I remember during high school and college, I always despised the first day of class. Being a high school freshman, I thought of the next eight years of my life as the same repetitive process over and over: go to class, do homework, take tests, do well, don’t fail. It also further became an annoyance going into college doing my undergraduate work because then I encountered professors who actually intentionally tried to fail their students, admittedly doing so to keep the best and brightest students in the end.

Left and right, I was told that life becomes so much better once you start working; that it’d be simply work your shift and come home with nothing to worry about.

A couple months into when I entered the workforce, my attitude towards school changed. I actually missed it. August and January would fly by and it seemed empty without paying the exorbitant amount for textbooks and preparing for a nonexistent school year.

The shift in mindset
In the working world, the only education that you have for you is the education that only life could give you. (Otherwise known as experience.) When you’re out there, it’s already assumed that you’ve mastered the tools that you need to know. And as for the notion of “once you come home from work you have nothing to worry about”, it’s not true! Several times after I came home from work I would find myself complaining about my workday, whether it be to my family, cat or boyfriend!

In school, your job as a student is simple and straightforward — learn. School is very much a luxury where you can learn practically anything you want.  If you want to learn about classical mechanics, there’s a class on that. Advanced modulation and coding? There’s a class on that. Even though there are a lot of jokes about underwater basket weaving, there’s a class on that. Or at least, there was a class on that.

There are so many resources available to you to at school (i.e., the library, professors, lab equipment, classmates, etc) that there’s really no reason to outright fail, unless you just lack the motivation. School  You don’t have to worry about furloughs or layoffs … in the end, you have nothing to worry about except yourself.

My new job – being a student
I’m glad that I’m back at school. Even though the classification of “student” can resonate to me as “n00b”, I’m happy that I have to opportunity to expand my skill set in computer science from aerospace engineering. Though in a way, being in the workforce has corrupted my mindset, where …

• “Classes/Lab” = 1 hour 15 minute meetings to discuss [subject] with [professor]
• “Homework” = personal project/task to prep for meeting
• “Tests” = gate review; product testing

My same goal from being an employee also carries over to being a student. That is, be a master of the skills needed to complete my tasks, complete tasks in a timely manner, and always extend a hand to people who need help.

Put simply, “Be absolutely, totally awesome.”