![]() However, for most people (including the adult version of my sister), the alternative to doing something isn’t doing nothing. This rare scenario is when I view quitting as something that indicates a deeper, underlying issue. I’m telling you, this girl liked nothing. If it wasn’t dance, it was piano, and if it wasn’t piano, it was all of the sports and activities to ever exist. When she quit something, it was after minimal effort, and her alternative was doing nothing in her room. For instance, my sister quitting everything she tried throughout middle school always used to be the butt of the joke at family gatherings, and understandably so. In my experience, quitting has generally been frowned upon. There are, however, a sizable smattering of things that I have felt shameful about quitting, EECS included. If anything, transferring to a highly-regarded institution made me a successful student. For me, that was never even a consideration. I proudly transferred to the University of Michigan, and I still recall my friend assuring me that leaving my old university doesn’t make me a failure. Quitting is taboo in today’s world, especially in the setting of high academia. But, all faux-blame aside, I was the one who pressed the withdraw button after seven weeks, countless failed tutoring sessions and a handful of code-induced meltdowns. There was no logical response on my end of the phone call, merely a blabbering of reasons why my parents shouldn’t encourage me to quit hard things. My mom reassured me that it was a good decision and that if I was no longer pursuing a degree in cognitive science on the computer science track, I was essentially putting myself through EECS hell for elective credit. But it always feels a little easier to blame someone else for my “mistakes.” In hindsight, me dropping out of my computer science class was not their doing. This was minute 10 of me walking around the patio in distress, whisper-yelling to my parents on the phone. ![]() I can’t believe you let me do that,” I said. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |