From Middle Earth: From One Crazy Person to Another

From One Crazy Person to Another

Dear Middle Earth,

     Some people tell me that college isn’t just harder than high school, but that students are faced with a different type of difficulty along with a different set of challenges. With the latter part of that statement I have no quarrels, but even then, I have a way of drawing parallels between modern day video game difficulty scaling and the increasing difficulty that comes with college work that will allow me to take a more precise jab at what we’re REALLY looking at.

     (Inhales deep breath!)

     I’m no Computer Game Science major, but I do know that in a lot of role playing games, in order to maintain a certain level of challenge, the difficulty of the game grows proportionally to the player’s level progression. In the same way, college work difficulty increases as we advance not only through our ages but from our lower division classes up.

     And yes, you might experience somewhat of a leap in difficulty going from high school classes to lower-div. college courses (I can’t bring up the command console to input cheats commands that’ll alleviate your stresses).

     But really, is it NOT appropriate that as an 18-year-old, you should have work suitable for an 18-year-old?

     I thought of all of this while looking back on my time in middle school, when I found working in ONE honors class (NBD now, right?) and approaching my responsibilities from a vulnerable 14-year-old’s perspective (‘course, I wasn’t conscious of my sensitivity at the time) to be anything but bearable. 

     I can acknowledge that tackling an internship, classes, and part-time work  AND adjusting to college life to actually be less difficult and stressful than finishing my last year of middle school. I can, however, only say this because I’ve been empowered by the fact that I know I’ve become much stronger after:

a.       Procrastinating.

b.      Running away from my responsibilities.

c.       Procrastinating.

d.      Abusing the public library’s Internet bandwidth.

e.       Working hard throughout high school. Or just the final two years of it. I think. Ahem.

Lalalalalala~

     Please just cheer up and stay cheerful. You have the chops to make it in the adult world. And if you are going to disregard everything I’ve said up until now (no hard feelings, chap)  and continue to base your worth on what little or a lot you’ve done, at least do it correctly—realize that even if you’ve done your fair share of procrastinating and lying around, well…at least now you know you can be whatever you want in college.

     You haven’ t left your old self behind. Even if you decide to reinvent yourself, you do so with the knowledge and will of whatever you were for the past 18 years.  You’re building on top of what you’ve already cultured—an intelligent mind, a post-pubescent body (I would hope that that’s something you have and have retained), and a somewhat matured or otherwise developed worldview.

    Just remember that if the rest of the world grows to hate you, or if it comes to pass that people begin chucking throwing knives at you wherever you walk, I will still appreciate you, friend.

     (Whisper:) I will.
                                                                                                                                                   From,                                                                                                                                                Desmond Cheung