Maybe students are not ready for school yet, or ever.
“It’s not two weeks into the semester and I’m already dreading the work” and “Can I just fast forward to the end of the semester because this whole school thing is getting old,” are only some of the posts my colleagues and friends have been posting on Facebook and Twitter lately.
And as one of them accurately pointed out, it’s indeed barely two weeks into the semester, but we as students are still unmotivated.
The workload is about to increase, free time will become more and more of a luxury and in the blink of an eye, we’ll find ourselves crowding the library studying for midterms.
It can be extremely difficult to find motivation necessary for completing long-term tasks, like getting good grades this semester, or studying for the GRE or any other type of work that requires commitment. It is even harder to do so when one is a young adult, looking to live life before it gets way busier.
But then, there are those who are a lot older than we are and who have managed to defy obstacles and find the drive to complete mind-blowing tasks, despite of their age, gender, schooling or any other type of limitation.
Of these is Diana Nyad, who swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage less nine days ago.
The 64-year-old said her 53-hour swim had concluded a life-long dream of hers, and by that did something no other man, or woman, has managed to do.
It was her fifth try.
We college students, including myself, sometimes give up without even trying. We make excuses to ourselves and those around us to make us feel better about not finishing – or starting – whatever it is we were supposed to do.
At times of similar desperation, taking a look at all the people who accomplished “impossible” dreams can give us just the boost we need to get us going. It can either do that, or it can just shame us into getting the job done, because after all, we are young and capable.
I’m not saying you should set a life-long goal of winning a battle with a bear in the forest someday. What I am saying is that finishing a relatively easy job, like finishing homework, seems a lot more doable after learning about other people’s achievements.
What I sometimes personally do, if you’re really interested in knowing, when I hit these roadblocks along the way of my goal is just divide it to smaller, more workable mini-goals. After all, Nyad didn’t wake up one day, put on a swimming suit, and headed to the ocean. She worked her way up, and she succeeded.
It’s easy to get frustrated with school homework, meetings, activities, projects, test, etc. These are all overwhelming aspects of every student’s life, and they tend to suck people into their abyss. The only way to deal with it, I believe, is to just embrace it one aspect at a time, and hope you make it through in one piece.

HIBA ALMASRI
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