Well, maybe "super genius" is taking it a little far, but my dearest co-author of this blog and myself had a brief conversation the other day about something that I've thought about a lot over the last few weeks - am I actually smarter because I indulge in an alternative lifestyle?
Alright, "smarter" might not be the right word. I've always done well in school (just graduated college magna cum laude, with honors, and finished out my last semester with 3 A's and an A+ BITCHES), but I think that weed has helped me along with my time management skills (for organized intellectual activity) and a great sense of curiosity. Let's begin by taking a look at time management so that we can throw one of the largest pothead stereotypes out the window first - laziness.
Admittedly, I was not an average college student. When I got to campus in Fall 2006 I was eager to get involved, I made sure that I had good relationships with the Deans, and somehow the President of the college learned my name, where I was from, major, research interests, etc. Although I did well (B's and B+'s across the board), I wasn't very good at time management which is something that the academic Dean had stressed during orientation. I did my work in time for class and I made sure that all of my assignments were on time, but I always had something going on and I had very little time to relax.
I had smoked a good amount in high school but I didn't keep up the habit after my junior year. I'm going to go as far as to say right here, right now, that picking up smoking again in college was one of the best things I could have done for my time management skills.
Just let that one sink in for a minute.
Okay, now let me explain to those of you who might be a little skeptical. It's really not that hard once you can wrap your head around the sheer simplicity of it. Here we go:
I picked up smoking again at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. I really enjoyed it and I had missed some things that came along with getting high - the social experience, anxiety reduction, having those deep thoughts, etc. I decided that it was something that I wanted to bring back into my daily life, but I didn't want any overlap with the other things I did. I wouldn't have dreamed of going to class, sitting on my committees, or doing any of that while high. This meant that I was going to have to work extra hard to bring this into my schedule, but the solution was pretty easy - time management.
I worked harder when I was in the library, I scheduled my meetings in blocks, I went to professor's office hours when I needed help (instead of trying to spend hours figuring shit out on my own), and I began waking up a little earlier each day to get some reading done in the morning. It was fantastic - I was getting most of my work done and papers written days (weeks sometimes!) in advance which left we with my evenings and sometimes whole days free to do what I wanted. I was often the butt of my friends' jokes about how much time I spent in the library, but boy did it ever pay off. I know that that work style isn't for everyone, but you have to admit that it did wonders for my schedule. What's even better is that my grades skyrocketed. It killed me that I missed the Dean's List in Fall 2006 by so little (I got a 3.49 but you need a 3.5), but I never missed it again. I was raking in A's, A+'s, and the occasional A- or B+ for some of the tougher courses.
I know that a lot of people are good time managers on their own and I know that a lot more people time manage like I do for other activities (athletics is a good example here). All I'm saying is that I time managed around when I wanted to hang out and smoke on the weekends and my productivity and GPA floated. This is exactly the opposite of what people might expect from a stoner who is often times written off as being lazy and stupid, but marijuana actually motivated me to work harder.
If we ever get some readers on here I'd love to know if anyone has had any similar experiences. In the meantime, stay tuned for Part II of this post in which I try to explain a pothead's love of trivia, facts, and general knowledge.
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