College--3 Years Wasted

Wasted...as in worthless, useless. Not wasted as in drunk.

An ordinary college student goes to college for four years--well, I decided to cut it short and squeeze all my classes I needed into three years. And, as graduation is slowly approaching (I graduate in Decemeber), I feel like I have wasted these past three years.

Granted, I drowned myself in 18-21 hours each semester, went to summer school every summer and worked anytime I did not have class--I still had fun, but not the kind of fun that I expected to have.

You watch movies growing up about "the college life," but in all honesty, my college experience was nothing like that.

After going to a few parties, staying out late, and dragging myself to class the next morning during my first semester of college, I realized that "the college life" is not for me.

I went to college with a goal: to graduate and make something of myself. And, there was no way I could achieve this goal by partying and staying out late all the time. Some people would call me a party pooper...but I like to call myself determined.

Putting my social life aside and focusing on school seemed like a good idea until now. Now, I realize I will be walking across that stage December 17 only to realize that I have wasted three years learning things that are pretty useless.

You go to school with a major in mind--something that you are passionate about and want to learn everything about because you eventually want to get a job in that field. Well, your major is really your minor because the majority of the classes you take don't relate to your major. They are just general education classes that everyone takes.

Earth's 4 spheres. Rock types. Drainage Basins. Photosynthesis. Nitrogen Cycle. Glaciers. Will I really need to know about this stuff when I am reporting the news? And, if I do, can't I just look it up on Google....that is the glory of technology.

Media Research. Media Writing. Print Journalism. Broadcast Journalism. Producing. Media Law. These are the classes that I loved and that I really feel will benefit me the most in the long run. And, I wish we were required to take more classes that pertain to our major and less classes that are just general education ones.

Since I didn't get to learn everything I wanted to in my mass communication classes, I felt it was important to do internships to learn more about the news industry. But, unfortunately, most tv newsroom internships do not pay.

However, I think I learned the most during all 3 years of college at my internships. So, I would definitely recommend other broadcast journalism majors to look into doing as many internships as possible.

I'll post more about my internship experiences in a later post.

What I learned: People say graduating college in four years is a myth--but I disagree. I am doing it in three years! But, do I think these three years of schooling were worth it?--I'll let you be the judge.