By Kathryna Hoyman · Managing Editor
Another year, another semester and another finals season that rises ominously from the future, less than two weeks away.
For some, these weeks mark the completion (and survival) of their first year of college, and for others, this season includes the last scholastic papers and exams they will ever take, a true off-boarding from a 16-year-long life stage of learning.
The academic environment, nearly universally, depends on competition for motivation. Paper and project season at the college reminds us of that, ingraining in each student who is not on their guard a mindset quick to compare as a means of personal evaluation.
While a competitive system of grading is debatably necessary in a rigorous classroom environment, it tends to breed a corrupting and self-injuring spirit in high-achieving students.
Like members of a sports team who are turned against each other to compete for a position, the heightened academic competition during this time in the semester quickly pits students against each other in rivalry.
Time and again, comparison impedes our readiness to genuinely support fellow students, considering how every grade and instance of another’s excellent work becomes a standard by which we judge ourselves. At worst, this competition directly opposes love when we, considering how our own work compares, gain confidence at another’s subpar work and despair when their work proves exceptional.
Now is the very worst time of the year for such a widespread vice to spring up, as it is also the season when relational support is needed most, graduation-related goodbyes are imminent, and the stakes of formation are the highest.
More than the rest of the semester, these final weeks seem, and in some ways are, greatly consequential, which easily incites a narrowing, individualist mindset. As we watch personal goals and dreams apparently teeter on the line of each exam score, support from our friends, as well as support for them, dims in perceived significance. What takes its place, oftentimes, is bitter comparison that displays itself as antsy dread or distended pride, or an insensible combination of the two.
Yet in our week-long “survival mode,” the truth of the gospel prevails, as each of our callings for life is a one-man run to Christ, not a competitive race. None of us can anticipate how our successes, hurts, niche experiences and acquired skills will play into what we will be called upon to do, or even how we will get there. Our command for this moment, then, is to be faithful, with our minds, our resources and our relationships, none of which we are entitled to, but which we are, for this time, gifted to steward and take joy in.
With that said, I wish this college a happy finals season, and that even in this heavily academic sphere, we can rejoice, unhindered by comparison, with those who rejoice.
