COLLEGE: Worth the wait? Or woefully weary?
By Nick Verdi, Staff Writer
I find it hilarious that in October, I finally decided that I want to go to college. This may come as a shock to those who are close to me, or those who even remotely know who I am, but I hadn’t given thought to the prospect of college until early last month where I began the application process. In retrospect, my whole academic career since late elementary school had been grooming me to be a college student. Though I never processed that because I was always arrogant.
While introspectively searching for a reason why I never thought about college, I thought back to my time with the AVID program. In middle school, I joined AVID to go on field trips with friends, as that was the selling point to me, yet I failed to realize that the point of the class was to prepare students for college. AVID teaches many ways to stay organized and see success in a classroom environment, and though I am sure it works for some people, it simply didn’t click with me. AVID is a great program, but it wasn’t for me. In retrospect, I don’t believe I needed it — in fact, it was hindering my success. See, I was young at the time. I liked field trips but I was also at an age where I was beginning to take my fate into my own hands. AVID wanted to manage my time how it saw fit, which, to me, infringed on my vision for my future. Knowing how I operate on a daily basis now explains why I harbored so much frustration and spite towards AVID in middle school. It didn’t help that I was taught by the director of AVID either. I am very abstract when it comes to approaching things; I work at the last minute, unorganized, spontaneous, stream of consciousness, yet I stay composed and calm despite this. AVID was heads, thinking, critical, organised, and I was tails; wagging around everywhere. These traits were off the rails in middle school, which didn’t contribute to a good time in AVID. The program that sought to inspire students to take the college-brick road– to say the least I strayed as far away from the college path as I could.
I internalized what AVID taught as the epitome of how I should operate, and I internalized college with it. I never outwardly spoke about my distaste for college, because family members would ask me: What college are you planning to attend?, or: What do you want to be when you grow up? I would always respond: Yale, and while I’m at it, I’ll probably drop out, then develop something in the garage and become a successful business mogul. I was being sarcastic of course, Yale is much to drab for my tastes, too skull and bones. On a serious note, I hated that question, because while I am very much invested in my academic subjects, I always wanted to talk about bigger, more abstract topics like the politics of Mongol China, or Bowl theory.
What opened my mind up on college was the prospect of adventure. I often dream of disappearing, whether it was backpacking across the world like Ozymandias, or getting lost on a hiking trip, and living off my surroundings. It is a very primal desire to travel — humans used to be nomadic, after all — and college offers opportunities to travel under the bounds of learning, of knowledge. I was naive to vilify opportunity because I was young and arrogant. Part of me wishes that I would have indulged in the college-brick road more, but without my arrogance, I wouldn’t have gotten back on it. Perhaps I am still caught in my arrogance, but I feel it is valuable to share this so that perhaps students who feel similar can learn a thing or two. You aren’t alone, and you can still find a path, even if college is not within it. College is for furthering careers, but it is not useful for everyone.
