On the stomach of the JMU seal read the beautiful words: “Knowledge is Liberty.” It’s my favorite part of our crest.

And it’s not a slogan; it’s an ideal to live by.

Attending JMU has been an intellectually transformative experience. Ever since the very first class I sat in, Introduction to Western Political Theory, I was entranced. Learning about Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Marx and a slew of other great thinkers was a far different education than the necessary, but cookie cutter, high school experience.

One of the big changes from high school to college is the ubiquitous presence of laptops. In spite of the flak professors give these devices, my laptop has been instrumental to my education outside the classroom—even considering the distracting cat videos, smirking Willy Wonka memes and vine compilations we all hold dear. It hasn’t always been this way—the use of my laptop hadn’t really evolved until recently.

It started when I was in D.C. during the Washington Semester Program in the fall of 2014. Oddly, I wasn’t bored during the day when I was interning for C-SPAN (that channel which mostly has a constant live feed of Congress), but I was bored after I returned home since I was exhausted from the day and just wanted to rest.

One slow evening, I remembered my dad praising the late author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, some years ago. I used my laptop and searched him on a whim. After watching his debates, interviews and lectures on YouTube, I was amazed by his erudition. He made intelligence cool and something worth aspiring to. He initiated a snowball effect of curious research.

I was interning in a cubicle by day and having my mind sculpted by the likes of author and neuroscientist Sam Harris, former Islamist radical turned activist Maajid Nawaz, famed physicists Dr. Lawrence Krauss and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others, by night. These thinkers (along with Christopher Hitchens, of course) challenged my assumptions about things like free will, strategies for combating extremist ideology, the origins, and future of the cosmos and the nature of religion and atheism.

Consider this mind-boggling quote regarding the cosmos from renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson:

"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That's kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It's not that we are better than the universe; we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us."

Learning evolved from an interest into a passion. I capitalized on practically any chance to watch a video of one of those intellectuals (as well as others). Even after a weekend night, I would come back in a drunken stupor and watch more. Just imagine how baffling Dr. Tyson’s lectures are while intoxicated. This caused me to buy more books, listen to more interviews and lectures and independently research related topics.

One of the wonderful things about laptops and the Internet is the convenience. We can access such a great breadth of information without leaving the couch! One hand on the mouse, one hand in the Doritos. I don’t know about you, but if I had to go to a library like they did in the olden days, I’d be in deep trouble. Not due to accessibility, but rather laziness.

Our generation is fantastically lucky. Seventy-eight percent of American 18-29 year-olds own a computer, according to a Pew Research Center survey from October 2015. So, the prospect of self-education is ever-present; the variable is whether you decide to take advantage.

Understanding history, learning about science, grappling with politics—engaging in this empowers us. When you have a mind with more refined knowledge, you have a mind that is less susceptible to trickery or the deception of a passionate, but ignorant argument. It fosters an attitude of skepticism and a suspicion towards unsupported claims. It gives you intellectual independence.

There are just so many wonderful distractions on the web. I’m not attempting to denigrate them or convince you to study like a monk. Netflix has to win sometimes. But as nerdy as it sounds, self-education is so greatly rewarding and, maybe even more importantly, empowering. From this empowerment comes our liberation. “Knowledge is Liberty.” It’s not a slogan; it’s an ideal to live by.