BWW Blog: A Word from the Sort-Of Wise

The first month of school is over! That's certainly something to celebrate regardless of what level of education you're in right now. It's the little victories, isn't it? I know that for me, this past month has been stressful due to the adjustment of online learning. It certainly puts a damper on my senior year of college, but we'll muster through. I can only imagine how difficult this time must be for incoming freshmen, so as someone who did cyberschool from 3-12th grade and is now having to relearn the online setting, I have a bit of advice. You could say it's a word from the sort-of wise, right?

One of the most important things about online learning is learning about your resources early. As an incoming freshman in college, I was very quickly taught about websites we can use to find reliable resources for research. If you're just starting college, that information is absolutely vital. Regardless of your major, you are guaranteed to be writing plenty of research papers so keep that in mind! I have also learned that documenting the title, author, and date of each resource is incredibly important too... links don't always work how you expect them to. This may not apply to every college, but the links that are provided on our library database aren't permanent so I could very easily lose all the progress I've made in my research if I'm not careful. Please, please keep that in mind! Don't make the same mistakes I did.

As someone who has procrastinated plenty of times over the course of my education, it's vital that you don't put off papers or studying until the last minute. It is incredibly easy for other professors to give you work due at the same time that can distract you from what you already set aside for a prolonged period of time. I understand that for people with anxiety and/or depression, like myself, it can be difficult to motivate oneself to actually do things when you know you could probably do it later. In that situation, at least try to do bits and pieces maybe one or twice every few days. One or two paragraphs during one session is significantly better than none! It's easy to wait until later to do something, but it's hard to catch up if you fall behind.

Lastly, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be respectful and kind to your professors during this difficult time. It's undeniable that some are more properly equipped for online teaching than others, but I assure you every professor is sincerely trying their best to accommodate this situation as best as they can. My mother teaches at a high school near where we live and she's heard plenty of stories of teachers having to essentially learn brand-new systems so that we can receive an education at a safe distance during the pandemic. This was not ideal for anyone, and it's exceptionally difficult for many of us, but please remember that it is okay to reach out and ask for help. We can only get through this if we communicate properly.

To post a comment, you must register and login.