Learning For Life vs. Good Grades

What is more important to learn for life or to get good grades? For the long run I would say learning for life is more important. But in college grades are important to have a good start into the job world. Good grades and some job experiences during college are crucial to collect plus points which you need to compete with others for a job. So, to stick out of the crowd you have to offer more than only a bachelor degree.

The question is now if good grades should be from more value during college than to concentrate on taking something with you from each class. I found myself often in the situation where I studied for an exam and only memorized all the material I needed to know. But already 2 hours after the exam I could only remember 70 percent of the stuff I “studied”. After 6 hours the memorized material shrunk to 50 percent. The day after the exam I remembered around 40 percent and the week after I hardly remembered what the main topics of the material were. So, for me good grades do not mean that one person is better than another for a specific job. There are other criteria which should be considered first.

Many colleges show with their education systems that they try more and more to integrate the importance of learning for life in classroom. So students are able to get good grades for learning for life. At the end it comes all together and the things people learn, they learn them for life.

Thinking too much about the wrong things

What is it that people are often more "worried" about the life of others than about their own? Some people like to talk and judge others but completely forget that they do not even know anything about the person or what really happened. So why is it so popular to talk about the problems of others?

Is it because it entertains and brings more excitement into the day or is it because they do not want to think about their own life? Maybe when people see and talk about the failure of others they do not feel so bad about their own mistakes and problems because if other people have problems too or their problems are even worse than it is ok for everybody else. It is a kind of confirmation that it is normal to have those kinds of problems and it is not necessary to change something even if the person is not really happy with the way things are.

I think it is important to figure out for ourselves what we want in life and not what other people tell us because we have to be happy with our life and nobody else. We have to start thinking more about what is really important in life and not compare it with the life of others or try to find excuses why our life is the way it is. "That's the way it is and I cannot change it," is a phrase I often heard in this context but if we start to think about ourselves, what we want, and what we feel, and if we try to change something it will happen.

Why do we believe the things we believe?

How do we figure out what we really believe or do we even want to know it? Children automatically believe the things older people tell them as well as what other children tell them. But after time when we make some experiences through which we learn to be careful about what other people say, we start to think critically in order to not get hurt or make mistakes. We avoid things that harm us which makes sense and is natural. Though, those things, which maybe are not the best for us but we are comfortable with, we decided not to think about or it does not come to our mind to even question those things.

However, the people we trust and who we are close to can have a great influence on what we believe. Let’s think about religion for example? Why is it so common that the members of a family have the same religion or the majority of the population in a country believes in the same things? Is it because that is truly what they believe in, or is it because they grew up with this religion and they were thought that this is the right one for them, or because they have never really thought about it. All over the planet we can find so many different religions we do not really know about, but automatically reject the idea that those religions can offer us something we believe. So, how can we be sure to believe in the right things when we do not know the other possibilities?

Culture plays also a very important role when it comes to our values and how we see things. Other cultures have to offer us a lot we can learn from, but in order to learn something we have to be open-minded and think critically. It is hard for us to accept other ideas or be open for new things. We are afraid of changes and do not like to risk something when we are comfortable with the way it is and not know what a change would cause. So, we prefer to stick with the things we are comfortable with even when we do not know if it is the best decision for us. But as long as we can live with it, it is ok.

However, how can we judge other cultures when we do not know and understand their values or believes? Life is different in each country on this planet and the people adjust to it and create their own lifestyle. What for people in one part of the world makes sense does not necessarily have to make sense to people in another country because people face different circumstances and have different backgrounds. So, we always have to be informed and should try to understand why the things are the way they are before we can judge them.

Family - What's that?

The word family has a lot of different meanings for me. But foremost it stands for people who support each other, who are there for each other no matter what happens, who fight but still get along with each other, who know each other better than anybody else, who tell what they think even the other person do not like it, and who accept the mistakes of each other – in short a family means people who love each other.

In my case the closest members of my family are my dad, my mum and my two sisters. My dad and my mum are married for 31 years and I can say that they are still happy together and still love each other. Our family is not perfect and we had a lot of hard times but what my family gives me is irreplaceable. These people mean more to me than anything else and I know that they will be always there for me as well as I will be there for them.

However, not everybody has the same idea of a family like me. People get married when they are in college and divorced only a few years later or others have parents who are divorced already 3 times. These stories I hear more and more often from other college students or friends.

So I asked myself what does nowadays family and marriage mean to the people? Is it only a relationship for a limited amount of time and when it does not work out the people go different ways in life? Maybe students think that to marry somebody is the next goal in their lives because that is the normal cycle which everybody follows.

I think to marry somebody is a very important decision and should be made very wisely. I am not against a marriage of a young couple as long as they know that this means responsibility. Especially, when children are involved because the family conditions in which children grow up has an important influence of their future lives and should not be underestimated.

I am aware of the fact that we are not able to predict if a relationship between a couple holds on for the rest of their lives or not. Nevertheless, we should see marriage as an important step in our lives and know what it means to build a family.

Travelling - Can Change Your World

More than two years ago, I found myself in a situation where I was unhappy with the way my life was and did not know what the future will bring me. This scared me so that I made the decision to change something. I told myself if I do not start to change something nobody else will – everybody is responsible for his or her own life. I was not quite sure if this is really the right thing for me, but I knew that I had to do it in order to find it out.

So, I flew from Vienna to New York without knowing what to expect. I stayed there for the next 6 months, and took some classes at a University program. I met a lot of new people from around the world, and visited different places. This was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I found out that I could learn so many things from other cultures and countries. I started to see things from a different point of view and to understand some things better. But, I also found out more about myself – what I want, who I am, and what is important for me. At this point I started to see travelling as a great opportunity to learn. Especially to learn things you are not able to see on TV, read in textbooks, newspaper, or on the internet. In other words I discovered my desire for travelling. So during and after my time in New York I went also to visit Boston, Washington, Toronto, Miami, and New Orleans. I have also been to many places in Europe and traveled to Thailand, but at this time I was not aware of the things that other countries and cultures offer me.

Now I am studying in the United States, and after I am done with my study I want to visit many more places around the world. Two years ago, I did not see me as a person who travels around the world more as a person who is very strong connected to her family – which is true but now I know what I was missing in life – new challenges and the truth about the world.