Tech education is worth the pain

After five years, my time at Tech is coming to an end. Despite commencement being just three weeks away, I do not feel any sadness or happiness towards the end. Surprisingly, it feels a lot like being ready and accepting that my days as an undergraduate are almost finished.

I doubted my reasoning to enroll and continue at Tech several times over the years. After looking back on my time here, I do not regret or hold with contempt anything that I was put through during my stay.

Tech forced me to learn a lot about myself. Much like most students that have made their way onto campus, I experienced far more of the Tech shaft than I would have cared to.

One of my more memorable shaftings came during my third semester. This was preceded and followed by several additional times of feeling completely screwed by Tech.

However, these experiences ultimately made me a better person. In the end, it didn't matter how pissed off I was at my professors or at Tech. Ultimately, I would have to make the personal choice to move on with my life. After dwelling on negative events from previous semesters, I found my academic performance to be slipping further.

There were several times during my Tech career that I did not enjoy a class. I thought much of the method to the Tech madness was garbage. I thought a lot of the work was unnecessarily difficult, and professors thought that their class was the only one I was taking.

Ultimately, I saw several of my friends at other schools enjoying their college experience while putting in far less effort than was necessary for me to succeed at Tech. In a way, I envied them. They were out partying virtually every night of the week, and I was stuck in my dorm or the library studying.

However, these same individuals graduated from their respective schools with roughly the same maturity as a high school senior. Their college experience was essentially high school with less class and more alcohol.

While Tech gets some of the credit for pushing me into sink or swim situations with seemingly impossible tasks, I learned that I can do anything. Tech is not responsible for who I have become, it was just the primary force that pushed me to the edge of my limits.

After all of the whining and complaining, everything was worth the experience of coming to Tech. I hope that more students will have the perspective by the time they graduate to not hate Tech.

As students, we like to view ourselves as miserable by complaining about every perceived injustice. Instead of looking at facts, we allow ourselves to have a very emotional reaction to everything. Instead of looking for sympathy, more students should view Tech as a means to an end.

There is also a major difference between complaining and vile hatred when students refer to Tech. The Institute is not nearly as bad as most students make it out to be.

It is very discouraging to hear so many students talk about severing their ties with Tech after they are finished with their undergraduate careers. Tech graduates tend to be far more successful than their counterparts from other schools.

Sometimes, we only gain perspective after taking the time to reflect. Life is not fair. While Tech might not be fair on an individual basis, those who survive are far better for it in the end.

Tech has come a long way in making the lives of students better, but the Institute still has a long way to go.

Students need to know what the expected requirements of a class will be during the initial registration period. Instead of finding out that you have four classes with all of the tests aligning on the same day the Monday or Tuesday of each semester, students should be able to view the syllabi of their classes ahead of time. After the first day of class, there is not enough flexibility in the system to allow for a change in the semester schedule.

If I had everything to do over again, Tech would be far less stressful than I made it out to be. Instead of being absorbed by a massive mound of textbooks, students need to set aside time to enjoy their college experience. While Tech students won't have the freedom of schools that are far less demanding, it is possible to have a life and compete in the classroom.

I hope that future generations of Tech students will look back on their time with the same perspective I am leaving with. Academics and athletics are both very important elements of what makes Tech special.