Imagine you were asked to describe a given term using the first word that came to your mind. If you were given the word “tree”, you might say “green”. If given the word “pineapple”, you might say “fruit”. But what if you were asked to define “college student” in one word? Chances are the first word that comes to your mind when you hear “college student” is broke.
Wrapping up my third year of college, I’ve endured plenty of scrutiny. Society is filled with people constantly feeling the need to remind college students that attending a university is not “worth it.” Constant reminders, hanging on your shoulder, reminding you that you are broke. Broken— implying you have nothing. Some will belittle college students, saying that they do not need a piece of paper called a degree to tell them they are able to do what they want. Others might chop a student down by reminding them that by not going to college, they will make money in the next four years while the student will dig deeper into debt. Or some may even throw out my personal favorite, telling students the knowledge they gain is useless because they can just google any answer they need.
I am now an experienced college student. I have lots of debt; much more than I am able to make while being a full-time student. And while the most famous counterattack to the claims above is that the degree a student earns at college is a one-way ticket to more money than is possible without one, that is not the value of an education received at college. The true value of an education has nothing to do with money. What I have learned is that college is not about grades, a degree, or parties. The most important part of college happens long before a student puts on the cap and gown.
In college, I was forced to become someone. I was asked the question, “What do you want to do for the rest of your life?”, and forced to answer it. I had to explore myself, discover my obsessions, and pursue my passion. No Google search could lead me to this answer.
Even more valuable than becoming someone in my own, college showed me how to understand others. Grouped in rooms with people from all over the world, all with different skin, backgrounds, and gods, college students are bound to hear a multitude of opinions. As a college student and a member of a community, it is your job to not only hear the opinions of others but to accept them—to empathetically realize that everything looks different through each set of eyes.
College has made me understand myself and pay attention to what is going on around me. As a more aware person, I can see others' opinions, and learn to appreciate them. So that when someone’s dream looks funny when standing next to mine, I do not point and make fun of it. So that when someone tells me college is not worth my time, I can nod my head and say “okay.”
In my very first college class, my professor informed me that he and I are going to argue. He followed this comment by looking some terrified freshmen in the eye and saying, “Don’t worry. If we agreed on everything, there would be no need to have both of us.”
When someone is dubbed “broke”, it implies that a person has nothing. I am a college student. I have thousands of dollars of debt. I am not broke; I just do not have much money.
