College Was and Still is Beneficial

 

The value of a college degree has been under great scrutiny of late. Which is good, because we should carefully examine things that are important and expensive, and not assume that yesterday's model should be tomorrow's or that there is never a better path to the same outcome. 

There is time and place to probe this issue from every angle. I will take a shallower, lazier approach today, in rebutting the wholesale dismissal of college, particularly when it comes from people who have benefitted so much from it but may have either forgotten or cannot connect the dots as to how it was so important.

Again, we can question whether college should be so expensive. And, we can support the many alternative paths to a successful career and happy life. But, we who had the opportunity to go to college ourselves, whether fortunate enough to directly or indirectly afford it, should not flippantly dismiss the role that stage in our lives played in forming who we are today

It irks me when people dismiss their college years as of little utility to their present success and happiness. I submit to you that the entirety of the experience is profoundly influential. And I mean everything: classroom, dorm, parties, sports, and so on. Being away from home, absorbing contemporary world events with others, connecting to the pulse of campus life. We were impressionable at this point in our lives, and whether we put effort into it or not we were shaped by the years.

I do not wish to go back in time, either to relive past glories or make different decisions. But, I do look back fondly and gratefully for my college years. I like who I am today, and I am who I am because of my time in college.