The first few months of senior year, your world spins on a different axis. And that axis is college.
Nearly everything you do is involved with the college process in some way. Eating in the cafeteria: wondering what food tastes like in college; doing homework: thinking about how you wouldn’t be doing it if you were in college; or even daydreaming in class: imagining yourself finally parting ways with your college application, watching it fly off into the distance and disappear far, FAR away.
Now that I’ve been accepted into one of my top choices, I realize a major difference rooted in the source of my motivation. I’m not breaking my neck to get the minus off that A, or cramming so hard I fall asleep on my computer and arrive to school with a keyboard imprinted on my face, only to receive in the B range. The pressure to succeed and squeeze every last bit of intelligence out of myself has been lifted, and suddenly, I discover what it’s supposed to feel like when you learn something new (Wait…so head-throbbing isn’t normal?)
I actually find myself completing the assignments because I want to learn the subject matter. Without the stress of trying to remember dates and events and themes and formulas and laws of gravity and different species of human, my brain is able to focus more than ever.
This newfound intrinsic motivation, or motivation that comes from factors within yourself, has opened my eyes to how stress and pressure can affect a student’s performance. We’re so used to being given information and tested on it soon after, that instead of learning the material to the point where we understand it, memorization is the easier way to go. We fall into a pattern of processing information superficially, rather than effectively and engagingly.
Extrinsic motivation, or motivation that comes from external factors, is commonplace for students. We take difficult classes that we work ourselves to death for, even if we don’t have the slightest interest in it, just to “get into college.” How many times have you heard someone complain about an AP that they were only taking because it “looks good on college applications”? And how many students do you think take physics being they’re actually interested in it?
My second quarter grades are looking far better than my first quarter ones. And it’s because I’m learning.
Not for teachers, or parents, or college.
I’m learning for me.
