A College Update.

Well, how's everyone doing? Sorry, I haven't been posted here in forever. Things have been a little busy lately. Moving, starting school, doing homework, finding jobs, learning new ramen recipes (add butter! hat tip to my little brother for sharing that one(Run with a hammer!)), and that all takes up quite a bit more time than I had anticipated.

So... college. Yeah its college. I'm not going to lie, its not that great. I don't really know what I was expecting, but  I wasn't really prepared for this. The learning part, that's great. I enjoy class and lectures and all that. The homework's not even that bad. Its everything else about college life that sucks. Its the being broke all the time. Its having to time your plasma donating schedule just right so you can pay the car insurance bill. Its eating ramen for three meals in a row. Its being the only sober one at parties cause you have this strange urge to be responsible. Its having to tolerate the sorority girls who insist on talking all though your human development class about someone who gave them the stink eye at some party. Its knowing that I'm going to be stuck here for another three years at least, and when I'm done I'm going to be buried by over $30,000 of debt. These are the things that drive me crazy about this place.

Mmm, desperation

I know, I know, I can hear it now. There are those out there saying that college was the best years of their life. If that's the case, I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure you're doing it wrong. There's a lot of time between when you leave school and when we put you in the ground. If you graduate at 23 and you die at say 73, that's 50 years of life where all you did was look back on the golden age of your college experience. That's a long time. If college was the best years of your life you might as well start picking out a burial plot after graduation because you have nothing else to look forward too. You've peaked. I plan on having a lot more living to do after I'm done with this place.

I look forward to looking back on this hell hole and glossing over the terrible details and pregnancy scares. 

Yes, I know college is important to my career. Yes, I know that the average college grad makes around $800,000 more over the course of their life than someone with only a high school diploma. I had this harped on me by high school guidance counselors for years. But I have to as ask, so what?
Does money or even a prestigious career really make us feel all that fulfilled? The United States ranks 16th in the world for happiness. The first ranked country is Nigeria. The average salary in Nigeria is 300 dollars a year. The average American makes over 100 times that, but we still can't make it through a commercial break with out someone trying to sell us an anti-depressant. Money isn't making us all that happy. That $800,000 extra that I'll be able to make with my degree (joke's on me, I'm an education major) is probably going to pay for my Zoloft prescription.

Pictured: Happiness
Not pictured: The Jack Daniels chaser

So I wake up almost everyday and I ask myself, "Is college worth it?" And to be honest I don't know. I really don't. If you're looking for a nice and tidy conclusion to this whole rant I'm sorry, but I can't find one. Maybe three years from now I'll look back on all this and think, "Yeah, it was worth it", maybe I won't. Who knows?

Peace