Elaine Fath Blog #14

Do you know how often an undergrad course comes along where the professor is willing to stand in front of the class and suggest that maybe, just maybe, there might be something out there, in the realm of human experience, that is more important than getting a passing grade in that course?

Not usually. Almost never.

Most people have a tendency to go through the motions of college with their heads down. And I mean professors, too--the ones that don't consider life outside their classroom, either those of their students, or, in the saddest cases of all, themselves. I'm guilty of it, too. And I think that at some point throughout the course of this year I decided that pursuing ideas and interests of my own didn't have a place in going through the motions of getting a college degree. And that's what it is, a lot of the time. Pass the class and move onto the next one. Do some extracurricular stuff. Join some clubs and teams. Go out on the weekends. Try and live the "ideal" college experience. I think some of the stuff mentioned in this class (the documentary in particular) has made me ask a crucial question about who I'm trying to live that ideal for.

That's what I want to change when I leave this semester. I want to make changes that make my life more about my own goals and not about the standards that I feel like others have set up for me. This summer, I want to start a blog--I want to design one logo, every day, for the next 365 days. I want to read and write more. I want to worry less about what others are expecting from me.

Most importantly, I want to start believing that the two years I have left here at IU can include my own goals, and not just what's on the syllabus and not just what's in my planner. That's what I'm hoping to change.