2nd chances

When I met professor Burkes I was taken aback by his frank questions to the class, “When you leave Cal, how will you apply what you have learned?”

Looking back, this should not have surprised me. He was a professor of Peace and Conflict studies. His job was resolving dissonance between parties. But at the time I was unaware that a conflict could even exist between my studies and what lay ahead.

I realize now, a few years out, that I had effectively learned to succeed at school rather than learned how to apply school towards success. A delicate dance of the right amount of reading, engagement, and strategizing would guarantee me the grades that I felt were necessary for advancement. Sure my grades were a big influence in why I got my job, but my grades did not guarantee my success.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have taken Professor Burkes's questions to heart and written a real answer instead of the answer that I thought would give me a good grade.

.Tracey.