I'm typing this while sitting on my hand-me-down couch in my hand-me-down apartment as the school season winds down for the 17th year of my life.
More recently, four years of consistency, friendships and, much to my chagrin, knowledge.
The hand-me-down television in front of me plays the familiar sounds of the Kardashians, but I'm not paying attention (as far as you know). It's a sign that I've survived, well, everything so far, and the pettiness that blasts through the TV makes a clear point to me-
Life goes on.
Cliche, right?
Yeah, graduating is sad, especially when you have no idea what you're going to do over the next few months (a story for another post), but what's worse is having to leave the people you so dearly love and part ways with the only thing you've known since your arrival.
Ah, campus housing, campus meals, campus mail...campus e-mail...
Everything is provided here. It definitely costs, but the means are in our hands.
But I'd argue that the one thing college doesn't provide is the knowledge you come here seeking. Heck, you learn so many things through your time at your respective school, but the greatest lessons gleaned from these institutions isn't something manufactured in a classroom.
You learn self-discipline- a long-tried virtue whose teaching points just plain suck. It goes further than simply telling yourself not to eat that extra brownie. It's not heading down that dark path that just seems so easy, or turning "me time" into time for caring about the welfare of others, or using that extra cash for something more beneficial than food (if that's possible, I applaud you).
You learn that the world is greater than your little sliver of your social club or athletic team. That, while it's important to take care of yourself, there's no reason to care what others think about you. Go to Walmart in your pajamas. Wear your hair up 24/7. And if you feel like it, dress the heck up! Wear heels to class (if you can walk in them without dying)! Because these things don't matter in the long run- it's about what you're contributing on the way.
You learn how to contribute to your community, your country, Mother Earth, even. Your God-given talent was bestowed on you and for you to steward creation, right? So why not use it to its full extent? And so what you're not into politics or business. You've got people all around you that have an individual story- you realize that helping out "small-scale" is in its way, large-scale.
You learn about reality, about the crushing fate that proceeds most of us, about how "people actually are," about the way power works, about the importance of focus and passion and intuition.
No one goes to college to learn about themselves, but in the end, maybe our diplomas should say Bachelor's Degree of Whatever it Means to be Fully Human.
