Ricker Classical Institute - Aquilo Yearbook (Houlton, ME)

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Page Twenty-four W -A The Aquilo exercises .in English composition. However, when we get out in life things won't be all sunshine, and we will have to face the ups and downs of every day life. ' Perhaps we are too easily discour- aged. Famous people who have accomplished great things did not do it in a day. As a person learning to play the piano has to practice tire- some scales hour after hour before becoming an accomplished' player, so the person who wants to reach the top, in any work, must overcome many things and perform irksome duties to obtain his desire. On the ladder of success, we do not go from the bottom step directly to the top ibut step after step, and he who has cultivated the characteristic of perseverance will reach the top, though the pace of ascent may be slow. HOW T0 WRITE THEMES I was stretched out on my bed, deeply buried in my Physics lesson. QI had the book over my face to keep the light out of my eyes.J From time to time the gritting of teeth from fthe study table awoke me. It was my worthy roommate grinding out his weekly theme. The gritting annoyed me. Don't grit, I pleaded. How can I study Archimedes' principle when you grit all the time? His contorted lips formed a single word. Theme, he growled, as if I were responsible for a monstrous injustice that had been heaped upon him. Oh, Theme , I said, quickly going back to sleep, still buried in my Physics book. Callous though I may have seemed at the time, yet I was deeply moved by his misery and by the misery of my fellow classmates who attempt to write themes. 'Realizing that the difficulty comes from ignorance of the fundamental procedure of com- position, I have prepared my short but weighty treatise on the writing of themes, a work which I hope will be very helpful. Happiness, as philosophers have pointed out, comes from helping our fellow men. Now I shall outline my procedure for writing themes. First, you must have a subject, so list all the topics you can think of on paper. Then shut your eyes and go eeny-meeny-miny- mo to choose the topic that you are to write upon. This quaint little device eliminates all the effort that goes into picking out a topic in the usual manner, and is only one of my ways of increasing efficiency, Having chosen a topic, which, nine times out of ten, will be A Fishing Trip, take a sheet of white Paper and scowl at it fifteen or twenty minutes, meanwhile muttering and chewing at one end of your pencil. If no results are forthcoming, change your policy, and chew on the other end, This will .invariably produce two results: tal you will break the lead' off your pencil, and lbj you pro- bably will poison yourself slightly. By this time you should have had an inspiration. Now, for instance, if you are writing about fishing you might describe trolling for pickerel. Personally, I do not approve of this method of fishing pickerel, but as that is irrelevant to my present topic, I shall take it up in a later volume under Fish, How to Catch. But, as I was saying, you should have had an inspiration by this time. - Now that you have your inspir- ation, you may find difficulty, if your vocabulary is limited, in finding suit-

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The Aquilo Page Twenty-three originality, only very evident marks of procrastination. .And then, too, I know that there are students who continually delay the preparation of their work because they do not have or do not follow' a proper time schedule. General stu- dents I know have a habit of taking things easy during spare periods, little realizing that there may be no more spare periods in wvhich to pre- pare other assignments. It seems that they are too confident of their ability to do a long assignment in a s-hort time. As a result they delay doing the work until just before class- time. When the ranks are issued, I think it will be very evident that they are defeating the very purpose of going to college. Another cause for procrastination is that a weakness to diversions makes it easy for nearly everyone to leave duty for pleasure. A desire for pleasure easily overcomes an in- clination to work. Tennis is much more attractive than physics pro- blems, An English theme looks very trivial when compared directly to a good social. But, as a general rule, we should overrule the desire for pleasure and do our work. If we do not, there soon will be no pleasure of any sort for us because there will be a barrier of work always before us, a 'barrier erected through our own procrastination. i- i WHAT PRICE STUDY? The primary object of every col- lege student should be his studies. Whatever else 'he may choose to do while at school, his studies should receive his first consideration. Study- ing is the essential factor in getting high grades, and those grades deter- mine one's start in life. There are several short cuts to high grades, and every student should take ad- vantage of them. The first short cut is much talked about, but seldom followed- concen- tration. If one's work is to be done 'well,,it must be given the undivided attention of the student. This can- not be given by alternating a few minutes of study with a few minutes of play. These two activities have their part in college life, but they should not be mingled. Then, too, another short cut is to be prepared always to recite on Monday. After a couple of days of rest, few students have the ambition to prepare their lessons for Monday. The time for a small star to shine is when others are dim. Few students recite well on the first day of the week. Monday's lessons should be prepared on Saturday leaving Sunday for rest. If the lessons are left until Sunday, time may not be found to prepare them at all. Finally, when all lessons are pre- pared, an extra ten minutes Slwllld be spent in looking each over. One should especially note the important points of the assignment. This gives a polished recitation. If these things are followed faith- fully, a high grade results. The stu- dent who is determined to do well in his Studies will do well. He is the one who will be a success in life. As his grades 'were high .in college, so will they be in -the school of life. PERSEVERANCE, A NECESSARY CHARACTERISTIC Some young people go through college in a sort of listless and lazy manner. Studying is apparently very dull and monotonous for them. We all admit that there are often things more attractive for us than tiresome outside reading assignments and

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The Aquilo Page Twenty-f ive able words to express yourself. In case one line of thought runs down, you can always use that old standby, however. Many's the time--but I must go on. As a last resort you can use another of my little devices for theme writing, which, in mathematics, is known as The Trial and' Error Method. Take a sizable dictionary and opening pages, pick out words at random until you have around two or two hundred and fifty words. Then connect them, iby the judicious use of however, yet etc., so that in the end you have a finished theme. In case you cannot connect them try again. Patience, as philosophers have also pointed out, will overcome all obstacles. And that, dear reader, is my im- proved method for writing themes. Later, I intend to ferret out and solve some of the other problems that con- front my fellow students. Just now I do not have time. I must study my Wooley's Handbook of Composition for tomorrow. sf va: V Na 0 653' M' X 7 N ! 4040 agffli cvgX iQ, X ' X Q i mifmpizi 4k!ff760 q i!-pil: Q ,mil tilt, Ex I