Poems from High School

Martyr's Song
Rejoice with me, for I am going Home!
The gates of heav’n are op’ning up to me.
No more upon this squalid earth I’ll roam;
My Savior’s face I soon shall clearly see.
That Light of Life is brighter than this fire
Which withers up the flesh that was my tent.
His promises ignite such sweet desire
That I to Him contentedly am sent.
I am Your servant, Lord, You are the gain
Sustaining me through death’s apparent loss,
And though I die, in You I shall remain—
So burn away this last remaining dross!
Life’s consummation commeth when I die.
Release my soul! Into Your arms I’ll fly!


Running
A runner temp’ral health and strength pursues.
A Christian runs eternal life to gain.
But both of them their earthly comfort lose,
And in its stead get tiredness and pain.
Their pace is often mercilessly slow.
Terrain and weather dauntingly array
To coax the tired runner not to go,
But wait, perhaps, until another day.
But Christian and the runner onward press;
Their future joys make current troubles light,
For neither one will reach his home unless
He keeps the pace, and runs with all his might.
So each strives onward, running to his goal,
And conqu’ring, one for body, one for soul.

Transitioning to College:My ten obvious observations.

I had a good conversation with one of my sisters today about preparing for college.  She asked for some points to keep in mind while preparing to transition from high school to college.  After stumbling through a few highlights, I finished the conversation, sat down, and developed what I wanted to have said.  Thus, here you have them: my ten obvious observations.

First, figure out where you're going, before you try to get there.  College is a great investment, but a very expensive hobby.  Before you invest large amounts of your time, effort, and money in a degree, figure out what job you want.  Then, organize your college plans around that goal.  My grandpa once said that the way to pick a college major is to tie a piece of string to a rock, throw the rock onto the job you want, pull the string taut, and then follow the string to the job.

Second, don’t fear failure.  Discover your intellectual limits by tripping over them.  Don’t limit yourself to what you think you can do; you are probably smarter than you think you are.   Don't worry about your ability to succeed in difficult classes.  Given the choice, I would rather have a couple of low marks in challenging classes than high marks in easy ones.  Think of it from an employer’s perspective: would you rather hire someone who got a B in Thermodynamics, or an A in Introductory Fencing?  Also, remember that your goal is not to demonstrate your self-worth through academic achievement.  It is to glorify God by preparing yourself to serve Him in a profession.  Thus, you are pursuing competence in your calling through diligence in difficulty, not just good grades in care-free classes.

Third, keep in mind that in college, as in the rest of life, you get out what you put in.  Learning is not automatic; you have to work at it.  Classes do not automatically make you smarter; you don't have to understand them to pass them.  If you do just enough work to get by, you will probably pass your classes, and will probably get a degree.  After you graduate, you can tack your diploma in a fancy frame, elevating yourself to the status of the degreed.  If, however, I were to ask you to apply what you studied to a real-life situation, the only thing you would be able to give me is a blank look. Many students do this.  Don't fall for it.  Take advantage of your classes while you have them.  If you take the opportunity to delve into the course material, learning more than you are required to learn, you’ll finish with a degree that actually means something.

Fourth, remember that professors are people, too.  Many of them decided to become professors because they love helping people learn.  They enjoy getting to know their students, and helping them understand tough concepts.  Visit their offices early in the semester (even if it’s just to introduce yourself), and frequently thereafter.  Talk with them after class.  Find out how their week is going.  You’ll usually find that they have valuable insights to offer, and interesting stories to tell.  They’ll probably enjoy getting to know you as much as you enjoy getting to know them.

Fifth, recognize that you will become like your friends.  Keep a sharp eye out for people you want to be like someday.  When you find them, study with them. 

Sixth, learn by teaching.  Don't sit in study groups like a leech, seeing what you can take from your classmates.  Rather, join study groups to help your classmates learn the material.  If you make teaching a habit, you will ultimately learn more from your group meetings.    A proverb from India wisely advises, "To learn, read. To know, write. To master, teach."  Teaching makes you think of the material in new ways, as you try to explain the material in ways that your classmates can resonate with, and to develop questions that will lead your classmates to an accurate understanding of it.

Seventh, remember that there is always someone busier than you.  As a professional student, one of the most entertaining things to listen to is a group of freshman undergraduates discussing their schedules.  They describe a week which, to me, sounds nearly empty, almost to the point of boredom.  They then go on to complain about how terribly overwhelming it all is, and how their professors are so unreasonable to expect so much of them.  A Chinese proverb accurately states that “talking does not cook rice.”  Don’t waste time entertaining professional students: stop complaining, and get your work done.

Eighth, don’t be afraid of calculus. I used to think of calculus as an amazing intellectual feat performed by superhumans.  Come to think of it, I once thought of reading that way, too.  It turns out, if you apply yourself to them, neither of them is very difficult.  More importantly, calculus is the basic language of the sciences.  It is used to describe how the world works in almost every field, from astronomy to zoology.  If you learn calculus, you will set yourself up to do better in whichever field you choose.

Ninth, always take the time to ask "why."  It is easy to swallow facts and names the night before an exam, and spit them up again on paper the next day.  Within a week, you forget what you crammed.  Congratulations.  You just wasted your tuition money.  Take time instead to digest the material.  For example, when you learn the Latin names of anatomical structures, ask why those structures were given their names.  Why memorize that within a "renal corpuscle", the "glomerulus" is encapsulated by "podocytes," when you could know that within a "little body in the kidney," the blood vessel "knot" is surrounded by "cells with feet?"

Finally, remember that you're competing against gazelles and lions.  Thomas Friedman, in his book, The World is Flat, quoted an excellent African proverb to this effect: 

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up.  It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death.  It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you'd better start running."

When you choose your classes, focus on hard math and science courses.  These apply to almost every well-paying career.  After you graduate, these challenging courses will make you a competitive job applicant.  In today’s job market, you will need to be as competitive as you can.

And there you have them: my ten obvious observations.  If you keep these in mind, you'll be off to a better start than some, and as good a start as most, and you'll probably avoid some of the mistakes that I made along the way.