I'm not even positive what I'm taking yet, and don't have to register officially for a week or so, but am astonished nonetheless and how ridiculously exciting taking classes has become. Admittedly, this is the pre-homework hurricane season, and the first few days of school always have that air about them that seem as if this year is the one when you'll love class and do your work and succeed, but no matter what feelings may come when four papers are suddenly due on the same day, I think what's most exciting is the freedom that this education allows to take incredible classes from incredible professors at an incredible place and ultimately leave with...an education?? Perhaps this is the word for it.
After years of intermittent complaining about all of the oh-so-wonderful aspects of high school life (and likely of middle school life before that), college is definitely amazing. But it's not even that; I think it's more of a perspective on things. Here, at this newfangled college place, it's intentional. We're here for a reason, and it's not just cause the state mandates it or, well, "to get into college". Yes, some of us want a good job afterwards, and many certainly aim for med school, but there's something more purposeful here. Enjoying classes, using the crazy abundance of resources that are available, and some kind of community in knowing that the vast majority of us really do want to be here because we enjoy what we're learning about and we choose to do so willingly? Perhaps. Whatever it is, I'm certainly all for it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the same time that I've been in this hectic amazingness of the beginning of school, I've finally begun to read a book that has been recommended to me about seven hundred times in the last year (approximately of course)... Three Cups of Tea. (Which is, in a far too oversimplified synopsis, about a guy who takes on building a school and educating girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has now brought over 70-ish schools to rural areas there).
It just seems fitting (or in a general theme) that the insane excitement I'm experiencing at the moment for school should coincide with the realization of the fact that education for those across the globe is at this point not only crucial, but something that is beginning to come to fruition for a lot of people who seem to share my giddiness at the prospect of schooling. And that same intentional nature of the process, where school isn't forced, but chosen, looked forward to.
I could theorize endlessly about how important an education is for a "good life" in the sense that said life involves an apparently high-paying job or an *cough cough* ivy league education. But the reality that tends to exist is that the mere act of going to school and getting oneself an education is a path that leads to so many incredible places that we (as the Americans that we tend to be) oftentimes excessively take for granted.
In all honesty, Oprah and I have a tendency to not think on the same plane (there may or may not have been multiple derisions in the recent past headed in her general direction), but hey, the woman built an incredible school that is probably making a big difference in a lot of people's lives. For now, I applaud her. And Greg Mortenson. And everyone else who sponsors education.
To end as to begin,
YAY SCHOOOOOOL!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment