It was the Monday after the OU v. Texas “Red River Rivalry Game”. A group of freshman students were in their dorm reviewing a midterm study guide they had been preparing throughout the first half of the semester. While these students were solidifying the last few minute details of the material, the “popular kid” of their hall burst into the door in a panic over the next days’ exam.
Since the beginning of the semester, the students of Macro Economics knew there would be an exam the Tuesday following the big game. On the first day of the semester, the professor warned everyone that there are always students who flunk the midterm every fall due to the big game.
Still sporting the remnants of his red face paint from the game, the procrastinator entered the dorm room of the studious pupils and begged them to let him copy the work they had complied for the midterm study guide.
This being the first time that this student had given them the time of day, the students were appalled. “Are you serious?!” objected the study bugs, “You knew we were going to have this exam since the first day of class! Why didn’t you make your own study guide?”
The rivalry reveler, spending the majority of his semester on campus corner with his new friends, tried to defend himself. “I know, I know, the test just kind of snuck up on me. There are just too many new friends and too much fun to be had freshman year of college, I couldn’t help myself!”
The studious pupils all chuckled at this lame excuse.
“Well that’s all fine and dandy, bud. Maybe you should go find one of those new friends you made to help you learn all of this material before tomorrow”. Then they shut the door and returned to their review as the procrastinator went back to his dorm room with no hope of passing the exam.
The Ants and the Grasshopper: Wikimedia Commons
Author’s Note. This story is based on “The Ants and the Grasshopper”, a popular title found amongst Aesop’s Fables. The story can be found in The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter (1919). In the story, a colony of hard working ants are gathering and storing food in preparation for winter when they are approached by a hungry grasshopper. The grasshopper, who has spent his warm months leisurely playing music instead of preparing for winter, begs the ants to give him some of their food. The ants, who have being breaking their backs for months preparing for winter, deny the grasshopper food and advise him to dance, being the leisure lover that he is.
In my story, the ants are represented by the group of students in the dorm reviewing their study guide they have worked hard on for weeks. “Winter” is represented by the midterm exam the students will soon be taking. The grasshopper is represented by the student who had spent all of his semester partying instead of dedicating time to work on school and prepare for the midterm. The hard work of the group of students will be rewarded with a passing grade on the midterm, while the “grasshopper” student will be punished for his “full-time play” with a failing grade.
As you can probably decipher from the story, the fable demonstrates the importance of acknowledging the appropriate time to work verse the appropriate time to play. While play might seem like the easiest and most desirable, there are times in life that require a person to invest dedicate themselves to hard work to ensure their well being in the future.
Kurtis, i really enjoyed your inclusion of OU into your story. It made the story feel realistic especially your use of the Red Rivalry Game Day! By the way, the is really horrible of the professor to schedule an exam right after game day.. :(
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel for the studious pupils, but also for rivalry reveler! I know there are many temptations as a freshman and it is sometimes very hard to decide what to do. I am glad that the studious pupils stood up for themselves, the rivalry reveler needs to learn how to get the University and he won’t do that by copying.
You did a great job retelling that story and definitely made it connectable to your reading audience. Good Job!
That was a hilarious story. I see plenty of those people. By making it about OU, it made the story relatable. I agree with Christian when he said that the professor was mean to schedule an exam then. Freshman year can be eye-opening experience for freshman. I hope that the freshman had learned from his mistakes and not repeated them for the next test. I also like how you set up so that the reveler only gave the time of day to the studious pupils when he needed their help. Sadly that happens too often in college life.
ReplyDeleteYou chose a very pertinent tale to the college experience. Even this week, I've felt like all my homework snuck up from behind. I think you could improve the story by including more specific details. Even simply naming the characters would make them more relatable. You had good word choice. Your usage of "study bugs" was particularly apt considering the story is based on a tale about insects. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis story was great. I enjoyed how applicable this was to our lives which made it even better. The lesson from this story is very easy to see, but I am glad that you took the time to explain in the authors notes, that showed that you really cared about this assignment. From your introduction I would say that you are trying to make this a time of work. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey Kurtis,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. It was really interesting. I especially liked how you mentioned the story of the Trojan War and used it as an analogy when comparing it with breaching the gates of Rama’s heart. The story was very well written. It was concise and clear. I liked how it formatted. It was formatted kind of like a script. You knew who was saying what. I look forward to reading more of you posts!