honed his Daily Cougar crossword-puzzle skills to the point that he completed today's puzzle in under five minutes. His binders are packed to the gills with entire photocopied textbooks.
He's mastered the secret ninja art of signing the roll sheet and ducking out before the teacher notices. Johnny knows IRC and e-mail like the back of his hand, but don't ask him to tell you the course numbers of his classes.
Everybody knows a Johnny, or has been like Johnny in one way or another. I can't honestly say I've been to every class during my college career, but I do pay through the nose for actual textbooks.
And once, I did photocopy a classmate's notes when I missed out on class. But I don't cheat on tests, quizzes or papers. I do my own work and take the heat if it's not up to snuff.
But you know what? That's not good enough.
The fact is, there's no reason why I couldn't have attended each and every class, excepting those times I've had real emergencies to deal with.
On one seemingly ordinary night a couple of years ago, some young punk standing on the shoulder of Interstate 45 threw a chunk of construction concrete the size of a size 10 sneaker into my windshield when I was traveling at 60 mph.
I was showered in glass (even in my mouth), slashed everywhere from the shards, and my left jaw was smashed by the rock. To this day I have memory problems and slight difficulty opening my jaw as wide as was once possible.
Now that's what I'd qualify as a legitimate excuse for missing a class. But my other absences were not due to emergencies of nearly that caliber (with a few glaring exceptions).
It sounds corny, but attending class regularly makes all the difference. It keeps you in the right mode, especially during the critical conclusion of the semester.
Many seniors aren't going to graduate from school, and a year from now - when we're toiling away for peanuts in some faceless, nine-to-five cubicle job - we'll wish we could've had another shot at college all over again. And unfortunately, many underclassmen will follow in our footsteps. The amount of academic delinquency seems to increase with each passing year.
As a college senior on his way out, I can testify that I didn't do my absolute best in school at all times, and few people probably do. But it's as if you don't really get it - you don't really grasp the significance of these times in your life - until you've learned the hard way.
We're young and able to do anything. Take advantage of your situation. In other words, don't be like Johnny.
Nguyen is a senior RTV major.