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[Campus Commentary]Summer ends with goals unmet

Published: 29 Aug. 2007, 21:32

Summer vacation is almost over. It’s about the time of the year when most elementary school children here hurriedly fill in their journals, the typical homework that is supposed to be done over the month-long vacation period.
When I was that age, I would probably feel regret and say with a deep sigh, “Ah, I should have done this little by little every day, and I should have kept the promises I made to myself before vacation started.”
Now, as an undergraduate student, I find myself repeating the same thing with the same sigh.
University students are not given a vacation workload from professors. However, they set goals of their own to achieve on matters such as employment, getting in shape, losing weight and raising their GPA.
Why do these plans get thrown aside? That’s because we can never pass up simple temptations, such as playing, sleeping and eating.
One of my goals during vacation was to improve friendships among the members of the Union of Seoul Region Campus English Newspapers, or Uscen, of which I am the president.
Other members also said they thought it was meaningful that campus reporters from different universities get to know each other more in casual meetings. However, during the recreation time we planned, almost every student member left the room because they were hesitant to participate in games with unfamiliar people. Only about 10 stayed. I felt guilty as the president.
This could be regarded as just a personal episode, but such incidents can happen anytime.
As a student reporter, I always tell myself to write and ask questions critically, but sometimes I am not confident enough in front of ill-tempered interviewees. I hope to be remembered as a charismatic senior, but my mouth freezes in front of clever juniors who talk back. I swear I will get a scholarship by getting straight As, but I often skip classes saying the class is too lame. As a result, I achieve nothing.
Accomplishing a goal, putting it into practice and standing up to temptation are very difficult.
Some people comfort themselves, saying, “Life doesn’t always flow in the direction that I want.”
But that’s just an excuse.
If you want to accomplish a goal, it is important to make a simple plan and put in the most effort possible.
If we have been living in the contrary way, it’s time to correct the distorted practice.

*The writer is the president of the Union of Seoul Region Campus English Newspapers and a former editor of The University Life, the English newspaper at Kyung Hee University.

by Kim Mi-ju