Why? Is it to say "Ha ha! You're too late. We got you."? Is it to warn me maybe? Is it an elaborate scheme to get me to drop out of college? If it's the latter (can I say latter when there are three reference points?) I'll probably be kicked out anyway so you guys can stop now. It's fine. Whatever it is I certainly appreciate it.
I learned a lot from the time I spent earning the bound piece of paper lying under the driver's seat of my mother's car. All valuable lessons in the facets of modern American society. One lesson being that pieces of paper are exactly that. Money. Diplomas. Parking tickets. Who gives a shit? Not me.
I guess that's not really true. But reading things like William Deresiewicz's Solitude and Leadership speech certainly ease my mind about my level of pessimism concerning institutions (not just scholarly ones. You know, corporations, governments, charities, cults, knitting clubs, religions...big groups of people in general. I'm just trying to sound smart for a good grade here so try to stay with me). It always seemed to me that once you get too many people involved in an objective the objective is lost. So is the case with college. Why make future "leaders" of our nation when we can scam them into indentured servitude? Take a cut from their first years of pay in the workforce and make a nice big cushion for us all to lay on?
Really though, why not. After all the people who make up the administrations of colleges in America had to deal with the same, more or less (much much less). I've come to understand that most institutions start out with good intentions. But somewhere down the line it becomes immediately evident: we are all just trying to survive. I don't care if the housing bubble bursts, I don't care if the dollar collapses, just let me and my family come out on top.
And there is nothing wrong with that. At all. I do not want to sound preachy (but I totally do don't I? I'm sorry). I have no desire to change the way things are. As long as everyone is made aware that no one is really looking out for you, then we all should be dandy. Trust is not given. It is earned. Who do you trust? Your family. Your friends. Those people earned your trust. Obama did not (but that doesn't mean you can't like him. Remember that time he sang Al Green to Al Green? That was so cool).
Getting back to the point, about which I have inevitably forgotten, college does not make leaders. Colleges utilize words like "leader" because our modern society idolizes self-actualization, i.e. the American Dream. A leader is not a slave to the 9 to 5 weekday pushing pencils in a cubicle. That guy is just a dude with a job. And most people are satisfied with that. Or they pretend to be and just keep their mouth shut about it. But to those looking to be leaders, college is quackery. It is the miracle bracelet that will revitalize your body and give you strength. It is the ordinary looking sponge able to absorb an entire tub of water. Like I said earlier, no one is looking out for you. The road to a truly self-actualized success is overgrown with obstacles. It will require stubbornness and opposition to forces that appear stronger. And it certainly does not come from a piece of paper.
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