Calling all dorks, geeks and intelligentsia! Where are you?
The first week of classes is the time of the year when you hear statements like: “FML…the education system is like death warmed up.”
Sure, we’re all here because we need an education, so we can get a good job and live the good life. It’s natural hearing people be disgruntled about homework, classes and the fact that their professor is the devil incarnate.
However it does make me a little bit sad because the reason I am so happy to be back is because I love my classes.
I have always loved to learn, even from a young age I devoured textbooks, participated avidly in classes (yes, I am the girl in the second row who’s always raising her hand) and embraced the idea of learning something new every day. Where is my kind?
Where are the people who came to college because they enjoyed learning? It’s a custom that I have not become accustomed to here in America; in Kenya the popular kids were popular because they were brilliant at everything: sports, science, math, community service and debating. The intelligent and physically fit were uber gods amongst lesser mortals.
Here however, it seems aesthetics are more important than the love of knowledge. My only wish this semester is that people would embrace their classes and participate in them as whole-heartedly as they do their social lives.
You can’t imagine how much more you’d get out of them and your peers if you were even a little bit excited about learning.
The only time I see people happy here is when they’re not doing anything related to education.
I have never walked into my Communications class and seen people buzzing for the lesson, ready to be engrossed in the day’s lesson.
Back home, when I was in high school that’s exactly what my classes used to be like.
This is why I go into each and every one of my classes ready and yearning for the learning to begin!
Sometimes I even feel remorseful that the class is about to end; then I have to go out and pretend I’m interested in the social scene circulating UT. In short, I have realized dorks like me are going into extinction.
What a loss it is!
I’ve spent hours of my life devouring encyclopedias, dictionaries, library books and newspapers in the pursuit of knowledge—always willingly.
I never like to come across people talking about something I don’t know about. I know what you’re thinking, “Gosh, what a freakin’ geek.”
Indeed, I am a freakin’ geek and I love it.
Philippa Hatendi can be reached at phatendi@ut.edu.