Why School Is Going To Be Different This Time

I have a long, painful history when it comes to going to school.

You see, I’m too smart.

Not too smart to learn. I certainly don’t know everything. Heck, I don’t know a fraction of everything. I’m not the kind of smart where I make other people feel bad. I love to hear stories from people no matter how smart they are. I don’t consider intelligence a “must have” in a friend. I respect that just because someone does not think as fast as I do does not mean they do not have more information or better information or specialized information I can learn from in their brain-place.

Basically, I believe in the value of others.

So, when I’m in a classroom and the dichotomy is such that the teacher is the “know-er of things” and I’m supposed to be the “receptacle of knowledge” it makes me uncomfortable. Because, inevitably, there is something about the subject I know that the teacher either skips or does not mention. Or another classmate makes a “not quite right” analogy and instead of trying to see where the student is coming from, the professor blows them off or says something that isn’t entirely kind.

Before this time, I would bring it up and ask, make it a point to show the others in the class that no one is perfect, not even the teacher. I thought I was showing my classmates and teacher we all had value and should be more than just note-taking automatons.Needless to say this ended up with me being frustrated, the professor throwing his or her education in my face as if that meant anything other than they were a very good note-taking automaton and leaving, never to return. A total case of me being a Miss Prissy Pants without realizing it. I thought I was making a stand and really I was making a stupid mistake. Every. Single. Time.

This time? I’m going to shut the F up and take notes. I’m not going to try and stand up to the powers-that-be and let my distaste for academia be my guide. I’m going to use my networking skills and my communication skills to determine the best way for me to get an A in every class I take.

I am not going to make things more difficult than they need to be in order to feel challenged.

In fact, I’m going to do my best to NOT feel challenged at every possible turn. An education with the sole purpose of attaining a piece of paper, like fitness, is a marathon…not a sprint. As such, I need to conserve my energy and keep a balanced, steady pace to get to the finish line. That is the only way I will be fit and have that Masters degree I so covet.

No more the difficult student, no more the outspoken champion of the people. No more temper-tantrums and one-upmanship in the classroom. I’m just one student, doing my best to screw up the bell curve for everyone by doing the right thing – and by right thing I mean exactly what the teacher wants and expects from an A student.