A Class All Its Own

I have always considered myself to be pretty strong academically speaking, so when my adviser placed me into a junior level Psychology class I wasn't particularly worried. This turned out to be one of the most wrong judgments I have ever made. All through the semester I struggled to complete assignments on time and to understand the material well enough to participate in class. The feeling of not knowing what was going on in class was completely new to me, and every day I had to sit and listen to my older classmates discuss psychological concepts that were well beyond my level of understanding I became a little less confident in myself.

I frequently found myself wanting to give up and just accept a C in the class; I could easily pull off that grade without too much effort, and it would be so nice to just stop worrying about the work for a while. However, my strong Type A personality prevented me from ever doing anything halfway. So I continued to stress myself out over every aspect of the class, counting down the days until it was over.

Although I did not experience a single positive feeling toward this class while I was still in it, looking back I can see many ways in which this class benefited me. Although being surrounded by upperclassmen was intimidating, it provided a great opportunity for me to learn from students who are more experienced than me. On several occasions I found myself asking those who sat around me for advice on how to schedule and navigate through my next four years of college.

I also benefited just from the challenge of completing a junior level class as a freshman. This class was much more challenging than a general education course and required careful thought, planning, and attention to detail. These skills could not have been learned in one of my easier freshman-level classes because they are designed to ease us into the college experience. By taking this harder class in my first year, I gained a unique opportunity to learn skills that will benefit me throughout my college career.

While not all college students have experienced being placed in a class two years ahead of when they should've been, almost everyone has been in a class they didn't feel prepared to take. During the semester, while we're laying face down on the floor at the wee hours of the morning moaning about how hard life is, it can be difficult to believe that these classes will benefit us. But in the end, it is clear that harder classes can bring us a number of positive results.

If nothing else, taking a junior course as a freshman has given me a sense of extreme satisfaction. There is no better feeling than that of accomplishing something which you thought you could not do, and that is the feeling I experienced as I handed in my final Psychology paper today. No matter what class presents the challenge, the positivity payoff is the same: by finding the benefits behind taking the class even when it seems daunting can make a scary, higher-level class worth it.