This morning, I began filling out my FAFSA while I waited on my dad to wake up and help me complete it.
The majority of us know how much of a pain this process is. Therefore, it’s no surprise that my mind began to drift.
As you know, college is no easy feat. Tuition is expensive. Classes aren’t a stroll in the park. Most of us are away from family. We all have social struggles.
But we’re trudging through the mucky mess, nonetheless. What for, though?
While tackling this beast, why not take what’s rightfully yours, the very thing you are working towards, and make it your own?
Claim your education. Do not merely accept it as it comes towards you. Grasp it by the horns and conquer it. Be the proud owner of your knowledge.
By dictionary definition, claim means to “take as the rightful owner.”
To do this, go to class. You cannot demand something if you do not participate in it. Participation is key because involvement is a great way to achieve success. Success makes claiming something that much easier because you will want to tell people it belongs to you. If you are not proud of something, you are less apt to want it associated with your name.
Another way to lay assertion to edification is through hard work. This goes hand in hand with successfully going to classes. Work hard for the very thing you are paying thousands of dollars to attain. Don’t sit idly by and watch it pass before you. Pick up a book, crack it open and read. Do the work. Force yourself to fight through any and all tussles you have. Doing these things will help you assert yourself and lay a foundation for you to take your education into your own hands.
Correspondingly, there is a quote from Adrienne Rich that explains further: “The difference between a life lived actively, and a life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference.”
What she is saying is to live a life that is full and complete and not merely wade through the waters around us. If you want to take what is yours and be proud of it, aggressively assert yourself through life.
Be bold and ask questions no one else would. Don’t be fearful of the outcome. Learn the way that you need to in order to declare what you’ve paid for in monetary ways and with your own sweat.
I’ve been claiming my education: Have you?
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