Whether next year you’re bound for another year of high school or your first year of college, a challenge looms ahead. 

While there are many months until we meet this challenge face to face, we are already being bombarded with preparation and planning.

Course selection cards just recently came out and now as we have a physical reminder of what’s to come, we can no longer stall facing the future.

We watch with anticipation as our lives slowly unfold and sometimes in our preoccupation we grow detached from the reality that in order to control our future we must command it. Our detachment from this reality can make us feel as if we are merely spectators of our own lives and it can let our say in things slip away. In order to spare ourselves from that, we must be proactive. 

It’s time we disillude ourselves from the idea that we have ample time to plan. If not now then when? This isn’t your lang essay or your chemistry lab; this is life. It doesn’t get an extension or translate to a bad grade. No, it can translate to irredeemable failure.

I know, I know. We are all tired of that word, “failure,” being held over our heads. 

Since Kindergarten we’ve had it hammered into our heads that college basically projects the trajectory of our lives and that if we don’t perform well now it will translate to: inevitable failure…crash and burn. 

And while I don’t entirely believe in this I do believe there is some stock to the idea that how we face problems now can give us an idea of how we will fare with them in the future. College does not define you but the way you go about it does. Just like a puzzle; it tells of how you attack problems.

It’s like Sudoku. With each page that you flip and each puzzle that you encounter there is a different set of numbers. It’s the same process, though. Regardless of how they scramble the numbers this time if you could figure it out last time, you should be able to replicate your success. You shouldn’t fail…with proper practice.

And while you may not find success at first it doesn’t mean failure is inescapable.  

It reminds me of the time my friend and I decided we needed to exercise our minds by becoming “masters of Sudoku.” Had neither of us ever played? No. Did that stop us from buying the hardest set of puzzles? Nope. Did we succeed? Definitely not. But that still didn’t stop us because did we give up? No. We just practiced with a new set more tailored to our…skills (or lack thereof). 

We persevere through practice. But while practice makes perfect, it also takes time.  

Take the time to be proactive and practice now, before the real game of life begins.