Wasted Time

Ok, let's say you get a new "toy". I'm a big fan of technology, so we'll use the iPhone as an example. You just got a brand-spanking new iPhone (free of charge). You shall name him "Skippy" and he will make all of your phone calls, and hold all of your music, and allow you to navigate the interwebs with relative ease. Now let me ask you a question: do you (like my mother) skip the set-up steps (figuring they're too complicated and you can always go back and do them later)...or do you grit your teeth and suffer through the annoyance? Do you hassle through the calls to Apple's Customer Service, or AT&T's Customer Service (waiting through more bad music than I can possibly describe here)? Do you do all of these incredibly irritating things knowing that the pay-off will be a happier, better-adjusted Skippy?

I do.

And you have to approach your education in exactly the same way. Yes, you do have to take some classes that are annoying as hell--they frustrate you, and they're difficult, and the teachers can make your life miserable. But in the end, you're better for having taken them...because you survived.

When you fail to do all of the little steps in setting up a new piece of equipment, you often spend even MORE time going back and correcting the mistakes you made. The same is true with your education. If you blow off those gen ed classes, you're going to spend even MORE time going back and re-taking them (most classes require that you earn at least a C to move on to the next level). So while the rest of your friends are taking advanced classes in their majors, you're still going to be spinning your wheels--taking classes you should have (and totally COULD have) passed the first time around.

How much sense does that make?