Free Write - An Airing of Grievances

As I entered my last semester at college I was embraced by an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and excitement. I felt that my last semester would be a shining capstone to my undergraduate educational experience. I entered my first classing with high expectation. I had put my time in and I thought that I had earned the respect and trust of my professors, educators and administrators. I thought that, finally, my classes would be a great culmination of my learning and knowledge where we would all focus on the big projects and papers that would truly help us in the real world, which just so happens to be knocking on the door. I thought that, finally, we would discard those petty, hollow assignments that have consumed practically every facet of my educational experience for over three years.

I have never been so mistaken and I have never deluded myself so much in my entire life.
Tri-weekly quizzes, bi-weekly quizzes, tri-weekly blog entries, weekly papers, and bi-weekly homework write-ups abound with unparalleled jurisdiction over my daily schedules. Here and there is an actual exam or paper, which generally makes up about 30 – 40% of my final grade. Where do these professors get off forcing us to complete these ludicrous assignments that count for only a fraction of my grade?

I have felt like any hope of gaining some actual knowledge, theory or practical application for the real world to come is fading at an alarming rate. Along with that fades my motivation and desire to do my best on the tasks before me. When will professors learn that there comes a point in the life of a student where you don’t need to babysit them with meaningless assignments?
I have comet to a point where I simply want to do my time, get an OK grade and move-on.

Maybe if I’m on my best behavior they’ll cut down on some of my workload? Maybe if I get some cigarettes I can trade them with someone for some better things to do that will teach me something? Essentially what I’m saying is this: pointless busy-work makes university life a prison and I’ve already begun digging a hole.