Go to school for education, not just golf - Part 1
What I am getting at is that one should not choose a college based simply on their atheletic teams and/or school reputations. When an individual goes to college, that person is there to receive an education that they can take with them into the future as a grown adult.
Problem is, some individuals seek colleges out soley for the unimportant reasons.
- where their friends are going
- what college has the best parties
- which colleges has the best frats/sororities
- what is the schools athletic reputation
- etc…
Granted, going to a school with a solid athletic background is not a problem. The issue falls when an individual chooses a college for reasons that are not necessarily best for his/her future.
College takes hard work, dedication, and a drive to succeed. Throw in golf or any other sport, and now you have to balance your time and schedule.
Now, as a University of Evansville graduate, I spent my 4 years trying to improve not just my golf game, but my mind and maturity.
See, those who can’t determine what is the best path in their college lives or what is important are those who have the highest chance to fail. I personally witnessed plenty of individuals who either:
- looked at college as a getaway from home and partied their butts off
- got involved in the wrong activities and simply quit college
- never tried very hard hence getting poor grades and possibly kicked off athletic teams
- or worse, did something really stupid and got hurt or killed
See, what some people don’t realize is that when you go to college, you have to have this one thing, and its called:
Lets say it together: RESPONSIBILITY
When you were in high school, you had your parents pushing you (hopefully) and since you weren’t really an ‘adult’ yet, you had decisions made for you. Now, granted, some slip through the cracks and fail alot earlier in life then before getting to college, but you don’t have the weight of society so heavily on your back when you are in high school.
In college, you have to have a better sense of money management, you have to be in tune with a culturally and diverse population, you have to learn that grades come first, and everything else comes second.
You have to have responsibility and that does take dedication and effort. Its easy to get lost in the crowd in college. Its easy to give in to a ton of pressures, parties, alcohol, drugs, gambling, and more.
I witnessed alot of people take the education THEIR PARENTS paid for, and just simply blew it away. They thought of college as one giant carnival, except that the carnival ride DOES have an ending.
I was lucky. I already had a maturity about me as well as a high confidence in myself prior to going into college. I received a partial golf scholarship and was fortunate enough to have my father take care of the rest. He thought of my scholarship as MY way of paying for college because I worked so hard in highschool to develop my golf game and get to where I was at the time.
Some people are not very lucky. Some have a bad home front where the parents don’t give a rats ass about what their children do with their lives, then the student goes off to college on his/her own and has to adapt to life there. Some people experience shell shock because they come in contact with people, races, religions, and experiences that they had never seen before. Sometimes, though, you have to be a grown up and block out the negative energy that incorporates one in the college scene.
I would not say you are a bad person if you smoke or drink. I personally made a decision well before high school that I wasn’t going to smoke or drink. Guess what, I went through all 4 years in high school and all 4 years in college without drinking alcohol, engaging in drug use, or smoking cigarettes.
Its a personal decision. I think, though, in the long run, its the best decision I have ever made. I personally think its stupid to do that stuff, but I don’t have the right to say its wrong.
You are confronted with alot of different angles of life when going into college. That is ANYPLACE you go.
Posted in: College Preparation
