Suspension is a pretty serious consequence given to students for their actions. The suspended students are the \u201ctroublemakers,\u201d the \u201cbad eggs,\u201d the \u201cones who think they\u2019re above the rules,\u201d right? Before I go any further, I\u2019ll say that being suspended was the last thing on my agenda coming into Harding. To clear things up, this story is not meant to highlight why I was suspended but to show what it\u2019s like to be suspended.<\/p>\n
Throughout my life, I moved quite a bit. I was born in Kentucky and lived in Texas twice, Tennessee twice and moved to Searcy in 9th grade. I felt like the new guy, regardless of how long I had lived somewhere because moving was something I had done multiple times. Being new gave me every reason to avoid getting into trouble. Who wants to be the risk-taking new guy? I certainly didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
College was the first time in my life I didn\u2019t feel like the new guy. I could express myself in ways I hadn\u2019t before, because I was in the same boat as all the other freshmen. I have always cared about my grades, but I would regret my time at Harding if I spent all my time studying.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s skip to the fall of 2015, my sophomore year. By this point, I had gotten to know a number of people and had even been in a social club for a year. I had a solid group of friends, and I\u2019ll admit, my main focus was not school at this time. Dead week rolled around and several friends and I decided we hadn\u2019t pulled enough pranks for the semester. I\u2019ll save the details for another day \u2014we received one full year of probation starting in the spring.<\/p>\n
January 18,2016 is a date that is ingrained in my mind. Why? It\u2019s the day I got in trouble again. You must be thinking, \u201cThis guy was dumb enough to do something else after already getting put on year-long probation?\u201d You wouldn\u2019t be wrong to assume so. A simple prank worthy of a warning or a fine quickly turned into a suspension. Happy birthday to me \u2014I turned 20 just a few days after being suspended.<\/p>\n
If you aren\u2019t familiar with being suspended, I\u2019ll tell you this bit of information \u2014the deans discuss the situation and make a decision as soon as they process everything. You have the ability to appeal your punishment in front of a committee; however they have the option to give you a more severe punishment if they believe your current status is too light. I chose not to appeal my suspension.<\/p>\n
If you want to know what suspension is like, all you need to know is one rule: you are banned from campus unless granted permission. You may be thinking, \u201cWhat a hassle. I\u2019d have to ask the deans for permission each time I want to hang out with my friends on campus?\u201d To clarify, the only permission granted is formal, meaning you can\u2019t step foot on campus for any casual reason.<\/p>\n
I remember wishing I lived in another state so I could just go home for the semester, hundreds of miles away and forget about Harding. I actually got to the point where I dreaded asking my friends to hang out off campus because I didn\u2019t want to bother them. I spent a lot more time working at Lowe\u2019s Home Improvement that semester than I spent with my friends.<\/p>\n
Suspension gave me the opportunity to reflect for an entire semester; however, I would redo things if I had the chance. I lost valuable time with the people I care for most. Being banned from campus is a rule I hope the deans will consider changing someday. I\u2019m not here to argue whether I deserved the punishment I received. I realize that suspension is meant to correct behavior, but I felt alone that semester, and the people who influenced my life in the best ways were in a place I couldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suspension is a pretty serious consequence given to students for their actions. The suspended students are the \u201ctroublemakers,\u201d the \u201cbad eggs,\u201d the \u201cones who think they\u2019re above the rules,\u201d right?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15090,"featured_media":10882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15090"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10884,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820\/revisions\/10884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}