There is a very large speculation that a college education makes an individual more valuable or knowledgeable. As children, we are forced into a school setting where information is being shoved down our throats. We are conditioned to recite and repeat and to only do just that. As we grow older, recess, the only time we are able to explore our own enjoyment and innovativeness, is taken away and replaced with more classes. As we enter high school, our creativity is stripped and we become slaves to state testing and our SAT tutors. The one art class they allow you to take as an elective lasts 45 minutes and just as you’re about to feed your inner Picasso, the bell rings. What a mess. So, to this I say, “Eff off, speculation! I think I’ll keep my 60k a year and be self-educated and just as valuable!”
My parents raised me to be an independent thinker. I can’t remember the last time I relied on someone else or desperately needed an opinion. I was always surrounded by art whether it was the finger paints my mother bought me, the music my father made or the dance classes I took. I was always looking for ways to create something new or reinvent something I had already known. I felt as though there was an entire world placed in front of me, but the only thing stopping me from drawing on it was the countless hours I spent in a classroom. (Don’t get me wrong, I value education, but I thirst for more knowledge than what it has given me.)
As I got older, I realized that my ability to generate new ideas became somewhat paralyzed. If my brain were to be a color, it would have been gray instead of resembling a rainbow. I started to lose interest in the hobbies I loved the most and spent all of my time plotting how I was going to skip class. All of these things scared me and I thought to myself, “What a horrible way to live”. I immediately knew what the problem was: school. School was the culprit and it was my duty to change whatever y=mx+b path I was on. I tried college because as you know, in the movies, it’s supposed to be some crazy party that never stops and you’re supposed to cherish it for the rest of your life. Honestly, that’s false advertising. I went to college and became less of the person I was before I started because I learned that I don’t work well in a classroom environment. I can’t stand the thought of sitting in rows, staring at the back of another persons head, while the teacher half-asses whatever they are trying to teach. When I learn, I want it to be genuine and raw. I want to be inspired to open up a portal for more learning within what I have already learned. I want my brain to feel energized and excited because how are you supposed to be educated if your brain is dying of boredom?
If school has taught me anything, it is that I don’t like it and I don’t need it. I learn more by exploring museums or burying myself in a book at Barnes & Noble. I learn more by observing the people around me when I’m on the subway and when I’m reading the newspaper. I learn by watching documentaries on Netflix and reading the facts on the inside of the Snapple caps. And all of this is okay. This does not make me any less valuable or knowledgeable than someone with a college education. I am still a person who can form sentences and build opinions. I am still a person who can do simple math to figure how much to tip my waiter or how much that shirt costs with the 25 percent off discount. Just because I don’t have a college education doesn’t mean I can’t change the world. My brain just develops differently, and to be courteous to him, I must accept it and find new ways to learn.
