North Texas Daily

OPINION

College has been one of the best experiences of my life so far and I am sad to see my time at UNT come to a close.

With one more semester to go, I can proudly say that I have accomplished something big — a degree. However, while UNT has so many great things to offer it can also be a very distracting place.

Have you ever tried to plant any type of flower or vegetable? You can’t just put it in the dirt. If you do, the plant will not grow. You need to add some Denton Dyno Dirt from the Pecan Creek Water Reclamation Plant and you need to add water to it. This makes it flourish and become bountiful. While it is an elementary and juvenile picture, it is similar to that of gaining knowledge.

As young-bodied individuals, too often, we enter college looking forward to fun and new friends. Occasionally, we will forget about class.

We’ll start skipping, forget to open up our textbooks, and decide not to go to that study group for organic chemistry or environmental philosophy, maybe even a combination of the three. Whatever the case, it can lead us to become intellectually numb. This can have negative effects on other students, and I’ve experienced it firsthand. Whether we begin to succumb to weekly parties or become recluses, we become less and less informed.

It’s a disease and it should be fixed. For the believers in science, it’s important to have some sort of community to surround yourselves with. Join the Painting and Drawing Association, read a book, study and vote on public policies. You could even start a study group and eat pineapples beforehand! Whatever it may be, pursue knowledge with joy. For those who are not studious, I encourage you to do the same thing (in moderation). I believe that you are reading this because you picked up a paper this morning. As a result, I think it means something for you, too.

As Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne said when he came to our town, “I do know to the best of our abilities we cannot wait for good things and happiness to come to us. We have to make it happen ourselves. We have to make our own happiness. That is all we can do. And I know that is easy for us to say. So if you know anybody that struggles with that, try to remind them. Try to remind them just to hold on and find one little thing.”

Search, study and find the truth that gives me a joy worth living for.

Eric Dyer is a painting and drawing senior. He can be reached at ericsozone@gmail.com.