Imagine receiving consistent praise and acknowledgment for the work you’ve done in college. Imagine never hearing that you needed to work harder or shift your focus. Imagine thinking your work and life were the best that they could be, without ever having to work too hard at keeping everything in check.
For some, that’s a reality. They’re content to be “good enough” in perpetuity. They believe that they grow as a person by doing the same old, same old over and over. If it were that easy, everyone would be successful, and everyone would remain content with themselves.
We shouldn’t allow one another to encourage the mantra of “good enough” in our society.
The generations above millennials and generation Z see us as lazy, as inadequate, as uninspired. In reality, we don’t fit those stereotypes very well; we are creatives, we are inspired students on the rise and we are dream chasers. But we didn’t get there on our own, and without the nudges we’ve received to better ourselves over time, we wouldn’t stand on that ground at all.
When interacting with young people with developing minds and ambitions, there’s no need to tiptoe around us. We appreciate honesty, can accept criticism and thrive when we grow because of our errors. Call us out. Hold us accountable. Don’t hold back. Our minds our malleable enough to latch onto new ideas and knowledge now, so don’t waste your time telling us we’re satisfactory if it’s not how you really feel.
The best lessons are learned when we’re pushed to the edge, forced to find out where our determination stems from. Students are not meant to remain complacent creatures. But as you push us, trust us. It’s true, we won’t always live up to expectations. But our failure offers an opportunity for us. Don’t waste that opportunity by telling us, “It’s okay,” or “You won’t be dealing with this again.”
Instead, take the time to show us where we went wrong and how we should have acted or reacted.
Help us use life as a learning curve.
Don’t let us flatline because we were caught up in accolades or trapped in ignorance. Don’t let our egos balloon, but don’t let us flounder and wallow in our errors, either. It’s not easy to find the balance between allowing us to coast and finding a way to teach us valuable lessons. Try, though, because it’s too important a cause to brush off.
If you’re willing to push us, we’ll respond. Take the red pen and slash it through our work, find a way to guide us when we aren’t up to par in science labs and make the effort to push us toward solutions and new ideas.
Give us the chance to show how much we can grow. Don’t drown us in undue praise, but don’t come down on us with an iron fist. Find a happy medium, and we’ll meet you right there.
By Meghan Hall, News Assignment Editor
hallml18@bonaventure.edu
