Ever get stressed out by school work? Welcome to the club. My next week consists of creating numerous business plans and budgets, along with an exam and quizzes. No sense in complaining though. This is college, and that is what we pay the big bucks for. Even though it can be extremely annoying and stressful, I believe that there are many benefits to school work.

The first and most obvious benefit is gaining knowledge, or at least that is the goal. I am extremely thankful that I am now a senior and finished with core classes and boring random electives that are needed to graduate, but have nothing to do with my interests. Last semester, I was forced to take a natural science course, and all I remember about that class was trying to complete labs. Now I can look forward to taking classes that actually mean something to me, even though these 300-level courses entail much more time-consuming work. When I am interested in what I am learning, I don’t mind putting the time and effort into doing the work. Regardless, if you plan on getting out of here with a degree, all the work needs to be done, whether it’s interesting or not.

Another benefit is learning to manage your time efficiently. If you are anything like me, you consistently feel like there is never enough time in a day to complete the tasks that you need to complete. One of the first things I learned when I came to college was to use a planner. I never used one before, but it is a necessity when there are a million things to do in a short period of time. When you have five or six professors shouting assignments and dates at you daily, it’s nearly impossible to remember them all and not get them confused. That’s why my student planner is my best friend.

I live on Main Street with three other guys and there are always other activities I could be doing. Distractions are extremely hard to avoid. I could be playing FIFA and Madden, eating Spuds and hanging out with friends. That’s why when things really need to get done, my strategy is to pack all of my books and laptop and take a trip to Rohrbach Library. I set myself up at a quiet table, throw in my headphones and get into my work zone. This seems to be quite effective, as I disconnect myself from the distractions at home. At the very least, I want to make the quarter mile walk worth it, so I stay there for a good amount of time and bang out a good amount of work. Some people may find it efficient to stay in their dorm or apartment, but every time I give it a go, I complete half of an assignment, and I’m ready to do anything else but school work.

The last benefit that comes to mind regarding school work is learning about priorities. We are already social butterflies and collegiate hooligans as it is. Can you imagine if there was no school work to be done? I’ve seen Main Street on a Friday night around 2 a.m., and even though it may be entertaining, I would not want to see that every night. Assignments keep us focused on the big task at hand: graduating. They are the tiny steps to the big goal, and even though they can be boring, time consuming, and a real pain in the butt, they are essential to getting out of this place and moving on to the real world.

By John Difrancesco