My dad is someone who does not take no for an answer. So when he told 9 year old Isabella that she was going to college soon, I didn't question it. Now that I am older, it has become the most frequent topic that we talk about and one thing he said to me stuck with me ever since.
He told me, "College is not school, it's an opportunity".
I thought about it for a while and just thought, okay he means it not forced on us but we should go. But it has come to mean so much more than that. What I've noticed is that college, in the mind of teenagers, is depicted in two ways:
1. You have to go. There are no other options.
2. Don't worry about it, I'll figure something out on graduation day.
The problem is that not many see college as an opportunity. Our education is given to us, up until the 12th grade. School is forced on us and we cannot wait to get out of the never ending cycle of early mornings and annoying teachers. So, once we graduate, most see it as freedom, and anything else that is being taught to us after that is just an obstacle in the way. That's the problem.
Yes, we have to pay to go to college. And yes, we have to put most, if not all, of our time into it. But what most fail to see is that it is only going to benefit us. College is not just money wasted, or time consumed, or stacks of loans waiting to be paid. College is the opportunity that most of us need to get us started in this huge world that we are about to be aimlessly thrown into. It will be hard, and it will most likely be expensive. But, when you do whats hard, life is easy. But if you do whats easy, life is hard.
Take the opportunity to get your education now, so we can get our lives started.
I hear what you are saying about how college is not really school but it is an opportunity. I agree with you to a certain extent on this blog but I just don't think you have all the options on there. For example, you only have 1. You have to go there are no other options, and 2. Don't worry about it, I'll figure it out on graduation day. Not everyone can go to college for a number of reasons. One reason may be grades, another may be money, or another may just be because you have to help and support your family instead of being selfish and getting an education for yourself. I mean yes you could get government loans and stuff but then you have to pay it back. What if you are unable to? then you just put your poor family in even more debt. College would benefit us, but not all of us are able to go or will go.
ReplyDeletei agree with you on this Isabella. It's true that many of us don't see it as an opportunity but at the end of it all it is an opportunity given to us. there's also those who no matter what even having the good grades and the money to go to college will slack off and not care. Some people will be selfish and not care that their parents are given them the support to go to college. As of what Dylan mentions is also true then theres the people that actually want to go to college but cant afford to go, and that's the hardest situation. Wanting to take that opportunity to go to college but knowing that there's consequences that can harm your family.
ReplyDeleteAll around the world you hear people fighting for education and opportunity, equality and recognition. We get the benefit of having so many options and roads to take living here in the United States. We have grown up in a world opportunity and the idea of going to college. For some, all these choices can feel like a burden. With all of the stress we are put under, we don't realize how lucky we are to have a future of continued education. We have those days when we just want to give up and not go to college. This idea of college has been implanted in so many of our minds at a young age that we know no other future. Honestly, it is hard to have a career, let alone a decent job, without a college education here in America. I always hear adults reminiscing about their high school and college days; they say it was the best time of their life. It is hard to hear this because a lot of us are striving for a better future in which all our hard work in school will pay off in adulthood. We keep saying we want to start our lives and work for a better life that sometimes we forget that we are already living.
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