“College,” people often tell me, “teaches you how to think.”
Well that’s great, and true, but what I really wish college would have taught me is how to get a freaking job. Because you know what, empathetic thinking skills don’t really do much good as I’m being continually rejected for menial paper-pushing jobs.
A year after college found me wishing I couldn’t think AT ALL as I shoved paper in a scanner for eight hours a day. In fact, it took me TWO YEARS of self-education outside of college before I was learned enough in the field of “getting a job,” to actually get one.
So thanks college, for teaching me the color perception theory of graphic design, and journalism ethics. But what you should have is a class on is how to look good on paper, how to sound good at an interview, how to run a copier and how to KNOW people.
For when you are in an entry-level job, no one cares if you can analyze every single line of Anna Karenina – they don’t care if you’ve “learned how to think,” because guess what – they can think too, and some of them, didn't even go to college. What they care about is if that expert report is written on time, and if the copies ARE NOT defiled by smudge lines. Heaven forbid.
So because of my lack of education in the PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING and DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS field, not only did I lose tons of money to meaningless classes like “Horticulture,” I also subjected myself to the huge opportunity cost of being unemployed for a great majority of my first year in the Real World.
Well, the good news is I actually found a fairly good job after two years. Sadly, while I did learn a lot in college, I think I’ve learned more job-related skills – and perhaps gained more intelligence in general – in this short time in the Real World then I ever did in college.
But that’s okay I guess – because after four years of learning how to think, and two years of developing job skills – I finally have both. Maybe that’s not such a bad place to be.
10 comments:
That's so true. I think I learned more about the real world in middle school Home Ec.! 18 years of school and all I can do is bake a cake and sew a pair of shorts. Oh, and I can drive, so I guess Driver's Ed was my most usefull class.
I remember it now. What are you doing tonight? You don't need to answer this because I won't even check your blog again till Mon. Other people might want to know though. I'm not even sure why I asked. I said my last two sentences so you wouldn't feel obligated to tell me what you were doing because you probably thought it was the beginning of me about to ask you to do something or if I could join you in whatever you were doing but really it was just a pointless question. People ask a lot of pointless questions. Maybe that's why others give such pointless answers. We need to stop telling kids that there is no such thing as a stupid question. There are probably just as many stupid answers as stupid questions. Sometimes I pass people in the hall and they say "What's up" and I say "hey."
You should write a new blog.
Mark
College is kind of a waste of time. The best part of it happens outside of the classroom.
I took agronomy, similar to your "hort-i-kult-cher". It was kind of gay.
Can I just say that "kind of gay" seems really funny to me in this particular moment. I love you guys (in a way that can no way be confused as gay).
Hey, wait a minute... I just noticed that you've deleted Jordan and me from your link list. Have we done somethin to offend you??
No!! They just disappeared and I don't know how to get them back! :( I will try
Hmm... I wonder why it's only letting you have three links at once. Sexy state counter, though. ;)
Laura,
I don't think your love for a guy or guys could ever be construed as "gay," unless you think we/me are/is women/a woman. Or perhaps you think yourself to be a man, which is simply absurd. I mean of the possible options, I do have long eyelashes and a pretty face... wait... crap.
:)
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