Hard time with 100% in-person college classes

[kag101]

Background

i'm an undergraduate psychology student. it consists of 10 semesters. i'm in the 4th.

i really like psychology. most of my learning comes from self-study though.

in the past semesters, my classes were hybrid. it was great.

this semester, however, is 100% in-person. ? my introverted ass is getting suffocated by that. it's just too much for me. i'm starting to get aversion to going there.

unfortunately, where i live, the psychology major is only offered 100% in-person.

 

My strategy to dealing with that

it seems as though my college is not very strict with attendance, at least according to the last semesters. i'm not totally sure about how it's going to be now. it might depend on the professor, idk

anyway, what i'm thinking is to miss 1-2 days a week, or whenever i need a break. obviously, i need to be careful with that. but i feel the risk is not very high.

my classmates are worse than myself. some of them barely go to the classes. so either more than half of the class will fail the semester, or the college doesn't really care about that.

i'm almost half-way to getting my diploma. i'm fairly certain that after i'm done with that, i will have more flexibility on doing things my way. i'm pretty sure there are hybrid post-graduation programs, etc.

 

obs: please no moralizing ("What kind of psychologist you want to be by missing classes??") or cheap motivation stuff ("You should take the hardest path!!!!")

Edited August 13, 2022 by kag101

[Eph75]

@kag101

I was about to say, "what does psychology tell you about this" ?

And it really comes down to this question. 

It's a wondeful example [and opportunity] ; the circumstances brought about by a psychology education, folding in on itself, and feeding back into the psychological experience of a psychology education.

It's about an edge behavior and a developmental challenge, that will help you to grow. 

It's true that we are different and some are more and some are less extrovert, but reality is much more complex than that, and the resistance we feel against those developmental challenges is often used to justify, as respecting introversion, not challenging ourselves. 

(I've been there myself) 

Albeit, you may be introverted, challenging yourself might turn out proving, to yourself, that whatever the resistence you have, are not all about introversion as a personality but a composition of different factors. 

Challenging these factors help reduce the weight introversion has on your being. 

So there's essentially two things going on here simultaneously. 

There's the education and properly engaging with the education to maximize your learning and knowledge. Not being there might impair that learning experience. 

Then, there's the personal developmental challenges that are involved and introduced by going through the education, for examples such situations where you are required to socialize [etc], or otherwise do what is outside of your familiar way of being, that which is outside of your comfort zone. 

This is what helps us grow developmentally, so avoiding it is holding our development back. 

It's not about being a yes-sayer and agreeing to everything that you don't want to do.  It's rather about developing self-awareness that allows us to see, what we truly don't want to do/interested in doing, and that which we have resistances that pulls us away from challenges that we need, in order to grow into a more holistically healthy individual. 

With pandemic and home schooling, home work, greater isolation in general, and so on, has changed how we socialize, and in many cases how we avoid socializing, making our comfort zones increasingly shrinking. 

This is, and will be causing a various problems, that will hold us back, and impair our development and well-being over time.

It's truly a great social experiment. 

In a sense this is about learning to see what we're avoiding, and learning to see the difference between what we should not do, and where there is a resistance to a growth experience. 

I'm not sure we can learn this without letting go, and accepting more situations that are uncomfortable, and in that process, build up the capability to discern between where we're actually selling ourselves, and where we're selling our growth. 

My own past path involved becoming yes-man, accepting everything that showed up, which did get me into many situation where I really didn't want to be, and shouldn't have been, but it also put me into the situations that propelled my development forward. 

That growth did also help me learn when I needed to say yes, and when I needed to say no. 

This is something that sounds very trivial, but believe me, it's not.

We typically say yes when it relates to something we're comfortable with, and we say no when there's a sense of discomfort.

The learning here is to learn when that discomfort is related to a growth opportunity, and to charge that resistance, and stretch into that which causes the discomfort. 

So this turns into a meta phenomena ; your education is not just about your education, it's also about your developmental which is overarching everything you do, in every moment, where e.g. educations throws situations and circumstances in your face, where you get an opportunity to grow. 

Avoiding these opportunities, there's a future price to pay, often involving suffering of some sort. 

Hope this makes sense. 

Edited August 13, 2022 by Eph75

[r0ckyreed]

You can do it.  See this as an opportunity to challenge yourself to grow.  I used to be very shy, nervous, and socially awkward, and crowds used to cause excess stimulation.  But now, I look back and cry because of how much I have grown since then.  Sure, I am not perfect.  I still get shy, nervous, socially awkward, and stimulated from time to time.  But the point is that I showed up everyday and I gave it my all.

How can you have the courage to show up everyday and give it your all?

Showing up is really half the battle.  Don't follow the herd's example.  Most students don't show up, but they aren't going anywhere you want to be going in life.  How you do the small things in life will show you how you handle the bigger things later on.  Trust me, each time you miss a class, that is like taking $20 and burning it up in flames.

Challenge yourself mate.  It is easy to run away from fear, but it will make your life harder in the end.  Embrace the fear and challenge.  

You can do it.  I did it.  What is your excuse?

[Nilsi]

On 13.8.2022 at 5:13 AM, kag101 said:

it seems as though my college is not very strict with attendance, at least according to the last semesters. i'm not totally sure about how it's going to be now. it might depend on the professor, idk

anyway, what i'm thinking is to miss 1-2 days a week, or whenever i need a break. obviously, i need to be careful with that. but i feel the risk is not very high.

my classmates are worse than myself. some of them barely go to the classes. so either more than half of the class will fail the semester, or the college doesn't really care about that.

i'm almost half-way to getting my diploma. i'm fairly certain that after i'm done with that, i will have more flexibility on doing things my way. i'm pretty sure there are hybrid post-graduation programs, etc.

 

obs: please no moralizing ("What kind of psychologist you want to be by missing classes??") or cheap motivation stuff ("You should take the hardest path!!!!")

Even if the stuff you are taught in university is relatively shallow, you will still get more out of it if you actually take it somewhat seriously and show up (Im studying psychology myself, for what its worth). You will start to resent your studies, if you feel like youre above it, and in that case, why even do it? 

Also, university is one of the best and most fun ways to meet people, improve your social skills and just have a good time, so dont waste that.