Savor the moment before it's too late
By Jacob W. Brower

Associate Editor

I wish I had a quarter for every time my idea of school has changed. Like everything else in life, the impressions a man has evolves as he grows older.

My idea of school, starting out, was not all that great. In elementary, school was a place my parents forced me to go to every weekday.  Why sit in a classroom, learning stupid stuff, when I could be outside playing, or at home watching cartoons,  I thought.

Little did I know things were about to get worse. Junior high was my own personal little hell. Since I was at least a couple of inches smaller than the other kids, and had a mouth a couple of times larger than the other kids, I was constantly getting myself into fights, and on the receiving end of swirlies, wedgies and the sort.

My first few years of high school weren t much better.

Then came my junior and senior years, when school suddenly became fun. I wish I could look back and pinpoint the event, which changed the current of my academic life, but I can t. School went from being a place I avoided at every turn, to a place I wouldn t miss for the world. And why would I? Life was good.

I was excelling as a long-distance runner on the track team, and school provided a steady diet of dates for Friday and Saturday nights, not to mention cool parties down by the creek after football games. Unfortunately, I enjoyed my last few years of high school a little bit too much. I ended up graduating with a C average.

Then came college. I don t know what snapped in me, but I was determined to once again succeed in school. Fortunately/unfortunately, I went at it in excess - as I tend to do with everything. I obsessed every time I made an A minus instead of an A plus on a test. I recoiled in horror at the very thought of my precious GPA dropping by even a 10th of a point.

This level of determination is what my teachers and other authority figures had been trying to instill in me my entire life. However, I can t help but ask myself this: Has it all been worth it?

Don t get me wrong - academics have gotten me far in college, as in life. I wouldn t trade my mentions on the Dean s List, my studies abroad at Oxford, or my other educational accomplishments for the world. But all work and no play makes Jacob a dull boy. Sure, I ve had fun my first few years of college, but fun has only been had after the homework was done, or if class was out of session. Going out on a Thursday night? Give me a break! I had class in the morning.

Now that my college life is quickly wrapping up, what I hope to accomplish is the enjoyment of the  college experience  along with the maintaining of my grades. That s right - I want to have my cake and eat it too. The way I see it, college is the Mardi Gras of life - that one last celebration before the great abstinence known as the corporate world and marriage. My commitment to academics hasn t changed a bit, but my priorities have. Ten years down the road, I m not going to give a rat s behind what I made on last Friday s Spanish test. What I will care about is the friends I ve made, the things I ve done, and the experiences I ve had.

Ask any old-timer what he would change if he could go back in time, and I guarantee most would say they wish they would have had more fun as a young person. When I m old a gray, whittling on a piece of wood, telling my grandkids what the world was like  back in my day,  I want to be able to speak of my college years without any sense of regret.  You re only young once -- savor the moment.