When I made the transition from high school to college, I kept hearing things like “college isn’t just about the grades” and “the school work is important but so are new experiences.” Well, now being a junior and looking back 3 years ago, I definitely took that to heart my first semester here at UW, maybe a little bit too much. Growing up in the same town my whole life, it was scary at first but gradually I began to enjoy the new life on my own. Needless to say, first semester of college, I put school on the backburner, and when I got my final grades it was definitely a reality check.
Second semester I decided I needed to focus more on school and it did seem to help out my grades a little bit by the end of the year. Still, I wasn’t where I wanted to be. I had enjoyed my freshman year for the most part, and my grades reflected it. So sophomore year I completely changed my priorities. I trained for a marathon and aside from running, grades took up a close second. My social life seemed to be the one that was placed on the backburner this time. I enjoyed sophomore year as well, but something seemed to be missing.
So here I am second semester of my junior year of college. Less than 3 semesters before I graduate. A few days ago, I received an email about the men’s basketball team and saw that they were playing the number 5 team in the country in a few days. I love watching basketball and have tried to make it to all of the games I can. This was supposed to be a really great game. It was also at 9pm. And the night before my first comparative anatomy exam. So my first thought was just go, you won’t get much studying done after then anyway. Then I was like no, no don’t go, you need to get a good grade on this first test. Then I thought, I’ve studied enough I am going to go. No stay and study. And after a mental debate with myself, I ultimately I did decide to go to the game. And Wyoming ended up beating the number 5 ranked team in the country and ended their 20 game winning streak. It was one of the best basketball games I have ever seen and my anatomy test the next morning ended up going just fine.
Although this is just a small moment in my few years here at UW, I am finally starting to feel like I have found a balance. I have realized that grades are important and we are here in college to learn. But learning isn’t just what we hear during lectures, what we write down in our notebooks and what we read in textbooks. Learning is also about finding ourselves, meeting new people and doing new things. So go to that basketball game, that date, that party you are debating on; we are young and the world is wide open. I read a quote once that said something like this: “You will probably not remember that one grade you got on that one test, but you just might remember that one person that you met or that one experience that changed your life.”