Sunday Night With John: Finding Success On Academic Probation

I love learning, but have hated school. It’s a weird concept to come to terms with knowing that you have to be in the classroom to earn a diploma.  However, in my life I have achieved my goal of receiving a college diploma from Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. I also have had the dubious honor of landing on academic probation on three different occasions. It’s what happens when you find yourself valuing the education you are receiving from life a little more than the education you are receiving in the classroom.

The education outside of the classroom is the distinct feeling that arises when I reminisce about my time in college. When I began my college experience I was beginning my walk out of the darkness of my anger and depression issues surrounding the death of my father, my best friend, and the damage I did to my mom and my relationship. I had a lot on my mind as an 18-year-old crossing the Midwest to attend school in Iowa from Ohio. 

I began the pattern of attending class one semester and then not attending the next semester. I remember a Greek literature class where I only attended the tests days. I did very well on those tests scoring A’s on all 3 of them and a B on the report from the passage I was assigned. I was given a C in the class for missing all the discussion sections. I remember the discussions I had with my friends at two in the morning way more than any Greek literature. We played hallway mini-golf, the rules were written on a pizza box and then duct taped to the door room door of my good friend. And we discussed in depth topics shaping and changing my views on the poor, wealthy, racism, politics, and various other topics. I did college a little differently than most, and I only say this because I have been told over and over again by others that it seems I had a different attitude about college than most.

My learning quest continued through the years as I have weaved my way through life. I did not expect the thirst for classroom learning to return, but it recently has. I applied and was accepted to a graduate program at the University of Northern Iowa. Due to my low GPA from under graduate work I will start my master’s program on you guessed it, academic probation. What’s the saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In two weeks I start a two-year educational journey. I will be attending all my classes this time around, and this will be my only semester on academic probation. I’ve changed over the years; constantly willing to change can have that effect. I have had a good chuckle with friends and family about finding myself in the same spot I have found myself three times before.  The difference is: The education life has provided me, moved me to seek out classroom education again. There are many ways to obtain your education in this world; flirting with academic probation was the path I took, and we are down to our last dance. It’s cliché to say never stop learning, but some clichés are true outside and inside the classroom.