Nostalgia of the Mind

In my high school, where tuition is $27,000 and rising annually, where the incomes of many families is measured in the millions (not mine, unfortunately), where every single student is expected to continue onto college, college is a big deal. Forget all those heartwarming stories in the movies of kids without money or ambition getting inspired or getting financial aid, and going to college, perhaps against a parent’s wishes; at my school, not going to college is taboo. If you tell people you don’t want to go, then you are told by every single person that you should: your friends, your teachers, your parents, your college counselor, even your neighbors.

Not only do they want you to go to college, but they want you to go to the best college that you can. There’s a reason that some people think that Junior (11th) year is perhaps the hardest year of school one will ever have, rivaled only in writing a doctorate. This difficulty is because everyone is getting their respective asses worked off to each student’s grades high. That way, they each get into good colleges. This is why people join token electives, arts, do community service, take college courses, groups, etc.; to make their college resumes, their college admissions as competitive as possible. This is why people start studying literally a year in advance for the SATs: if they do well, then they can get into good colleges. This is why people lose their entire social life junior year: literally every (post-high school) person I have asked about junior year have replied that it was a pain-in-the-ass. Now, I’m not saying that there are exceptions, because I guranantee there are some at this school. That, however is not the point of this tirade.

The point of this fiery diatribe, this flaming fulmination of the pressures of college, is to highlight just what the hell the point of college is. The point is to get ready for life, and a job. That’s it. Not anything else. It seems like so much build up: sixteen or seventeen years of education just to live the rest of your life. Sounds like so much just to survive. Compare it to those of centuries past: by the time you were eighteen, you were working, on your own or as an apprentice. None of this college bullshit. Just getting to work. Now, a good college is a pre-requisite to some of the most financially stable and lucrative jobs, such as being a doctor, lawyer, business analyst, or the like. And yet, I know many people who never went to a great college, or just went to university for two or three years before dropping out, and their lives are fine.

This means that getting into a good college is solely to get a better job. For you. That’s what this whole thirteen years are about: getting the best job. That’s it. Yeah, sure, you learn life skills, but you can learn those at any basic college, even the community college down the street. But why do you need the best job? That is a personal decision you have to make for yourself. Because, and here’s a big point, you live for yourself. You live for you. Yeah, you also help those around you, maybe do community service, or help out your friends, or live your loved one, but at the end of your life, lying there on a hospital bed, the last beats of your heart making their way across the monitor, you will ask yourself: did you live a good life? Did you make the most of your life, did you realize it to its full potential. The one thing you will not do is ask whether you went to a good enough college. Because you will probably be happy not matter what college you go to: get a decent job, and then you can do whatever you want.

After that tirade, it sounds like I don’t want to go to college; that’s false, of course I want to. I am just trying to highlight how much college is blown up at my school, and at private school in general (I hear some are even worse). I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on these points. I also know that my writing is not the best, as I pretty much deviated from what I was originally trying to explain. Sorry for that, but I am not going to rewrite this whole essay. Like 800 words, so an essay right? Again, these are my personal opinions. Not yours, not anyone else’s. So, don’t scream at me how wrong I am, because no matter what you say, because these are my opinions. (watch a hard-core conservative argue with a serious liberal, and you’ll know what I mean) Tell me your own opinions in the comments.

Peace out.