Challenge: Learn about yourself

With school starting back just around the corner, I wanted to talk about an important lesson that high school students need to know: Learn about yourself.

I don’t mean like in the Zen way to achieve inner peace, but your strengths and weaknesses academically and personally.

Really figure out what subjects you’re good at, if you’re good at organization, if you’re a morning or afternoon person, if you have decent time-management skills, etc.

Figuring these things out before going to college helps alleviate some of the inevitable growing pains that university brings.

College is full of different classes and organizations, so learning about yourself beforehand allows you to correctly challenge yourself in college.

For example, if you’re bad at math, like myself, and you don’t need anything above pre-calculus or calculus to graduate then taking a higher math course as an elective is probably a bad idea.

Taking broadcast newswriting was a challenge for me because it was an entirely different style of writing, but that challenge complimented my multimedia journalism degree to make me a more well-rounded journalist.

That’s the type of challenge you want in college.

One common problem is that college students get overwhelmed by joining too many organizations at the beginning of college and their grades drop.

If you’re a person who’s bad at time-management, maybe joining a lot of groups at the beginning is a bad idea. Instead, slowly join groups as you acclimate, and learn to deal with the increased pressure and reduced free-time.

It’s better to figure these things out before college so you don’t learn the hard way by having to retake a $400 an hour course.

If you’re a morning person, take morning classes, and if you’re a night owl or afternoon person, maybe stay away from the 8 a.m. ones. I’ve found most night owls and afternoon people can do fine in the 10 a.m. classes.

There is still a lot that college will teach you about yourself, but figuring yourself out just a little bit beforehand will definitely get you the best experience. It allows you to have a game plan.

As with everything, you’ll still need to put in the work to actually pass classes, but this advice is really just to help you work smarter and not harder in college.

So I challenge all the high school students to reflect a little bit, and learn about themselves this year. It’ll help you out in the future, trust me.

Justin Blowers is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are his own and not the opinion of the paper. He can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].