College was a given. Attending wasn’t something that I necessarily wanted to do but I was expected to go, regardless. For years, my parents preached the value of an education and a degree. I would get a better job, I would make more money, and I would have an appreciative understanding of the world around me.
But suddenly, college has no value. We’re just a bunch of stupid millennials, incapable of making decisions for ourselves, being taught by communist professors to be communist sheep. We know that any student worth their salt relies on research, analyzes the evidence, and makes open-minded decisions. But no one sees a college student that way anymore. We aren’t adults who’ve lived in the “real” world; we shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions.
Decisions like voting, for instance. We’re too young, too ignorant, too fleeting and fainthearted. Unfortunately, if we don’t vote, then we’re idiots with no concept of American democracy. But if we do vote, and we choose a democrat, it’s the fault of our communist professors! On the other hand, if we vote republican, we’re blindly following our parents!
Everything we do is incorrect because college students have no understanding of the “real” world despite learning about it and living in it. We have no concept of sacrifice though we’ve given hundreds of thousands of dollars that we don’t have, at the expense of our families and future, in order to do this thing that we were told we had to do (get a college degree).
Just because we’ve chosen to continue our education doesn’t mean we don’t live a human life that includes hard work, pain and sacrifice. No, we aren’t fighting for our country or dying in the mud in France, but college graduates invented the proximity fuze, the atomic bomb, and you can bet an engineer designed those famous Essex-class aircraft carriers. Those inventions were built upon the foundation of a college education. But that was more than fifty years ago; college degrees weren’t quite as common.
Today, a degree is just a piece of paper that says I spent four years studying but have no working experience. I will have paid over $115,000 to attend a small school and earn a degree. And what is it all for? It might be worth it if I had career opportunities to look forward to but recently, I discovered that a Bachelor’s degree is virtually useless, unless you go on to earn a Master’s degree (which I don’t plan on doing). Apparently, I’ve wasted $115,000 to be unemployed and unqualified.
So wait, what is the value of an undergraduate degree? What is the point? I’m not fighting for my country or holding a career. Chances are, I won’t be the inventor of a spaceship that allows us to explore other galaxies. So why am I here? I’ll tell you.
Without college, I would never have learned how to live with a stranger in one room. I wouldn’t have been forced to find common ground, discuss things and compromise with a complete stranger. The greater lesson I’m learning is that all people are complicated. Every person you meet is a culmination of their personal life experiences. We are all shaped by our upbringing and by our interactions with others. Campus housing forced me to live harmoniously in a stranger’s life; I realized that there is no “right” way to be a person, and we have to accept and celebrate our differences. If we applied that knowledge to the dinner table, to our coworkers, to our international relations, then we’d all be better people.
Without college, I would not know how to write confidently. Specialized communication is the hallmark of our species. If you cannot clearly express what you feel, mean, and believe in – how do you live in the “real” world? How can you impact your fellow earthlings? Writing well is a gift that college gave me, and I hope to use it to change the world, one reader at a time.
Without college, I wouldn’t have met such incredible leaders. Every one of my professors is some sort of expert in their field. And I have access to them in person, via email, and even through text message. How many times have I texted the woman who has led my dream life? Only once because I don’t want to bother her, but it doesn’t matter! I could text her and network through her all day long. College also gives you the chance to prove yourself to those leaders, to gain their trust, and to work alongside them. Networking, my friends, is a blessing.
Honestly, I could go on and on about the real value of a college education (understanding cultural differences, using language as a tool, forming educated opinions, fighting for justice, demanding the best from my school, taking an active role in the community, networking, etc.) We’ve been told since childhood that we’ll get a toe in the door of our dream career, we’ll make so much money that we’ll pay off our loans and buy a big house, and we’ll be prepared to continue absorbing the lessons of the world. They told us that college would be the “best four years” of our lives. But no one told me that I’d learn more than a textbook could divulge. I know the value of my college education and it’s not about the money.