There is a lot of significant change involved with making the transition from high school to college. One of the more notable moments was when the university hired a DJ for an event and everyone was excited because the songs were finally uncensored. That’s also how everyone knew you were a freshman. There is an entirely new sense of freedom both in the sense that you can be out wherever you’d like without parental supervision, but also a freedom in thought.
Most of us are very accustomed to the typical five paragraph essay structure. There is a metaphorical straight jacket forced on our ever-growing thoughts. It is as if the only truly good writer had to have once been an intellectual rebel and break out of the straight jacket to be where they are. I know, because I am this rebel. A good writer — given a good nights sleep and a sufficient amount of caffeine in the morning.
Everything that we learn serves a purpose — does it not? Otherwise why do we have brains? What is the point of knowing anything? There are significant numbers of people out there in the public school system who don’t realize this quite yet. To a typical high schooler, their school is their society. A world in which they know nothing but restraint. Dress code policies, strict formats for assignments, the inability to express yourself, even to the individual who wants to start a “free the nipple” movement. High school isn’t the ideal place to do so.
For an AP Psychology class, I decided to take a risk and write a detailed essay on BDSM and how sadomasochism affects a woman's psychology about sex. It felt like I was breaking a lot of rules, and I double-triple-thought about it before handing in the assignment. I ended up having the best paper of the whole class and received an A+. Some of the most successful work comes from an uncensored mind, and you see this a lot in individuals who step out of their restraint.
Even I sometimes forget the amount of freedom that I have. Education goes far, far beyond the classroom, and I am understanding this more and more now than ever. There is a beauty and a practical knowledge to be gained from every study, but it can only be found outside our intellectual boundaries. It’s as if, once someone experiences the true benefits of knowledge gained from our education, it sets a whole new ground to explore what you want to do with your life. At that point, there are almost too many things to learn, too many interesting things to pursue, and you’re thrown back into the mix. The difference is that when you were in high school and in this mix of “what do I want to do with my life?” you weren’t already spending $50,000 on the place that you’re in right now.
College is “the time to explore” yourself. But, what happens when you explore yourself and realize that there is a better place for you elsewhere? Your time may not have been wasted, but by the time you have found this out, you are now hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. When you are in high school, there is this preconceived notion that secondary school is natural and everybody just has to do it. So, a lot of people blindly step into this world that is completely new to them, and it sets a lot of people back. For the individual who can embrace such change and adapt quickly- this may not be such a terrible thing. But what about the rest? Is there anything wrong with exploring yourself earlier than the imaginary starting line that the world sets for you?
