Honorable Mention

My name is Matthew Schmidt, I am a junior Journalism major here at Buff State, and yes, I am a member of the All College Honors Program.

When most people hear that I'm an "honors kid," they tend to give me a certain look, or say something like "Oh, so you're one of the smart kids?"

Which, I'm not going to lie, kind of hurts.

I've heard so many other stereotypes of honors students, and I just laugh at most of them. I've heard things like all honors students dress bad, we all stick together like a flock of birds, and my personal favorite, all honors students smell bad. I've never understood that last one, but I have heard it from many different people.

The first thing I want to cover is this idea that all honors students are "smart." Is it true that we get good grades and have high GPAs? Yes, but I wouldn't attribute that to solely being smart.

I'm not saying there aren't smart people in the honors program. There are, and I have no idea where some of them store all that information. But most of it has to do with managing our time the right way.

As most of my friends and I like to put it, we are just really good procrastinators. People think that we just sit there and study or do homework, but it's quite the opposite.

Most of my work gets done hours before class. Unless it is an eight-page paper or something — then I start the night before.

A lot of people also think that as an honors student, I have no social life outside of the library. This couldn't be further from the truth.

I spend most of my time with my friends. On a normal day we are usually just sitting around watching movies, going to the mall, or just simply hanging out and playing games.           

The thing is, I know I have things that need to get done, and I make sure they do.

A lot of my friends like to go out on weekends too, and they are the honors students who are actually maintaining those high GPAs. Even I wonder how they do it sometimes.

Not only do people think we're smart, but apparently all honors students are snobby.

I don't think I've met one person in the honors program who acts like he or she is above everyone else. We are still normal students; we just have a few more requirements than others.

And we are not undeserving. Yes, we are given a scholarship, but that is something we have earned and have to continuously prove we are worthy of. If not, then we get it suspended —something I have learned first-hand.

Honors students aren't a different species. We have the same struggles as every other student when it comes to writing papers, taking tests and doing homework. We sit there and agonize over our finals and fear the worst when it comes time to check our grades.

Oh, and we shower. Daily.

Matthew Schmidt can be reached by email at schmidt.record@live.com.