“School is a boring thing. Email is a boring thing. It goes together.”

These are the words of a 19-year-old college student in a recent article published in The New York Times, “Technology and the College Generation.”

As the title suggests, the article discusses some of the current trends among college students. Surprisingly, it seems some college students are balking at using email to communicate with their professors, and instead, they want to be messaged on Facebook or simply texted class instructions and updates.

This article presents disturbing stories of students who are either too lazy to check their student-issued accounts or too lazy to figure out how to open them up. The story even reported that some students sent their usernames and passwords to their parents, so their moms and dads could check for them.

Obviously, the fact some college students now consider checking email to be too much of a hassle is troubling for many reasons, but on the other side it also gives students here at BJU more reasons to be thankful for the education and training we receive.

As we all know, there are many duties and responsibilities expected of every student, both in academic and practical life situations. It can be easy to complain about the things that we may view as unnecessary to cultivate, like taking out the trash or replying to an email in a timely way.

It might seem like a small thing, but by not checking their email or by expecting to be texted, those other students are showing a bigger picture of their character — one that isn’t flattering. The tone of the student’s quote shows the lack of personal responsibility or gratitude among many of our peers, which gives us an important reminder about our view of college and the daily responsibilities we are expected to maintain.

While college might seem overwhelming with the many tasks and assignments we all have, it is also one time we have to develop key character qualities, like responsibility and gratitude.

From room jobs to checking our email to arriving at class on time, many aspects of our days involve being responsible and organized. These tasks aren’t assigned to frustrate or burden us, but rather they are given to us so that through the small ways we will be ready to handle the big, important jobs later in life.

Someday fairly soon we will have to pay boring, but necessary, bills, get to work on time, communicate with our bosses and co-workers clearly, and have our own families to care for.

Now is the time to learn and practice excellence in doing the small things, not shirking or griping about what’s expected of us. In the few years we have here, let’s take stock of how faithful we are in the small things and realize how important they are in terms of our long-term futures.