By Abi Smith
College students are frequently painted as vacuous losers hopped up on Yoo-Hoos. All iPods and few brains, people say.
So if you’ll be a freshman in the fall, get prepared for steady attacks on your newly-formed opinions as well as insinuations that you belong in diapers.
Remember one thing: you’re better than the rap that you get. Despite being pegged as frivolous, college-aged kids are actually much more aware than they’re given credit for.
They cut to the chase, ignore recycled tripe and filter “B.S.” in a flash. Youthful arrogance is a flaw, of course.
In all reality, some of the worst attitudes, behaviors and philosophies on this planet come from those old enough to know better.
Older generationscan still be presumptuous, immature and rude. Clearly, they have a lot to learn, too.
Now, it is certainly true that youths barely removed from high-school graduation are not paragons of wisdom. Time and experience are teachers.
We’re all capable of flashes of brilliance and insight at times, no matter our year of birth.
But if you throw people into boxes and make them feel dumber than rocks because of their age, you’ll risk eliminating indispensable perspectives solely because of their owners’ youth.
In academia, older instructors are directly privy to the fresh outlooks of their students.
Some respond nastily with condescending looks that say, “Why are you trying to play with the big boys?”
But many others take a less superior approach, supporting new points of view and opening students’ minds in the process.
So the best advice for you young freshmen, then, is to just be yourself. Make sure to grow in confidence and also to avoid any doubters who might want to put you down.
You’ll become who you’re supposed to be in time, and it’ll be a sweet reward when you get there.
Mastering life’s knowledge won’t happen in a day. But who said you had to when you’re still in your teens?
Abi Smith is a graduate student in public administration. E-mail her at opinion@louisvillecardinal.com.
