{"id":1410,"date":"2019-10-03T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2019-10-09T17:59:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T17:59:31","slug":"choosing-present-over-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/2019\/10\/03\/choosing-present-over-perfect\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Present Over Perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blog post from SOLES\u00a0MA in Leadership Studies<\/a> Ambassador Courtney Camden<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019re a graduate student. To put simply, 22 years of school wasn\u2019t enough, so you\u2019re back for more. This typically means one of two things: you\u2019re a glutton for punishment or you\u2019re a perfectionist. My money is on the latter. Don\u2019t worry, you\u2019re in good company.<\/p>\n

This time last year, I was just starting my MA in Leadership Studies and the standards I held myself to were astronomical- sound familiar? I was balancing a full-time school schedule, division I athletics, a job, an internship, a GA position, and a social life (barely). If I wasn\u2019t acing every assignment in every class, I wasn\u2019t satisfied- regardless of the hindrance my chronic perfectionism had become on my ability to fully engage and thrive within the SOLES community.<\/p>\n

Flash forward 365 days, here I am, entering my final year of the program, with a redefined understanding and approach to academic success. I learned a lot in my first year of grad school. I was challenged and stretched in all the right ways. My participation in the SOLES community refined my self-awareness, unearthed a passion for social justice, and encouraged me to exist outside the confines of my comfort zone. One of the most pertinent lessons I learned this year is that perfectionism does not always produce academic success. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I found out the hard way that it can actually take away from your overall graduate experience. A semester (and then some) passed before I began to recognize that at the graduate level, progress isn\u2019t measured by your ability to regurgitate information from lectures. Rather, breakthroughs are visible when class content resonates with you in a way that transforms your perspective, aspirations and relationships. The most meaningful knowledge isn\u2019t be obtained from textbooks or Copley databases. The magic happens in the relationships formed, the conversations had, the events attended, and the application of your learning in diverse aspects of your life. While the innate desire to pursue excellence is highly valuable, there is certainly something to be said about the experiential component that we\u2019re fortunate to have access to as members of the SOLES community. As my mom continues to remind me, \u201cIn 25 years, you\u2019re not going to look back on your time in grad school and remember getting the \u201cA\u201d on the paper. You\u2019re going to remember the people you met & the laughs you shared\u201d. So don\u2019t allow yourself to be so fixated on achieving perfection on paper, that you miss out on the irreplaceable experiences that your program has to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A blog post from SOLES\u00a0MA in Leadership Studies Ambassador Courtney Camden You\u2019re a graduate student. To put simply, 22 years of school wasn\u2019t enough, so you\u2019re back for more. This typically means one of two things: you\u2019re a glutton for Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":1412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44170,89902,51871,60496,62805,45850],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions-and-outreach","category-advice-words-of-wisdom","category-graduate-student-blogs","category-leadership-studies","category-soles-ambassadors","category-student-perspective"],"yoast_head":"\nChoosing Present Over Perfect - SOLES Admissions and Outreach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/2019\/10\/03\/choosing-present-over-perfect\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choosing Present Over Perfect - SOLES Admissions and Outreach\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A blog post from SOLES\u00a0MA in Leadership Studies Ambassador Courtney Camden You\u2019re a graduate student. 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