College is too short to spend all of your time in class. Though you certainly learn valuable skills and lessons from the university, you will grow and learn more about life and yourself outside of the lecture hall.
After my sophomore year in college, I transferred from a small music conservatory to UW-Madison. I changed majors from clarinet performance to economics and the size of my school grew from around 700 to 40,000. Although I knew playing the clarinet for the rest of my life wasn't right for me, I think the main reason I transferred was the atmosphere. At the conservatory, there was extremely little to do outside of the classroom. And I knew the opposite to be true of Madison.
Of course I knew that UW-Madison was one of the best universities in the United States. But I also knew what State Street was like on a Saturday afternoon. I had heard wonderful things about the school spirit supporting UW athletics, especially after reaching the Rose Bowl and the NCAA Final Four the previous year. And I had heard the rumor that UW-Madison was the \Berkeley of the Midwest."" I knew life would be exciting in Madison.
But when I arrived, I came to the harsh realization that classes were really difficult. I wasn't able to spend every afternoon on Library Mall, or every Saturday walking up and down State Street. So I adjusted and began lounging less and working more in order to keep up with classes, and I found that keeping up wasn't really too bad.
After a semester, however, I found that just attending classes and sporting events wasn't enough. I couldn't believe that I could be bored in Madison of all places, but I was.
That's when I saw an advertisement in The Daily Cardinal for new writers. Before I knew it, I had bylines in a newspaper'and I'd never written for one before in my life.
As I got more involved in the paper, I began to realize just how rich the culture is at UW-Madison. Every day there were different events held about nearly everything a person could think of'from running a triathlon to seminars on hip-hop. I began to see the variety of things the student government, the Associated Students of Madison, were trying to do for students. I began to understand (as well as any student can) how the administration works to keep the university running.
Responding to that ad and getting more involved on campus was the best thing I could have done. I learned so much
more from the Cardinal and the people I met through the paper than I ever could have by spending more time at the library. And, even though I was only at UW-Madison for two years, many of my friends said I'd done and learned more in my time than they had in their four years here.
Though journalism isn't for everyone, I guarantee there is a group or activity for everyone to enjoy getting involved in. (Check the Student Organization Office's Web site at http://soo.studentorg.wisc.edu/ for registered student groups.)
So don't forget about or slack off in classes'obviously you can't get a degree without them'but don't forget about life outside of class either. Get involved. There is no better place to learn about the people around you and about yourself than UW-Madison.
