As fourth year comes to an end, and I struggle to ram as much info into my head as possible for the next week and a half of exams, I look back on my time at University thus far and try to put the school aspect of it into context.
In
1st year I learned how to get reasonable grades by doing the bare minimum of homework. Granted it was much harder than highschool ever was, but inherent smarts led me through.
2nd year I learned what it meant to struggle against massive doses of apathy and insomnia and still maintain an average that allowed me to continue attending this school.
3rd year I learned that no matter how much you think you know, there's always someone else that knows more than you. Personally, I never found that to be much of a motivator though.
And in
4th year I learned that I know a hell of alot more than marks will show, or exams can ever test. I learned that I could attain far more knowledge on my own accord compared to having some prof ram it down my throat in the form of excessive readings or complex labs.
The only problem I've found is this - the things I teach myself don't parallel my chosen academic life. I never go out of my way to learn about the genes in humans that activate
x pathway, or the circuits of the brain that allow people to do
y activity.
But I do have a massive amount of knowledge and understanding of many things that span many different fields of study. I've come to notice that not many people I come in contact with do this kind of thing, and it strikes me as somewhat strange. Granted, we're all paying a shitload of money to be here and to learn what our profs have to teach, yadda yadda, but it's amazing how few people around here seem to take learning upon themselves outside of school work.
I've learned a great deal about current events, the media, politics, history, war, marketing, computers, music, philosophy, art, psychology, etc. etc. and none of it has anything to do with either one of my Double Majors.
This kinda begs the question of
what the hell am I doing in my program?
That question is answered by the fact that I can still do fine in my courses, and I still retain alot of what I learn in class. But is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? I suppose many of my friends are asking themselves the very same thing, the only difference being that they'll be graduating this year and I won't.
Of late, a single phrase has been running through my head -
Don't let it define you.I'm not sure if I picked it up somewhere or just thought of it myself. And to be entirely honest I've been trying to figure out what I even mean when I say that.
The best way I can describe it is this: I see so many people that are easily labelled as "
the quiet scientist", "
the arrogant Ivey kid", or "
the computer geek". It even applies to social life - you know one guy as "
the drunk", a girl as "
the sporty chick" or another guy as "
the dude in the band".
Personally, I don't want to be remembered for any one thing in particular. There are so many people in life that we know for a time and then we part ways, never to meet again. It's my hope that people won't remember me as "
the guy who wrote a blog" (that noone reads. haha), or "
the big music fan", or "
that opinionated asshole".
And that's why I take it upon myself to expand my horizons every day. I'll read an article, listen to a song, watch a movie, have a conversation. And unlike most, I follow it up with something else. Often I'll just look up shit on Wikipedia or Google and link around to find more details.
For example, look up the following:
- Georgia Home Boy
- Echolalia
- Andrewsarchus
- Passchendaele
- Freud's Cocaine Letters
- Bukowski
- COINTELPRO
Interesting shit eh?
You might wanna inform yourself about other things too, lest you be remembered as "
the fool who knew nothing".
