Welcome to a whole new year

4 mins read

Welcome back Queens College students! With the semester beginning, one question is lingering on many students’ minds—when is winter break?

Sometimes shifting from the summer season to the school season can be a difficult transition. Of course, we never want to let go of the memories of the summer. But the professor handing out the syllabus on the first day is the wake-up call for some. Although, for others, it is until the first midterm.

We have all heard the expression of how the college can be the best years of your life. Rather, it is more appropriate to say college is whatever you make of it.

College is an experience going by fast for students and should be enjoyed as much as possible. For a minute, you can be a freshman unfamiliar with the campus, while looking at the campus map looking for where Queens Hall is (sorry, it’s long trip from The Quad). The next may senior year where you have more on your mind than midterms.

Furthermore, pressure to find a job or the decision to attend graduate school becomes more relevant. Many possibly do not want to admit it, but the “real world” can be frightening.

Uncertainty and fear can overwhelm us. It can be hard to find triumph at first. When success cannot be found, it feels easy to give up dreams. Although, it should be the complete opposite. If success is not found, this should be motivation to push harder.

Of course, do not believe the talk of “Do What You Love.” Miya Tokumitsu, author of “Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness,” wrote a piece titled “Forced To Love The Grind” for Jacobin Magazine on the dangerously exploitive nature of “Do What You Love.”

“The falsity of passion-as-hours logic is that, quite simply, it produces shoddy work, which is not what someone who is ostensibly passionate about his or her work would allow. Emphasizing passion as a value in employees diminishes other potential — seemingly obvious — attitudes toward work that have more to bear on the quality of the work itself, things like competence and good faith,” Tokumitsu writes.

Regardless, students should enjoy their four years at QC and make the best of it because, before you know it, it’s gone. QC offers over 100 clubs students can join.

The Fitzgerald Gym offers open basketball courts and weight room with all types of machines. Located in the gym is also a pool that is open towards students. Two cafeterias on campus give students a variety of menu choices. Plus, the education at QC was ranked in the top three of “Best Bang for Your Buck” by Washington Monthly in 2013.

Not interested or available for on-campus events? Why not write a letter to a political prisoner like Chelsea Manning or Jeffrey Sterling? Work with a non-profit group in your community? Maybe relax with your friends on the weekend and watch “Daredevil” on Netflix?

The possibilities are endless and shape your future whether you believe it or not. So why not enjoy all QC offers before it is gone in a flash? Because the grind is not something to anticipate, especially if we are forced to love it.

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