The Life Of A College Student At Howard College

“The Beat Of My Drum”

By Terrence Cain

There has been so much going on in the world lately that it makes what I’m doing look like a minuscule drop in the ocean. Even if what I’m doing is just a tiny speck in the universe’s vast ocean I will just keep pressing on anyway because I’m not giving up for any person or thing. Even when I get frustrated and end up hating one of my subjects, let’s say Algebra for instance, I still know that I’m never giving up on finishing college. I can’t give up, I just can’t. “Terrence Cain admits defeat?” No, you’re never going to hear that headline or read that anywhere at any time or place. Maybe it’s the Irish blood in me. Maybe it’s the fact my parents raised me to never give up, to never accept “loser” as a title for myself. Or maybe it’s because I’ve gone through way too much in my life to get to this point and say that others have won in their fight to keep me down.

I don’t mean to get on my soap box and start preaching; but this week has been a long and rough one for me. I hope that this week’s post will inspire others to do as I am doing and fight to keep banging that drum for personal success and happiness. Life is never easy, but you as a person can do so by just keeping your head up and your thoughts focused and sharp.

I had tests in both Horticulture and Algebra this week and I’ve never been very good at tests. On test days I feel like Adam West in the 1966 Batman movie where Batman is running all over the pier trying to get rid of a bomb with that feeling inside me always saying; “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!” I know that sounds a bit exaggerated, and maybe so, but that’s just how I feel on test days when I know I’ve done everything I can to study and yet my brain goes blank the very minute I read the first question presented to me on the test.

This seems to mostly happen with Algebra. I was told earlier this week by someone, and I’ve heard this before, that numbers and letters are virtually the same. I disagree. They’re total opposites. With words you can somewhat mess with them and come up with new words and meanings for them. Numbers are straight forward; sometimes even complex or confusing, and no matter what they will never allow you to do anything outside the rules. And for most people that’s why they have a much easier time with numbers than they do with letters. For me, however, it’s in complete reverse.

Numbers make me wince and letters make me swoon. That’s why I’m here in college. Journalism has always been an interest of mine and I’ve always done well in school with words, but those pesky numbers get me every time. Maybe it’s because there are almost no rules in language, except for the one that tells you to not sound like a fool of course. The only time you have rules in language is when you have to turn those words and ideas into a printed group of words on paper, then you have all kinds of rules, but even if you throw all those rules out you can still understand what someone is trying to convey because of how easy language is to manipulate and arrange. You really can’t manipulate numbers; and if you don’t pay close enough attention you can really screw things up in a formula. Someone with ADD, such as myself, that makes it even harder because the focus is never one-hundred percent clear.

Still, though, I’m not giving up. College courses are indeed hard, but they should be because it’s the hard things that will make you smarter. It’s the complex ideas and formulations that will show you the pathway to a new idea that was never thought of before. Like me, you’ll get frustrated and angry. You’ll probably even cry and say to yourself; “I quit! I’ve had it! No more, this is too hard!” But hopefully you’ll be too bullheaded like me and fight off those negative feelings and keep pressing on and try to make your frustrations work for you instead of against you.

You all have a whole life ahead of you. Know that college is not forever. From everything I’m doing I should be done by 2014, that’s not that far away. And I know for a lot of you it’s not that far either. It gets easier once you get into your field of study because college prepares you for almost everything you will encounter in your line of work. Just keep on truckin’ because you’ve got nothing to lose by succeeding. Thanks for reading this week’s post. This is the Howard College blogging machine, over and out!