Help with ol' Hexy 54

[firerabbit]

I'm currently scraping by trying to finish up my BA in history (1 week to go!). Just the fact that I'm describing the completion of my 4 year degree thusly might help key you in to my current situation.

This has been a tough semester, and i've found it increasingly difficult to stay focused on my academic studies throughout the past year and a half or so. I've been losing interest and often found myself questioning my major and what I'm doing in college, but at the same time feeling I must persevere and finish out my degree.

My grades aren't good, and I'm at a "make it or break it" point in the last week here to simply make sure I graduate. Essentially, if I make decent grades, I get my diploma. I feel perfectly capable of this, yet I'm finding it strangely and almost agonizingly difficult just to make it through these last papers/exams. I'm getting burnt out, frustrated with my subjects, and have been pulling too-many all-niters to function at 100%. I'm finding I'm certainly not the studious student I was just a few years ago.

I asked "How can I navigate the next week of my academic studies?" and received Hexagram 54.

A little tough to swallow, this one always is, and also a toughie for me to interpret clearly.

What is your reading of this?

Thank you,
fr

 

[firerabbit]

I'll add, I do feel a large obligation to graduate on account of my parents. They have funded probably 90% of my college expenses, and have always stressed the need for education. However as I said, I increasingly began questioning my major and the opportunities provided/taken at this university, and nearly decided to take a break at the start of numerous semesters, but always settled on staying with school, in large part because I wasn't quite sure what else to do...some of that may be coming through.

STILL, I know I can get the degree, I want to, and I feel that I must! there just seem to be numerous obstacles appearing (late paper turn-ins, fatigue, social/formal obligations, and a meeting with a professor over a vital-yet-pooooorly-written research paper..*sigh*). feel like i'm running on fumes but the finish line is just a few feet away or something...

hexagram 54 seems more pertinent the more i consider it. any advice relating to it would be much appreciated.

 

[meng]

Howdy firerabbit,

I think 54 is simply a case of short-timer, mentally checking out before vacation starts. My last few months in the Navy were torturous, had to reach down deep in myself just to do basic things I knew I was capable of. Bottom line, I felt I no longer belonged there, so no longer was mentally there. There's something 54 feeling about that. Living somewhere your heart isn't in.

So, you navigate through by keeping your eyes on the longer range goal. Meanwhile, scrub the decks you need to scrub till you get your honorable discharge.

 

[lucia]

Firerabbit

there just seem to be numerous obstacles appearing (late paper turn-ins, fatigue, social/formal obligations, and a meeting with a professor over a vital-yet-pooooorly-written research paper..*sigh*).

Interesting how you disown any responsibilty for these things by referring to them as "obstacles"........... They don't look like obstacles to me, just the end result of you being a slacker LoL........

54 is about being subordinate to something and basically if you don't totally subordinate yourself to your studies instead of making excuses like those above, you are going to flunk!

I am such a meany - I do realise - but I have spent half my life in countries and with people who have had no privileges when it comes to education. People who have literally risked their lives to try and get access to school and college. Many Western kids are spoilt and pampered in this department but it is amazing how pain and struggle focus the mind. Good luck and hard work needed - disconnect your mobile and internet, and get some food in too.................. The trick is to realise that you are going to feel like s**t if you do flunk so you need a bit of panic to fire up the adrenaline.

As dear old Wilhelm says:

Thus the superior man
Understands the transitory
In the light of the eternity of the end.

Now go for it and stop being a wuss!

Lucia

 

[firerabbit]

Thank you for your frank responses. They make a lot of sense (too much almost..) and are much appreciated right now.

back to work..