The Transition

I am an eighteen year old college student in Michigan. About 3 weeks ago, I was dropping off an assignment to my professor. As I walked to his door, fellow classmate was also approaching the professor's office. I knew he was in my class, but I never really talked to him. He seemed like a nice guy, but I just kept to myself through the whole class and never really reached out, so we said hi and that was about it. I then try to open the door to our professor's office, but it was locked; then the other student, Nick, noticed and read a note on the door that read, "Just slide the assignment under the door." I was puzzled why he was  not in his office, but did what it said.

As I was walking away, Nick stopped me and said, "We've been in the same lab group, but we never really talked, do you have a minute." Confused, I replied, "Yes." I quickly questioned his sexual preference in my head and was hoping he wasn't hitting on me. As I was tuning my 'gaydar' he asked if I was a freshman and I told him, "Yes." We kept talking about each other and where we were from and things of that nature. He really seemed like a nice guy, plus he told me about his girlfriend so I let out a sigh.

I found out that Nick was a senior and was in the computer programming school and the university. He grilled me about my computer knowledge, but I was quick to answer all of his questions. He stopped and was in awe about all that I knew about computers and programming. Then we transitioned our conversation into something I always thought about, but never brought up in conversation.

He began talking about a boy he used to babysit and how unintelligent he seemed in academics. We both began ranting about how kids now only focus their mental abilities on things like sports, fashion, and television, while setting very little knowledge aside for useful information like math, science, and technology. Although 'old folks' will say that the younger generation knows much about technology, they really don't. I could easily train my dog to use and ipod and look at porn and facebook on a computer, that's not technology. Knowing technology is when a teenager can script their own RPG, strategy game, or even a virus. We both agreed, that by the time we were older the current younger generation that would be running our country would be completely lost in media and sports, that they never had time or mental capacity to handle things like Poly Sci or Physics. If a thirteen-year-old boy can ramble off every player of the Detroit Pistons with numbers and stats, why can't he focus that mental energy in being able to name the atomic numbers and masses of all the elements on the periodic table. It's just as hard. Middle school and high school life has become one big popularity contest rather than eight hours of learning.

Both of us think that if kids really want to be successful in school and still be popular they need to leave the memorization of newest fashions and athletes up to the media and seriously focus on school work, this is the only way any of them will ever be successful. We are not only blaming the kids for this laking effort. Parents are/ should be a huge part in their students' lives. If a student is laking in their studies then the parent should cut off TV, video games, and computer. The problem is: kids are running their own lives. Parents have stopped giving a shit about what their kids do, and it almost seems like their are scared of what their kids might do if the parent says no. Parents of these kids are on a quest to become their kids friends and not their mentors and disciplinary figures. Schools also need to focus on their students' welfare. Middle school and high school are just too easy now. If any student really wants to get a 4.o all they have to do is do their homework, reference the Internet for it, and do well on the piss-poor, easy tests that teachers try to pass as hard. I remember receiving a Spanish exam my sophomore year that was 200 questions. I finished the exam in fifteen minutes and got 199/200. If students, teachers, and parents apply themselves students would all be very successful and go far in life.

That day was a very big learning experience for me in many ways. I found that in order to find friends outside of the ones I already have, I must reach out in classes and anywhere else there are strangers. I have always been a very outgoing person, but never in classes; meeting Nick really changed my aspect on classes and how they should be treated by freshman. Another very important thing I took out of this was that he and I are both very right, students now need to seriously focus themselves towards school, because once they get to college there is no such thing as popular, there are people for everyone. So focusing on popularity in high school is a waste of four years, because it is all thrown out the window once you graduate.

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