Student Struggles

A look at the everyday struggles of a student.

Attempt Understanding.

Throughout history, one thing is consistently present: conflict.

As a seemingly universal experience of all humans, our world revolves around conflicting ideals and beliefs spurring from areas of uncertainty. The most obvious are the big trigger areas, such as wealth, politics, and religion, which are often topics to avoid when talking to anyone but those closest to you — and sometimes you still have to choose your words wisely.

Everyday we are exposed to conflict, not only on the individual level, but also within each group/society, as well as on the global scale:

• Have you ever struggled to get out of bed in the morning?
• Have you ever driven faster than the speed limit even though the government says it’s not safe?
• Do you disagree with the actions or beliefs of a certain culture?

Not only are you in daily conflict with yourself, your society, and the rest of the world, but each is in conflict with you and the others. A society may disagree with your life choices, a country may disagree with with another country’s policies, it seems everyone is in conflict with something.

Even science, the closest we have come to knowing the objective truth, is contested by many around the world. With an ever increasing supply of ideas and points of views from which to interpret an occurrence, it becomes more and more unlikely for everyone, let alone a couple people, to fully agree on what is true about the world.

With so many versions of the truth, my goal is to present as many of these conflicting ideals as possible to make space for understanding, and perhaps more tolerance. People’s opinions aren’t going to change overnight, so instead of trying to convince others to see as you see, we all might as well try to understand where they’re coming from. It may even change your mind about how you see the world.

From my individual perspective, going into university from a science-dominated background, I was used to the black-and-white answers that only science can provide. 1 + 1 always equals 2 in science. So, I started my first year in the health sciences, thanks to my high school love of chemistry and grandiose ideas of being a neurosurgeon.

By the end of my first year I realized it wasn’t for me, and that left me lost. For two years, I struggled to stay in a program for more than a semester, taking me through courses in English, Classics, religion, psychology, astrophysics… a little bit of everything. I was introduced to so many new ideas and perspectives of the world, all of them conflicting and muddling up my simple world of science.

These conflicting ideas gave me a lot to consider, and frankly, they confused me. It was hard to accept that the concept of only one right answer didn’t transfer beyond scientific understanding. I looked for the ‘right’ answers and came up with nothing.

So, in this world of many sides to the truth, I ask you to keep your mind open to new possibilities. You may not fully agree with what I’m presenting, but that’s not the point. Hell, I’m probably not going to agree with everything I’m writing. The point is to try to see something from a new perspective and perhaps learn to view your own world of truths in a different way. If you do, tell me what differences you see, and if not, tell me what you think is right.

This is an open learning experience for whoever wants to participate.