A Little Bit of Passion by Caellaigh

A Little Bit of Passion by Caellaigh - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

Pursuing a higher education is exciting, stimulating, and sometimes frightening. As a college student, you are thrust into the world of academia, managing coursework, friendships, and football games, and still looking for spare moments to wash your socks. If there's one thing I've learned as a college student, it's that you don't have to be brilliant. Few of us are. But you do have to be passionate.

You can attend classes and manage to lose an entire semester updating your Twitter feed instead of learning from the professor right in front of you. More than likely, you're paying for this time wasted, through student loans that'll remain far longer than some of the tweets you composed. In addition, you appear as if you aren't interested or respecting anything the professor has to over you. Most of us don't want to appear as an apathetic person.

Taking an interest in the people that surround you will make all the difference. The course material may not be your cup of coffee, but be respectful of the fact your professors have spent years being passionate about this material, and a little enthusiasm goes a long way. Read the assignments, jot down a few questions or thoughts you have in the margins - and speak up in class or in office hours about it. Be engaged. Even if a thought is only tangibly related; even if the thought is about something completely different - talk about it. Conversation will show you're passionate, you're interested, and that you care.

Without passion, why would you be going after an education in the first place? Without interest, your professors' and your attention will be lost, and so many opportunities will pass you by. Passion will make you stand out from your peers, and on the way, you might learn a thing or two. You don't know which ideas will grasp you and consume you. It's your duty to stay awake and to learn from your resources, and process it in a way only you can. So be passionate, starting today. Question everything, talk to strangers. Learn about another view that is separate from your own. Throw yourself into the whirling world of the present, filled with energetic people and new ideas. You won't lose. Except maybe a couple of socks in the dryer, but at least then you can have a conversation with the mechanic in order to comprehend how the sock-consuming machine operates.