The Burden of Responsibility

Responsibility is a word often bandied about from parents to their children, instructors to their students, older generations to those that will soon take up the mantle of prominence. Rarely, however, does that message sink until some cataclysmic event shocks that person or group into a newfound level of consciousness. Perhaps this is premature on my part, but I'm of the firm belief that I have received such a revelation in my, admittedly, short time here at Ohio University.

Here in college responsibility truly comes into true form. There are a myriad of activities that, normally, others would do so without us even having to raise a finger. Academically, the consequences even in High School were relatively low stake. If you slipped up and putzed around the entirety of a quarter, the consequences would not be that great. As I was told, and I'm sure a great deal of my fellow students were as well, that such mistakes are gone now. Relegated to the dust bin of history. How many job applications will be accepted or rejected upon the basis of HS grades or accomplishments?

But the same can not be said of college. What we do with out time, academically, extra-curricularly, socially, all have such greater magnified impacts that it is not even comparable to our previous lives.

I firmly believe that being shocked into such an awareness is the greatest accomplishment of the college system. It forces us, as both students and young adults, to realize that our actions have consequences. That idleness serves no other purpose than extremely limited and short term gratification.

But as excitement of what I'll be doing with the various extra-curricular activities, meeting new people, learning varied and exciting courses, I find myself no longer treating this new responsibility as a burden, but as a veritable battering ram on the door of life's oppurtunities.