A few days ago I was sitting in class when my professor said that she was going to lecture after we took a test, and my reaction is ultimately what led me to write about this. I was annoyed to say the least. Who did this lady think she was to say something like that. Doesn't she know that you aren't supposed to teach after giving a test, she's just supposed to let us leave. That's what's so great about college. After I thought all of these things and I heard the grumbles and saw the side eyes the other students in the room made I realized how completely selfish I was being.

Every single second of every single day we are able to find the answer to any question we have. We are given the ability to go to school and to learn simply because we were lucky enough to have been born in a place that doesn't oppress us in ways other places do. That shouldn't be taken lightly and it definitely shouldn't be brushed off of our shoulders and treated like a burden. Education is the furthest thing from a burden. Education and schooling relieve burdens. I can't even imagine a world where I never learned how to read, or where I was unable to expand my mind and learn such powerfully important things. And yet for so many people out there the ability to read and write will never be something they are capable of doing.

President Obama and the First Lady launched the Let Girls Learn Initiative that seeks to help the more than 62 MILLION girls (mostly adolescences) who are denied the right to an education. I had been thinking for a while about the view so many people around me have toward school. Learning that millions don't have the luxury to complain about too much homework or mean teachers because they can't even receive an education really hit a nerve within me.

So instead of complaining about school I want to speak up and share the wonderful gifts and tools that school and my education have given me. I love to read, whether it's a magazine or Stephen King, and I also love to write, it's how I'm able to share my most personal stories and quiet all the noise in my head. If I had never learned to do these two things I wouldn't be the person I am today. I've learned how to shape sentences and to think deeper than just what I see at surface level. I've discovered a curiosity and an eager spirit within myself to understand politics and evolution and our solar system. I love learning about history (no matter the period) and being able to open my mind up to the way things and people were long ago. I know that I love pretty words and the impact they can have on others. I've learned to appreciate my brain and my body for all it's capable of. Through school I've discovered that being the quiet kid can be a blessing in disguise. I've learned to dream and to reach for whatever I want because I've come to realize that I am capable of anything.The whole fabric of my being is rooted in the knowledge I've acquired over the years.

My education doesn't just stop with desks and textbooks, I learn even when I'm not in school. Every single day my thoughts change and grow because I'm constantly learning and discovering new facts of life. My mind has expanded to being more accepting of the way others choose to live their lives. The hunger I have for knowledge has made me who I am today. It has given me the strength to believe in myself. It's allowed me to be able to think outside of the box, to journal and express my thoughts in ways that make me proud to be who I am. My mind, the way I interpret the world, and the way I see others are all possible because I was and still am lucky enough to go to school.

So don't skip classes. Stop getting annoyed when you have things to learn and papers to write. And don't look at school as only an obstacle you have to overcome to get a job. School does so much more and if we all appreciated it as such I feel like the world would be a much better place.