Any semester can be divided up into two parts. The first four weeks of bliss are normally full of syllabuses and meaningless threats of long-term assignments. During this time workloads are smaller, so the typical student’s first taste of college is not that of an institution of higher education, but a utopian view of adulthood. Spirits are high and red solo cups are full. However, this period is fleeting, and we inevitably reach the second part of the semester.

Now the second segment of the school semester often hits with tsunami of Facebook statuses, tweets and sighs from students, complaining how they hate school and hate their insurmountable load of work. This first tsunami is almost always met with more complaints about the same things, and a sense of camaraderie develops between those who loathe their titles as students. For some of us, all this melancholy brings us down and begs the question, “What did you expect when you enrolled here?” Yes folks, we know college is hard, so we don’t need your complaints.

First off, the aim of college is not to foster an environment where you can form a binge drinking habit and easily get laid. Although these are undoubtedly perks of the system, this isn’t college’s purpose. The purpose of college isn’t to simply attain a bachelor’s degree and move on. The purpose of college is to develop a passion for something that won’t turn you into a miserable 40-year-old who longs for a two story beer bong. Yet, many still find ways to make the academic side of college life miserable.

To avoid this seemingly inevitable sea of complaints, you need to find your passion. Do not just take classes because they fit in your schedule or because you heard they were an easy A. Take classes because you know you’ll be interested and engaged, because with a class list as extensive as at University of Wisconsin, there is most likely something that’ll peak your interest, even under the restrictions of requirements.

Nevertheless, there are people who do take classes that pertain to their interests and major, and still manage to lead the chorus of complaints. Now, I don’t have a good theory for this lot. I’m perplexed that someone could enroll themselves in a class that interests them and yet loathe the experience. This may be a horrible realization for those of you who find yourselves in this group, but the work does not stop once you graduate. From here on out, people are going to demand work from you, and this is okay because if you did college correctly it’ll be work that you’re interested in.

Finally, we have those who are satisfied with their classes, but psych themselves out by attempting to organize their workload. Calm down. If you are a sixteen-credit student, you do not have more work to do than any other sixteen-credit student at this university. There shouldn’t be any complaints about how you have so much work to do this week and can’t handle it. You are an adult, and by now it’s expected of you to be able to manage a workload that isn’t over-laborious.

So the moral here is not that you shouldn’t let out frustration from time to time, but to realize before you say, “I hate school,” that you’re receiving a world class education from one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It’s also important to realize that you’re paying thousands of dollars a year to get the chance to educate yourself in a field that gives your life meaning. If those facts fail to help you realize that this broken record of complaints about college is pointless, then please feel free to give your spot to someone else, because we all know college is hard; we know, that’s the point.

Nichalous Pogorelec ([email protected]) is a sophomore studying sociology.