Expectations and Manipulations

            I woke up sick this past Thursday and missed the last class. After reading through everyone’s blog posts I started to notice a common trend, and knew that there must have been an assigned topic to blog about this week. I felt that it was my job to find out what that assignment had been. We are manipulated into following the instructions of our teachers. We’ve been warned from the beginning of the year about the manipulations that we are faced with day after day. Yet I still feel responsible to do as my teachers say. We learn from a young age that we must obey our teachers. We are taught that they are authority, and I have always associated authority with being correct, no matter the circumstances. All my life I’ve believed everything my teachers have taught me. I’ve sought to please them by following their assignments exactly as they have instructed me, never daring to take a leap and go outside the boundaries.

            Having been in this class for more than half of a semester, I now question so many things that I used to do without hesitation. Why am I waking up at 7 in the morning to run? Why am I studying for the three tests I have in one week? Why am I going to class? Why am I doing my homework? What is the purpose behind these actions? We have been manipulated into following our strict schedules and obeying the rules laid out for us in order to succeed. Yet although I do think twice about my daily schedule, I still perform the same things day after day. It’s expected of me; I’m expected to get good grades, play soccer, stay focused, and have fun. It’s all in the college experience, right? These manipulations do pressure me, but at the same time, they guide me and motivate me. Manipulations do indeed force us to follow a particular path, but this path could either lead you nowhere or to a whole new world; it all depends on how you take these manipulations. You can allow them to control you or you can allow them to encourage you to stay on the right path.