My future was promising when I started my first year in this prominent engineering university. I always dreamt of becoming a civil engineer. I was young and full of hope that the subjects would be easy for me. I came from a prominent science high school and the people who went before me excelled in their chosen engineering courses. I was that kid who aced exams back in high school.
To my surprise, my fate was very different when I pursued engineering… a very prestigious engineering university in our country.
No matter how hard I tried, I was always at the bottom half of the class. Even if the exams were relatively easy, I had a hard time answering them. Everything was just not what I expected it to be. Sometimes, I just choose not to check my grades anymore because I already knew that my grades were poor. Whenever my smart friends asked me how I did in our exam, I just smiled and kept telling them, “Not good as usual.”
I failed in so many exams each semester. The only saving grace to my subjects were the reports and group works that played a huge part in our grades as well. That’s how I managed to continue my studies in engineering. I kept wondering why I never managed to get high grades in my exams when I study hard.
Later on, I found out that I wasn’t alone in this agony. A lot of my friends experienced the same struggle, too. Once I opened up to them, I learned that keeping this feeling to myself won’t help me at all. Eventually, we started studying together and we constantly pushed each other to do our best in our studies. We’ve supported each other emotionally, which helped us a lot. Our exams were still difficult but we had fighting spirits by then. I noticed my exam scores started to improve. I still didn’t ace them but I managed to pass most of the exams.
Even though it took some time for me to realize that I could never survive engineering without a little help from my friends, I’m still lucky to have learned the lesson anyway. Every time I felt like giving up on a subject, they were there to help me boost my confidence on myself. It’s really helpful to hear them say that things get a little easier for people who believe in themselves. So I did.
Engineering university can be tough on its students, that’s why a lot of discouraged students decide to shift to a different course. That’s why it’s important to have a good support system with you all the time. Take it from me! I had to learn it a little later than expected but I feel lucky enough to have friends whom I’ll be marching with next year as we accept our diplomas on stage.
