The Observer, January 26, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 14
A Fresh Perspective: A new semester does not require change
And we're back.
Like a short commercial break, winter break 06-07 is gone in a flash. It seems as though it barely existed; punctuated by the holiday season and occasional other highlights. Now we return to Case, refreshed and renewed, prepared for another long grueling semester. But one lingering question remains: Is it going to be the same? We have new classes, new professors, new workloads, and new schedules, but does that mean that every other standard of college life changes as well?
This is a difficult question to answer. The unfortunate answer is, for the most part, yes. A multitude of things and traditions do change with the onset of a new term. New classes can usually mean new friends, while new schedules and new workloads usually means that old traditional hangout times are most likely gone and new ones must be created. Quite a few things change with the semester. No matter how much we may want it, the last semester is gone forever, never to return.
So what does this mean? Does that mean that we must become new people because we enter a new semester? Not in the slightest. Just because your surroundings change does not mean that you have to change. If all human beings were constantly changing depending on who they were with, what they were doing, or where they were, how would a person possibly go about defining themselves? It would be next to impossible. Amid all of the craziness that is a new semester, we must strive to remain who we truly are, not what we are made into by our surroundings.
Not to say that it is a bad thing if a person's surroundings force them to make a change in their lives. We should not be so stubborn and set in our ways that we close ourselves off from being influenced by other people and events. Our intuition needs to guide what changes we think we should make, and what changes would compromise who we hold ourselves to be.
By all means, embrace the newness. Make new friends, work out a new, fitting schedule, take harder classes, but don't change who you are in the process. Don't let your old friends get lost in the novelty of the new. Friendship is far too valuable a thing to let it get lost in another. Also, don't let your study habits decline either. It only gets harder from here, so slip-ups should be few and far between, if possible. I hope everyone had a great break (short as it seemed to be), and I wish for a new and exciting semester for all!
Hershberger is a freshman Communication Sciences major involved with University Singers and Marching Band.
