Pros And Cons Of Post Secondary Education

An Opportunity Wasted

When I attended Eastern as a ripe 18 year old, straight out of high school, I had a romanticized ideal about what would happen. My expectations were framed in part from things I had seen in movies, and stories I had heard from friends when they attended their first semester of college. Having had an easy time in high school, never studying, never having to work very hard for an A; I spent the first few weeks of college trying to adjust to having professors who don't know your name and do not care if you attend class. The new found freedom I had acquired by moving into the dorm and away from my mother, weighed on me like a fifty pound block. I made poor decisions simply because I could, simply because there was
I believe this to be undeniably true. I spent my first attempt at college learning about myself, instead of learning the curriculum placed in front of me, but it was a learning experience none the less. I don't believe that I would have found myself in the place I am now had it not been for that experience, and I would not now have the expectations that I do. This time around, college is definitely as I expected. This time around I am able to set aside the social groupings, be less concerned with who did what, and when. However, some of the anxiety that I didn't experience the first time and expected is most definitely present in this second attempt at a post secondary education. To quote Sizer, in describing Mark's experience in Math class he states, “He hopes he is not called on, and he isn't.”[3] I find myself trying to squelch that same feeling quite often. Knowing that most, if not all of my classmates are fresh from high school, leaves me feeling less than secure about my