By Edgar Chavarria, Fellow Class of 2016
University of San Diego
This past September marked the fourth year since I began my undergraduate studies at the University of San Diego. Now that the initial COVID-19 panic has subsided, I’d like to examine a topic I didn’t have time to fully consider due to my early move-out and a full transition to virtual classes in my parents’ house in Lafayette, Colorado.
I never really questioned my reasons for going to college or found out why college was so important; I just knew it was. Moreover, I never pondered what I would learn from college aside from doing my own laundry and finding time to feed myself while I rushed to meet five different deadlines. But as I near the end of these four years, I focused on three things that college taught me—things that go beyond my initial expectations in attending a liberal arts college.
First, I found the core of my academic curiosity and discovered how important reading footnotes are. Every kid in school is always asked about their favorite subject in school and most of the time it ends up being recess. As a kid, I was naturally drawn to politics and government. I can recall my fifth grade-self keeping track of the electoral vote in 2008, which led me to think that Political Science was destined to be the core of my academic goal. College showed me that I was wrong. I found out that while I enjoy learning about our political structure and how our society governs itself, I realized I didn’t have the same passion for this as my growing passion for history. History is often placed in the category of most useless majors by many folks, but for some reason, I found a true passion and love for the study of our past (from which we never seem to learn). It wasn’t until I took an Atlantic World history class that I began to question everything I learned in history classes and found out there was a lot more valuable information hidden in the footnotes. I found the importance of critical analysis and, the importance of peeling back the multiple layers of the recorded past.
Second, I finally learned how to say “no” and the importance of finding emotional wellbeing. This is an act that is sometimes more difficult than finishing a 10-page essay and will require lots of practice. There were times where I felt that everything seemed to be piled against me in college. From friends to relationships to student organizations, I found that finding a way to control your emotional wellbeing is an essential skill for life, in college you learn the tools. This is something that I still work on to this day and have found out that I need to take time to myself to properly function. I’ve learned techniques that allow me to balance my mental wellbeing with the multiple demands of college and being a young adult. As a younger student, I tended to think I could do everything at once, but that is not possible— A reality I embraced —after taking a full set of classes while doing a million other activities on campus. Achieving balance and learning limits are more important than people acknowledge.
Lastly, I learned persistence and resilience are key. College makes you confront tough concepts and makes you think of your ideas rather than summarizing what someone else said. This is difficult to do and there were many instances where the feeling of failure would make one think the end was near. In my time at USD, I knew many students who dropped out or transferred after they got a bad grade and thought college wasn’t for them. Professors give tough criticism and learning to accept it, learn from it, and move on was an important lifelong lesson. Discovering my weaknesses and strengths helped me focus on improving. It can be hard not to take this feedback personally, and it often leads students to think they have terrible professors, but I found the toughest classes were taught by some of the most passionate professors. And despite my own struggle, I learned more than what was outlined in the syllabus.
Now that I find myself confined in my parents’ house and begin to plan my future, I look back on my time at USD with a new level of appreciation. I found the true value of college, and it goes beyond grades or preparing a career. College allows you to think for yourself and question what we blindly accept as true. I’m sad that my undergraduate years are ending, particularly given the abrupt shut-down, but I look forward to applying these lessons to the next chapter.
