Personally, I have always found the spring semester to be one of the most difficult. It’s winter when it starts and the gaps between breaks are long and wearying. I think that the spring semester offers less options than the fall semester as well, which can be discouraging to students who are looking forward to those classes coming around again. We are nearly half way through this semester — some students are almost finished with their first full year of college, some are graduating in May. Some will leave or transfer. Some are just trying to get through another cold, Keweenaw winter. No matter where you fall in this line, you may be experiencing some winter blues.
The days will be getting longer again and the world will start to wake up from it’s sleepy snow-covered cocoon, but before that we have the treacherous inbetween. It will be sunny and bright, and the snow will melt, and then a heartbreaking snow storm sweeps through and undoes all that springtime progress. It happens like this every year and makes February and March feel like survival.
Whether you’ve knocked this semester out of the park, or if you’ve really struggled to stay on top of the school work and never-ending assignments, you aren’t alone. There’s also more than just school in life. The Michigan Tech Student Health and Wellness organization seeks to help students not only with the transition from high school to college, but also with the ongoing demands of college and life.
Next Tuesday, March 3 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Library, this organization will have an event about rethinking failure. When plans change or intense setbacks get in the way of you achieving your dreams — there are ways to handle that kind of disappointment, but there are also ways to capitalize on the gift of failure.
Maybe they won’t talk about why failure is a gift — but it can be. And it should be. Failing here and failing now gives all of us the opportunity to do something new, to learn how to be adaptable. It can help push us along the path that we were always meant to be on. Failure doesn’t mean giving up — sometimes it just means a change of plans.
If going to an event on failure seems a little too much to deal with, then maybe what you’re really facing is a problem of motivation. On Wednesday, March 4 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the library the same group will be having an event where students can come and learn skills ot improve motivation and prevent procrastination. The winter might be a time of rest before the active growth of spring, but not for humans.
These events teach life-long skills that can help change your path and make you a stronger, better you. You might not be interested in staying for the whole thing, but even attending for a little while is a step in the right direction. These events are completely free for students to attend and will hopefully have a big impact. We hope to see you there!
