When my alarm went off at 7:45am on Friday morning, I nearly wanted to cry. “I cannot believe I have to get up and go to class,” I thought. I was exhausted, was still getting over a cold, went to sleep way too late the night before, and had just had an exam in that class two days prior. Still half asleep, I started trying to convince myself to skip class:
“There’s nothing important you’re going to learn anyways because you just had an exam!”
“Just sleep an extra hour; you’ll feel so much better after.”
Then, I realized that it was pouring rain outside – this was during the hurricane after all. Yet another reason to skip class. I mean, who wants to walk twenty minutes in the pouring rain? I went back and forth in my mind for a few minutes on whether I should go to class.
And in the end, I decided to go. As I was walking outside of my dorm building, I got a text from my friend from the class that read, “We going today?” I replied that, yes, after much debate, I was going to class. My two friends responded with sad face emojis.
When I finally made it to class (not without my jeans getting totally soaked) I was faced with a pretty much empty lecture hall. But, my two friends showed up. They told me that they decided they would ask me if I was going and do whatever I did, which I did feel kind of bad about. But, of course, our professor ended up taking attendance that day even though he usually doesn’t because of how few people showed up. Besides that very small extra-credit increase for participation, I wouldn’t have missed much if I had skipped class. Yet I am glad I made the decision to go, and I want to explain to you why. These reasons certainly apply to why you should generally show up to class (that’s not to say there aren’t times when it is actually the right choice to skip), but they also apply to the choices we make in our lives in general.
#1: It only gets easier…
The truth is, things like skipping classes are a slippery slope. When you do it once, it’s suddenly a lot easier to do it again, and again, and again. And I know myself and just how much I hate waking up in the morning. If I skipped class last Friday, I’d definitely skip it again, and it would probably require way fewer reasons than I had on Friday.
It’s really easy to create bad habits, and maintaining good habits is essential to being successful in college. If we let ourselves skip class, get behind on readings, leave problems sets for the last day, or show up late to our club meetings, it’s only a matter of time before this becomes the norm. At the moment, these choices may seem insignificant. But, they easily and quickly can become habits that hold us back from being the college students we want to be.
#2: The right choices are beneficial
In my class example, I actually would have faced a consequence for missing class and not getting the participation code. But, especially when we get out into the real world, there isn’t always a clear external incentive such as grades encouraging us to make the right choices. Even if it’s not immediately obvious, though, there are consequences when we choose to cut corners or skip out on things we know are beneficial to us.
It’s also important to remember that we are all extremely lucky to be receiving our education, especially at a place like Vanderbilt. I will be the first to admit that attending lectures often feels like a total waste of time. In general, though, I do believe that showing up to class is beneficial and at the very least keeps you engaged with your classes and the Vanderbilt community. Again, this applies to more than just attending class. In life, there are often many things that we don’t always want to do in the moment but we know deep down cause more benefit than harm.
#3: Don’t make excuses
Finally, there are few things more important than being disciplined. Discipline is at the core of how we live a fulfilling and productive life. We should always avoid making excuses for ourselves, because as I said earlier, this will only get easier and easier to do. If we let things like rain stop us from getting up and attending a class we know we should be at, we are chipping away at our discipline. Again, this might not seem like the biggest deal at the time, but it starts a bad habit that may come back to bite us in the end.
If we make our decisions in life based on our ever-changing emotions and immediate desires, we will end up making a lot of harmful decisions. And, we will skip out on the decisions that end up bringing us the most benefit. Staying disciplined and avoiding excuses is what allows us to be productive and ultimately happier.
Now, my intent in writing this is not to brag about how I would never skip a class (I have no doubt I will at some point) or that skipping class is the worst decision you could ever make (sometimes it is the right decision!). Instead, I hope I was able to show how something like skipping class can have more of an impact than we might initially realize. Also, these points can apply to so many different aspects of our life and are just generally important to keep in mind.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and, of course, enjoy attending your classes!