Sometime earlier this semester, I heard the quote “Everybody needs surprises in their lives. We just happen to call the ones we don’t like ‘problems.’” When I heard this quote, I knew it was absolutely true. This being said, I did have some surprises during my first semester. One surprise I wasn’t prepared for was my first lab. I didn’t really do that many labs during high school so I didn’t know the names for all the tools or how to properly perform the experiment. My lab write-up had some problems so my first lab grade wasn’t ideal. Around the same time, I also received a grade on a paper that wasn’t exactly satisfactory. So realizing that I needed to improve my work, I decided to ask for help. This surprise taught me a really valuable lesson: ask for help OFTEN! I have never been afraid to ask for help but now I really understand how important it is. Go to office hours!! Use all your time wisely. If you don’t know how to do something, then ask someone who does. It might be a little embarrassing being the only one who is confused, but trust me, knowing what you’re doing is definitely important.
Speaking of valuable lessons, I’d like to focus a little bit on general problems during the first semester. I went to several first-gen events and I found that a lot of the time was usually spent on talking about our “problems.” Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely agree that our situation is different from a lot of other people, but if you really think about it, no two people out there have the same situation. Our different situations have led us all to learn different lessons and to deal with different problems (or surprises, if you will). So sometimes I would become frustrated whenever we spent chunks of time talking about how difficult our lives were as first-gen. I DO think that our situations are different from other peoples but I wouldn’t automatically categorize that as being a problem.
Think about all the valuable lessons we have learned: our power to inspire our younger siblings, our ability to work hard, our appreciation for new opportunities. As a first-gen, I would say that I have learned a multitude of valuable lessons from my situation. I wouldn’t call it a problem or an unpleasant surprise; I would call it an opportunity for many valuable lessons. Personally, I believe that everything can be turned into a lesson and I’ve learned that considering things to be “problems” does not help solve them. I think categorizing them as a “surprises” psychologically helps us see them in a new light and to make them easier to face and learn from. It is much more manageable to deal with “surprises” than “problems.” Just try it, I promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
