This is from a note I made last September. I wrote to myself that Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen just hits different as a student. To quote Darth Vader “Search your feelings and know it to be true”.
Starts with a riff we all know in our bones. At least those of us of a certain age.
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This, like life as an adult student, was a group project.
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I hate group projects. I find they have no redeeming quality. Except for this song. This song is the quality we should hold ourselves to. After we teach the other generations about the song.
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Pressure pushin’ down on me. This can be pressure from teachers, the syllabus, the exam dates, and even ourselves. I have heard that college is like a pressure cooker. There are demands on us from all sides and we just have to tread water.
“Terror of knowing what this world is about, watching some good friends scream let me out!”
As an adult learner, one of the first lessons is that not everyone makes it. This goes for classmates who have to drop out for one reason or another. Or teachers who quit in the middle of the semester. However, we have to soldier on if we want to hit our goals/targets/graduate.
“Chippin around, kick my brains round the floor. These are the days it never rains but it pours.”
This is another absolutely true sentence. Most college students have more than 1 class and they have to juggle their notes, and their reading time, and the tests and papers. There will be nothing but reading/lectures for weeks and then BOOM tests/papers in three classes all due in the same week. This teaches the adult student about time management and pressure management.
“Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?”
The feeling of “I wanna quit” is known to all students. Being an adult learner is hard. But we can absolutely do it. One lecture, one set of readings, one test, one paper at a time.
“Caring about ourselves is the last dance.”
Look at them, singing about self-care before it was cool. Know that being an adult learner is hard. No one is making us do this, unlike high school. Keeping our eyes on the proverbial pie helps immensely. Remember, school can’t last forever.
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Dispatches from the Evening Shift 