Don’t be a Know-It-All
September 25, 2014
As a junior here at Southern, I have seen and heard a lot of things and met many people. Though I definitely wouldn’t call myself a people person, it takes a lot to annoy me. However, number one on my list of annoying college habits is know-it-alls. In class, there is always that one person who can’t stop talking as if they know the topic better than anyone else in the room and they honestly need to stop.
I will never understand how you can come to college to learn yet pretend as if you are the source of knowledge for everyone around you. If you truly believe that, then why did you spend thousands of dollars on school? You could have stayed at home and allowed the rest of us to carry on with class without constant interjections from you.
But the plague of know-it-allness doesn’t just stop there. Students even believe that they know everything about subjects that they have never even taken the time to study.
Too many times I have heard people say, “If I was working there, I would run things right” or “I could have done it better.” How would you know that? For the most part, we have no way of knowing the amount of time and dedication that was put into getting things done.
So, no, freshman in my political science class, you do not know how to solve the ISIS crisis. You need to stop pretending that you could do better than trained professionals. You are still in core classes. It is not as if you get brownie points or prestige from everyone around you for being unable to shut up and listen to anyone else. Just realize that there are things that you could learn.
It is okay to not know something. It is okay to admit that you suck at something. You don’t have to pretend to be omniscient. I, for one, know that I am not good at everything. I struggle with math like a student with a hang over struggles to get to class on time. I would never walk into a math class with an entitled attitude, because it is disrespectful to those who have spent years perfecting their subjects.
So step off of your high horse and do what you are here to do in college: learn.