Editor says: Challenge yourself

Monday, January 12, 20094:20 p.m.Leaning against the dark gray wall outside of LBV 220 while waiting for my lab instructor to arrive, I overheard a conversation between my classmates, a guy I recognized from a tutoring session at the WC and a shorter girl with glasses. “That’s the first rule of college: don’t take any science related to chemistry or physics-unless it’s in your major,” the guy advised. “Why’s that?” asked the girl. “It’s too hard,” he answered matter-of-factly. “And don’t take anything with Blackwell.”Another girl interjected, “She’s not too bad. I took with her. She’s cool.””Yeah,” he agreed, “but her workload is crazy.” Smirking, I rolled my eyes. Rookies. Now, I don’t know Dr. Blackwell as an instructor, much less personally. I know she dances flamenco. I learned this last semester, when, looking for an unoccupied dance studio to practice in for the Fall Dance Concert, I found her swishing her big, beautiful flamenco skirt, black with white polka dots. I know that when I studied abroad in England this past summer, one of my roommates, a Grad student majoring in History, expressed nothing but respect and admiration for Dr. Blackwell and was, in fact, hoping to become her T.A. I know that she gives excellent presentations, such as when she presented for Women’s History Month last March. The presentation discussed the history of makeup, and I left feeling informed and impressed. Dr. Blackwell really knew her stuff, and she taught me something I never bothered to think of on my own. Afterwards, when I approached her with some questions, she was really friendly and cool. I wanted to share this information with my classmates and tell them how much they’d benefit from professors who challenge their students, but if I did, I’d be busted for eavesdropping, and anyway, Dr. Hinojosa appeared. With a hello and a smile, he unlocked the lab and walked in, and I followed. Astronomy. What did I get myself into?8:43 p.m.Well, what a relief! Astonomy wasn’t as difficult as I imagined. Actually, I’d been wanting to take Astronomy since my sophomore year, but when registration came around, a former co-worker warned me: “It’s not as cool as you’d think. It’s hard-a lot of math and formulas and equations involved.” Discouraged, I searched for an alternative; many suggested a life or Earth science class. “Its cake-easy A,” a friend told me. But every semester, those classes quickly filled before I could rearrange my schedule to work around it. Now, here I am, in my last semester of college, finally taking my last science. I’ll admit it: I’m probably going to struggle in this class. I’m a senior English major, rusty in math and science. I’ll need to attend class regularly, take good notes, ask questions when I need help-I might have to spend some quality time with my book at CASA. And even though I might never use what I learn about the heavens in my daily life, at least I will have learned to be a better student. The point is to challenge yourself. It’s how we grow.In the academic world, don’t be discouraged when faced with difficulty in the classroom. Expect your instructors to give thought-provoking assignments and to demand quality work. That’s what you pay tuition for. So, yeah, it may take a lot of hard work and dedication, but these challenges will only make what comes next that much easier to face.