"Time to freak out"

I will admit this now: I am not a saintly student. I am notorious for my class attendance (or lack thereof). Some days, there is a viable reason why I choose not to go. Other days, it's just plain laziness, and I'm not going to apologize for that. Part of the reason why college is so great is because we have a choice. I can either choose to be involved in the greek system, or not. I can choose to live on-campus, or not. I can choose to go to the Rec to work out, or for the calzones. Why shouldn't this be applied to classes as well? I have attended more than my fair share of bullshit classes, the ones where professors struggle to come up with your name, the ones where reading from a textbook and then spitting it back out again for an exam, the ones that scream HIGH SCHOOL all over again. I realize that life would be so much simpler if all professors' class policies were: "Come to class. Or not. Whatever", and have the students who do want to learn be in attendance, going back to the wonderful thing that is choice.

So why did I sign up for classes that I don't even want to attend? Because if I want to graduate from this university, I need to take the required courses. In some cases, it works out: my ART188 Renaissance History class was amazing. And then others, such as my Macroeconomics class, was literally hell, as in, pitchforks, fire and brimstone, except Satan was an older man with unkempt hair and untrimmed fingernails. I know I should have this Buck Up and Just Get it Done With Attitude, and sometimes it pulls me through and pushes me to go to class. But most of the time, I feel like it's just a waste of time. I think I'm a pretty patient person, having grown up with three boisterous younger siblings, but I cannot sit through a class for upwards of fifty minutes if I can do the same thing in my own time, at my leisure and pace. I'm not talking about classes that do matter, like my Intro to Creative Writing and Linguistics, where I feel like I'm actually learning something, but the bullshit-required classes, the ones that scream HIGH SCHOOL all over again. For those, I read the material (admittedly, two days prior to exams, but whatever) and I go to class to take the test. Sometimes I show up for presentations and because there's cute guys that I want to see again. There shouldn't be some policy that would penalize me if I missed more than three classes. I'm 21 years old. How I prioritize my life shouldn't affect my grades.

What kills me about all of this is I know I sound like a whiny two-year old, when I am more lucid than that. I fully realize the extent of my actions. We all have different takes on maturity, mine happens to be big on prioritizing, as in, I think it's more important to write the five-page paper that's due at 2PM than sit in class for an hour and listen to a woman who makes watching C-Span exciting.

So what now? It sounds as if there's a conflict between my attitude and school. I know what my mother would say already (and, come to think of it, has actually said): "Go to class! That's what you're there for!" and "You're so lazy! Shape up!"
Is it wrong, then, that I am comfortable in this sloth-like existence of mine? That I'm looking at the bigger picture: (living outside of Ohio, working, trying to be a more prolific writer) than paying attention to the smaller details (going to class, laundry, grades)?
She would also say: "You need to have a good, swift kick in the ass."

Well, mom, I got one.
I can't honestly say I'm all the better for it, and I'm hurting in all the wrong places.