{"id":919,"date":"2025-09-05T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/05\/2025-09-05-seize-the-days-at-college\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:12:04","slug":"2025-09-05-seize-the-days-at-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/05\/2025-09-05-seize-the-days-at-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Seize the days at\u00a0college"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Kathryna Hoyman<\/a> · Managing Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u2014 KAISER PARTNER<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to subconsciously divide college into two hemispheres: learning, which is reduced to academics, and experience, which is everything extracurricular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two hemispheres seem to pull us in different directions, creating a bloody battle that, as it reaches its cinematic climax, forces a realization that both sides have been fighting for the same thing all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it’s not rocket science, to say that our growth in college comes from the sum of academics and extracurriculars is revolutionary when we act in accordance with the view. In the same way learning and experience are intertwined, academics and extracurriculars are as well. They are forces that compliment, not oppose. The more we draw them into union with each other, the more we will get from both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A holistic approach to learning comes when we are willing to treat late-night conversations with friends, leadership positions in clubs and rallying around an insignificant (and perhaps even silly) common goal as formative in the same way our classes are. Similarly, we can benefit a lot when we realize that sitting in classes and spending monotonous hours doing homework are life experiences in the same way Greek life, hall events and IM sports are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the confluence of hemispheres, in which academics and extracurriculars come together to provide paired experience and formation, is where the marvel of college lies. We are in a space not only equipped to teach us in the classroom, but also in the time we spend living life with others on this shared campus, whether friends or strangers, like-minded peers within our majors or those on the opposite side of the great STEM\/HUMA divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This college has provided us with an excellent microbiome in which to both learn and experience, but the opportunities presented will not take advantage of themselves. It is in our hands, and it is our responsibility, to strive to approach all we do with intentionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the near arrival of autumn, it is almost a requisite for every Grover to watch “Dead Poets Society” (or another Robin Williams film, at the very least). Fellow watchers may relate when I say I used to roll my eyes over the schoolboys rallying around the cry of “carpe diem,” thinking it was overly romantic and impractical to constantly maintain a state of being sporadic and intrepid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if “seizing the day” just means being intentional with it? If that is the case, the cry of “carpe diem” not only applies to a daring phone call to the unsuspecting love of your life, but also to writing papers, talking with friends over a meal in Hicks, quiet time with the Lord before classes, late-night study sessions with peers and cleaning your dorm on a Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can treat all of these with more intentionality than we currently do \u2013 we can dig into them deeper. If we are intentional with all aspects of our college experience, the academics and extracurriculars we engage in will work together to graduate us into stronger, smarter people who are better equipped to think critically, process change, apply skills and serve others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is easy to subconsciously divide college into two hemispheres: learning, which is reduced to academics, and experience, which is everything extracurricular. These two hemispheres seem to pull us in different directions,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[27,71,26],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-tower","tag-editorial","tag-kathryna-hoyman","tag-issue-2025-09-05"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",1142,1022,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",150,134,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",300,268,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",768,687,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",1024,916,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",1142,1022,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-09-05-04-seize-the-days-at-college-1.jpg",1142,1022,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It is easy to subconsciously divide college into two hemispheres: learning, which is reduced to academics, and experience, which is everything extracurricular. These two hemispheres seem to pull us in different directions,","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}