Day 366-- Is College Worth It?

Is College Worth It?

It's been a year since graduation, so what has it been like like graduating college in 2011?  Conflict.  Bitterness.  Pride.  Love.

I.                    Why College is (mostly )a Bad Idea

II.                  In Defense of College

III.                Why it Was Worth It

a.)    For family

b.)    As a female

I.  Why College is (mostly) a Bad Idea

Do new college graduates feel entitled?  You bet we feel entitled.  Why the fuck wouldn’t we feel entitled when our whole lives we were told that we NEEDED college or else we’d be shamed into working at a fast food restaurant or lower, and here we are, working at them because they’re the only jobs available.  We were humiliated into believe that these jobs weren’t good enough and so what does that do to our psyche after all of these years and all of this money spent only work as a cashier or a clerk or sales runt?

We did what you told us to do.  We got good grades, we’re incurred massive debts, and we just spent 4 or more years of our lives for this….promise.  This promise that education was going to get us ahead, and for the most part that’s a lie today.  College isn’t the only step; it’s the first step.  But we didn’t treat it like that.

This wasn’t the life we had in mind.  Not just job-wise or confidence-wise, but in health too.  Us new graduations can’t pay to see a dentist or a doctor because we each week we must decide groceries vs. the dentist, gasoline vs. the doctor, rent vs healthy food.  Poverty doesn’t give you much choice, and poverty was never a part of the equation when we were told to go to college.  We were told to go to college to avoid poverty.  What the fuck is going on?  Why are so many people suffering?  

And so many Americans are suffering and will be for a long time as the economy crawls to recovery.  And in the mean time, is it really worth going to college? 

II. In Defense of College

In the long run, yes, college graduates do make more money than those without college degrees.  In the long run you have a better chance of getting your dream job not only on your skills you learned in college, but by networking with people in your major or school who have similar interests in careers.  

And historically, education is such a hard-earned privileged.  Black slaves were banned and beaten if they learned how to read, some women around the world are still be prohibited from education, and let’s not forget that the educated class is often the targeted class in regimes and tyrannies.   

And why is this?  Because when the masses are educated they think for themselves.  They think of themselves as individuals in a system instead of c’est la vie.  Educated thoughts are dangerous because they start revolutions and marches and democracies.  The mind is the best weapon you can have for your rights as human being.  So yes, educating that mind about your subject of interest—which is often related to other things in the world—is a good thing.

And hey, just the socialness of college is worth it.  All those beer pong parties, and shots before class, and all-nighters, and being a hot mess, and boyfriends, and best friends, and enemies, and crappy dorm rooms, and being broke, and too much coffee and too much weed and too much fun are all worth it.  It’s a chance to be a teenager with more freedom.  And those memories of being the craziest you ever thought you could be are going to be the stories you tell forever.  And yes, learning shit is important too.

III. Why it Was Worth It (for me)

And what it means to ME.  My diploma sitting a little crooked in the dark maroon and gold frame.  That little paper, the plainness of, the importance of, the history of it.  What is that paper to the measly 23- year old who accepted it?

a. Names and callous hands

My first name, a name not intended but nonetheless the same name as my great-grandmother who farmed and toiled hard with beautiful and rough callous hands.  My middle name, my mother’s name who didn’t graduate college and has always had a bit of an inferiority complex in never feeling quite at the same level as her peers.  My last name, belonging to my father who was largely illiterate and hid it well.  This degree mattered to my family. It was a dream they had for themselves and I was the one who had the opportunity and expectation to go.

b. As a female

There are woman, too many woman right now, right now in this very fucking minute who are being raped, who are being mutilated and sewn back together, who are being abandoned in dumpsters, who are being sold to the dirtiest bidder, who are being spit at, and threatened, and shamed, scarred.  And why?  Because they’re women.   

Don’t you dare for a minute forget the feminism isn’t over, because humanity is never over.  Women are human beings who happen to be women.  And guess what, just like men women get hungry, and get scared, and desire life, and desire love, and feel pain, and hurt others, and breathe in and out with spongy lungs, with red hearts and white intestines just like everyone else.  And so many women desire more.

More safety, more bread, more heat, more dignity, more education.  Education has a long long long long history of denying women education.  In all of the centuries across the world, this current era is the best it’s ever been for a woman to get an education, but at the same time so many women—too many—are still denied.  

The diploma on my wall is the privilege of knowledge, the privilege of learning about the world in how it works and how it has worked and how we can change the parts that don’t work.  Education is a key to a locked world.  If you a know a system you can change a system, and for most of history, the system has kept women down in the gutter.  Women today are still seen as holes to fill, whether that’s a vagina or a uterus—just look at glittering advertisements or child brides.  

So yes, as a female I am so utterly grateful to have this diploma because, in this very minute there is a woman screaming to make the pain stop of her mutilated or starved or tortured body and I have something she’ll never get the change to have, all because she’s female and if I were where she’s at, I’d be in the same violated undervalued situation.

 And trust me, I do feel a responsibility to that woman, and as someone with privilege it is my obligation as a fellow female to help her—whether that’s with votes of the right political party, or money for aid, or time to volunteer to help her get out.

IV. Conclusion:

Yes, college is worth it.  It’s a prized thing historical and emotionally.  And yes, I agree that the worth of it has diminished in time, but I think that this shows the cracks of the college system, not that college is broken or useless.  Personally I think that college should be organized like this: 

1^st year semester 1:  general education;  semester 2: forced community service

2^nd year: your subject

3^rd year: your subject

4^th year: internships

With this schedule, the first year is general exposure to all subjects and the community you'll be graduating into, the second and third year focused solely on your subject of learning, and the last year is purely real-life experience in your field to put on a resume and be prepared for the actual work of the subject.

College is worth it.  It just doesn’t seem like it right now.  And maybe all of this is teaching us to fight harder, to worker smarter, and when that success comes, it will be even sweeter because we’ll remember the struggle to earn it.  I’m glad and I’m proud I went to college.  And I hope for best for me, and the very best for my graduating class out there in the world.  We’ll make it.