It’s funny, I had a conversation of this nature with my cousin a few weeks back. At church, While we were at church, he said to a young girl that it wasn’t necessary for her to go college. Now before you throw attacks towards him (don’t worry, another girl who also partook in the conversation and myself took care of that), he had his reasons. Due to high tuition costs and low prospects of getting job right after college, people in general don’t have to go college anymore, you can go vocational school and earn a lot more money compared to a person who had a Bachelor’s degree.
For me, my salary after college wasn’t really a concern for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was factor I did think about it, but I concentrated more on finding a job I would love and be passionate about. But with college tuition at its highest level, higher education is not becoming necessity, more focused on salary compared to broadening your mind and I think that was the point my cousin was trying to make.
Let me just say, I don’t regret I went to college, including graduate school. Sure, I have student loans that I’ll most likely be paying until the day I die (crossing my fingers, hopefully the winning the lottery will be a wish come true) but that doesn’t mean I regret one day of my college education. Without college, I wouldn’t have gone and studied abroad in the UK, a country that I always wanted to visit and immediately fell in love with it. Without college, I wouldn’t have improve my writing skills and deepen my passion for literature. Without college, I wouldn’t have found myself and I believe that’s where I got to know myself better.
People say that going to college opens doors for you. When they say that I believe that they mean that literally, opening doors towards a job interview and a new career. But I don’t think they consider the metaphorical aspect of it. Education can open you mind to new things, open yourself to learning about new things you never thought it was possible. Education can also improve your confidence. With an education, you find yourself doing things that you didn’t think was possible. Education can offer you much more than just a comfortable salary.
That is why education is important. And hopefully, this college tuition crisis resolved and more and more people will begin to feel the same way. But honestly let us all ask ourselves: do we really want to throw away something that most people world are unable to get, but would fight with every fiber in their being to achieve?
I wouldn’t.
This is Day 9 of the 30 Day Writing Challenge.
One thought on “Day 9: Education”