The Martlet

In today’s world, the new academic culture is one that strongly encourages the pursuit of undergraduate degrees, master’s degrees and doctoral studies. In fact, as the rumours have it, it’s nearly impossible to get a good job without a degree.

Students (and parents) invest significant amounts of money, time and energy into education. But there is another considerable investment — the severity of which is often overlooked.

Education brings a new problem to some of today’s youth, who feel trapped in school, overloaded with work and, perhaps, stuck in the waiting room, waiting for “real life” to begin.

“When am I going to need to know the exact evolutionary frame work of the Australopithecus Garhi?”

Is this information securing my future? Is it developing my life skills, my ability to provide a good life for myself, to support myself? Is knowing the mating habits of grasshoppers really what I need to spend my time on?

Welcome to the system.

It’s on Oprah; it’s in books of wisdom. Our parents have said it, we’ve all said it. Even Tim McGraw and Rihanna said it: live like you are dying. Seize the day. Live your life.

If today were your last day on earth, what would you be doing?

How many people are going to answer that they would choose to be hunched over in a cubicle in the library, holding their head above an oversized 10-pound text book, trying to peel open heavy eyelids, while downing copious amounts of much-too-strong coffee and cramming their minds with facts from advanced organic chemistry?

Let’s face it, you want to travel. You want to see the world, or learn to fly a plane.

You want to learn Swahili, or build a car; write a book, climb Kilimanjaro, run a marathon.

But slow down there buddy — you’re supposed to wait. Get your degree first. It’s like Christmas morning as an eight year old, having to wait for your mom and dad to wake up before you can open your presents. Before you can open your life.

So why are you here?

How many of us are getting degrees because the application says “must have at least a bachelor’s degree?” Admit it — half of our degrees are irrelevant to what we will ever do.

For some of us, our “dreams” have only led us here because of protocol, or parents.

Don’t get me wrong — education is one of the most important things we’ve got going. The world needs educated people who will run the future.

But education doesn’t only come in the form of institutionalized academia. There are other ways of increasing your brain power. And other important things too.

The most valuable lessons I’ve learned in life sure as hell haven’t come from textbooks. Some of the most awakening moments are those when your professor trails off topic, sneaks something in about himself, or about something completely unrelated.

A professor of mine back in first year referred casually one day in class to every individual’s one big dream.

“Of course people talk about it,” he said. “Everyone talks about it. How many people actually do it? That’s the difference.”

I have to wonder about the disappearance of real experiences. Has university become a little overrated, a little too institutionalized? Are we taking this too seriously?

As I doubtfully trudge my way through a degree, I try to satisfy requirements that seem hilariously irrelevant. There are classes I’ve cried over, professors who’ve whittled away my hope in humanity and made me curse the educational system in its entirety.

If you asked me where I’d be right now if I were dying, I do have an answer. And while it doesn’t involve textbooks, in every way it reflects what I do believe most university students have: a thirst for knowledge, a strong will to learn, the highest of capabilities — and of course, the one thing that is freshest in a student: complete belief and confidence in your own ability to change the world.

If these things can stick with you all the way through a degree and if you can come out the other side with all the belief, passion and energy that you went in with, then the possibilities really are endless.

All I can hope is that we don’t lose ourselves in the degree, that we don’t put our big dreams on the back burner, never to be reflamed.