That College Life

"College has given me the confidence I need to fail."
Jarod Kintz 

Feeling like real college students

My (insanely attractive) English professor said something so profound to me at that moment in time that I had to scribble it on the margins of my overly priced textbook to remember it.  He said: "It is more important to say the word than to write it down."  It really, truly struck me as I sat in the front row, listening to his rambles that were almost too abstract to comprehend.

I tend to write things more than I say them and I tend to feel things more than I show.  I compress my feelings inside me until I can pretend to forget they are there.

Storing information in mindful locked compartments is not doing anyone favors.  You are hurting yourself with the burden of being human and you are hurting loved ones with a purposeful lack of trust.  I am not recommending an open book policy, but it is important to confide in others, only if to verbalize hard to reach thoughts.

Words are important, it is how we interact with the world, people, and ourselves.  If we selfishly hoard them, we are not making the connections with the natural or subconscious world.  We are not fully taking advantage of the opportunity we have been presented, which is: to be happy and live a fulfilling life.  Secrets never offer fulfillment and neither do half-truths and lies.

Now, what does this have to do with college?  Well, I think many people get the wrong impression of college.  You are not here to simply learn a specific set of skills that you can pack into a little box and take with you to the Real World.  You are here to take a wonderful opportunity to read books that don't make sense but teach you things anyway, fuck up, make up, learn about people, learn why people are the shittiest of creatures, learn why humans are the most beautiful complicated assholes, delve into yourself and figure out what are some of the millions of pieces that compose you, make those pieces find more pieces, take pointless classes like meditation, take Earth shattering classes like third wave feminism, stay up talking until two in the morning just because you all want to feel close to someone, have the most lovely friendships you can imagine, have awkward encounters daily with people you wish you never had to see again, then see them tomorrow, be so busy you forget to eat breakfast and lunch, and decide that ice cream is an adequate dinner.  And I could go on.

That one sentence from a professor rocked my fucking world.  And that happens daily in college.  The magical part is these are usually the sentences that professors don't plan for and are usually transitional sentences.  The essence of college is not being able to rattle of the scientific method or a statistical equation.  It is little moments like that where you feel like your actual soul has been added to and you leave feeling like a better, more well rounded person.

That is education.