Greg Morgan

It’s been said that when Mr. Opportunity comes to visit, he knocks, and it’s up us to answer his call. Obviously we all say “of course we would answer,” but my question is when he knocks will you recognize the sound?
College is the land of opportunity, and even better it is the land of risk free opportunity. College really is the time to make mistakes. I don’t mean mistakes like forgetting to set the alarm on your phone and you sleep through your 8 a.m. class. Maybe mistakes isn’t the right word. College is the time to take risks.
Mesa State specifically is a place where you can fall flat on your face and your classmates will applaud your efforts. Well at least that’s how we do things in the dance program. Anytime someone falls in a dance class we clap because they fell as a result of going all out in whatever it is they were doing.
Looking closer you can see how universal this ideology can be. How often are we in an environment that allows us to fail with little to no consequence aside from maybe a bruise on your tailbone or a couple points off of your final grade?
When we fall it is more important to focus on getting back up and getting back on the beat and making the necessary corrections so that next time we don’t fall.
I may be preaching to the choir cause I’m sure I’m not the only student whose professor supports this type of thinking, but do you actually listen. How many of us make safe choices and do the bare minimum to get by? I know I have.
What are you afraid of? Most professor’s will applaud your efforts if they really see that you tried, and if you really give your all they can more effectively tell you the areas you can improve in.
I challenge you to be bold this semester. It could be something like adding a different color to your wardrobe or something bigger like declaring a major in the studio arts even though you can only draw stick figures. You would be surprised how successful you can be when you just commit.  If anyone has ever said that the only reason to go to college is to get a piece of paper that say you earned a certain amount of credits. That person probably has no idea what college is actually like.
College is about really getting to know who you are when you’re not trying to be like everyone else. College is about taking in as much as you can whether it be from your peers or professors and applying what we agree with to our own lives. College in short is about becoming the person you want to be.
When you take risks it’s not about getting an “A” on an assignment, and it’s not about making your own way because it’s where you want to be and it will take you were you want to go. Take steps in the direction you want to go and if you stumble I’ll clap for you.