You're a big big girl, in a big big world - grow the %$#* up!

Let me begin by stating that I will not take this opportunity to look down my nose and preach to you about my self-proclaimed immense knowledge about the world, life and love. I am but a fellow student that uses his experience as his weapon. Feel free to stop reading at this point, as I will assume that you have better things to do than read about my complaints (or, what some may euphemistically call ‘constructive criticisms’). Given the title of this piece, one can more or less see where I might be going with this; and this is not a direct attack on anyone, just some gentle advice to a certain type of people as a whole.

First of all, let me begin by stating, rather obviously, that this is an institution where people, predominantly young adults, come for a tertiary education. The kind of education that prepares us for the ‘big bad world’; the kind that ties our shoe laces before we run the race of real life. This is not kindergarten, primary or high school. Here, the university and its lecturers are not fazed if you do not study, if you fail all your subjects, and are asked to leave. To them, you were just another person who came to test drive university life for a year, and couldn’t cope with what was hidden under the hood. The university doesn’t care if you feel as useful as a fashion designer in a nudist colony when they show you door, deal with it.

Forgive my crudeness here, but what really pulls on the short-and-curlies for me is these young adults who come to university still thinking that they are in matric. When I was in grade seven, (then, standard five) I remember the principle telling us that as our last year in primary school, we were big fish in a little pond, and that when moving into high school the following year we would be demoted to little fish in a big pond. Well, moving from matric into university is like going from big fish in a big pond, to a big fish into an ocean. There are much bigger fish in university than high school. This does not refer specifically to age, or size, or status. This refers to a wide variety of different aspects, perhaps among the most dominant is maturity. It should be institutionalized that before a kid moves from matric into university, he/she has to have an ‘injection’…of maturity.

I was in a lecture the other day, and it just so happened (and it is actually quite common) that an assignment for one subject and an assignment for another subject were both due that same day. When the lecturer asked the class if everyone had finished and submitted the assignment that was due, to my complete and utter surprise, this smug little Paris Hilton wannabe in the back of the class had the nerve to say that her reason for not doing the required assignment for that subject was because she was up all night completing the other assignment for the other subject.

Ummm, sweetheart, that is no excuse at all. Firstly, grow the #%@* up. Secondly, having done the ‘assignment’, I was a hair’s width away from standing up and saying to you that a 150 word comment can barely be called ‘an assignment’ at all. This is not an attack on the lecturers; this is a statement to young Miss Hilton in the back row who thinks that a 150 word commentary would actually take her more than 20 minutes to complete. A 2000 word essay can be classified as time-consuming, let us be realistic here. Thirdly, probably the best advice that I could not stress enough, you should learn to plan ahead and manage your time better. This way you might not come to the situation the night before deadline where you have two assignments due the next day, and you have not done either of them.

Fellow first years, especially back-row-Paris, when you are working one day a few years from not, your employers will not tolerate excuses. Deadlines are deadlines. Having been accepted into university just illustrates my point; we are all intelligent human beings. We should have no problem realizing that proper time management is essential to success.

Let me end with a fairly wise quote I heard, “if you work hard, you can play harder”. This is the truth.

Peace...