Life is about learning as you go, and boy, does the “college experience” offer you that.
As I approach my last semester of college and look unto the bright future that an esteemed liberal arts education “supposedly” ensures me, and I can’t help but wonder: Is this all really worth it?
Recently, countless research studies and articles have even been asking the same question.
Besides the monetary cost to both my wallet and my parents’ wallets, there is also the emotional drain that most college students get from worrying about term papers followed by the somehow unavoidable all-nighters, which involves fervently typing away with one hand and pounding innumerable energy drinks with the other. Needless to say, these four years of college probably sucked a good ten years out of me. After all, they say stress is a killer…
But they also say that there’s nothing more important than reinventing yourself and surprising your family with the changed person you have become after the “best four years of your life” –partying hard and studying even harder. It’s impossible to ignore this phrase because having heard the words uttered by nostalgic adults as well as in numerous media representations of college.
These words have been ingrained in my head, repeating like a mantra.
While I’ve discovered that being shipped off to college is nothing like that one college show, Felicity, and even less like Legally Blonde, I have given into accepting that the freedom that I’ve experienced in my tiny dorm room will be unmatched by the real world.
I’m going to sorely miss fighting through the stacks of books and piles of laundry to my fridge stocked with cheap weekend entertainment once Friday night hits. I’ll miss the purple dip dyed locks and golden hoop in my right nostril that I had to part with in order to look professional for an adult career.
I’ll miss worrying about pleasing my professor instead of my boss. I’ll miss and wish for the days when my professor allowed me yet another extension on my project instead of dreading getting fired by my boss on the spot for not completing my project.
Yet, as they say college is aimed at priming us young directionless folks into esteemed citizens– not keeping us coddled. One could then call every student a cog in the machine, an apparatus that gives him or her four years to stress, sweat, and drink until the dean pronounces him or her ready to join the workforce and to pay back debts to the alma mater with a meager start-up salary. Years later, the ex-student would surely reflect upon the careless years he or she spent idly browsing YouTube in lieu of starting the term paper, clad in a college hoodie, hair and teeth not yet brushed.
This glorification of the laid back university lifestyle is exactly what brings me back to my issue with the “college is the best four years of your life” mantra.
At the end of the day, college gives you an opportunity. An opportunity to make more of yourself than you have ever imagined. But there are still ways for those who can’t afford or who cannot attend to succeed in life. They simply have to take hold of their life. (Photo courtesy of Anita Little)
Maybe it’s true that the responsibilities pile up upon matriculation… that you have to support yourself instead of relying in parents and student loans… and that even your meanest professor is nothing compared to the crazy supervisor with a corner office. But is that really a valid reason not not attend college at all?
Without that rollercoaster of stress and fun – let’s face it – finding a job would be an incredible challenge. Even McDonald’s requires applicants to present a high school diploma. So if you don’t want to give up on your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut or a city planner, college is incredibly worth it.
Without the four years of stress, debts, and countless changes to both your mind and aesthetic, no one could have ever thought hard about where they would end up. No one would have ever thought of hearing the words muttered into the microphone from space, “Houston, we have a problem.” This meaning, that some might debate whether college is really worth it, especially when so many have been successful without even finishing or attending it.
But at the end of the day, college gives you an opportunity. An opportunity to make more of yourself than you have ever imagined. That in of itself is the most incredible gift that anybody could ever want. Certainly, college is not the only way for one to go about fulfilling their dreams. Through history, countless people, like have succeeded in their careers and greatly impacted the world without even receiving a degree. Take for instance, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and even 26-year-old David Karp who is the founder and CEO of the social networking website Tumblr. The platform is who is now worth an estimated $200 million. Karp actually dropped out of high school and didn’t even earn a GED.
So it seems to be that the choice is simply up to you as to whether or not you will take the reigns on your career and make something of your life. Although people have shown that you can still be successful without college, education is power. An educated society can greatly help humankind for generations to come.
So I dare you to try.
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