Over the last few years, my views about school and college have changed. They continue to evolve as I see the school from different view. When I was in college, I loved every moment of it. Good college, great friends and everything else. It was an eye-opening during those years.
Then I went to grad school and that was completely different experience from undergraduate college. The challenges of grad school shaped me who I am today. It opened the possibilities of the world. Even when I always wanted to learn thousands of things, the college opens the door of possibilities. And you do that by reading books, meeting people, taking different courses, listening to your professors, trying out different challenges.
After I graduated from grad school, I was adamant that I would never want to go back to school. I had learned so much that I thought I was full. But it had also given me enough armory that if I wanted to learn anything new, I could do that on my own.
Internet changed the world, changed the way we learn things. Online courses, schools have done their work to teach us thousands of skills that were previously had bragging rights to certain individuals only. It has also taken away our focus and created new set of problems.
That’s where I feel school is still critical. And when I look back on the years when I was in undergrad and grad school, I find those days valuable to learn the intricacies of life.
My experiences at undergrad and grad school were different because they were in two different countries with so many cultural and educational differences. The challenges I faced at undergrad were equally different from the challenges at grad school.
At undergrad college, I made lifelong memories and learned valuable life lessons while graduating in a degree that I barely used after graduation. Those experiences prepared me to take on any challenges, “say YES” to things coming your way. The friend circle I built was for lifelong and we still keep in touch is the testament to that. Even after so many years, when we remember any of those days, nostalgia sweeps through the mind immediately. Throughout those days, we had crushes that we barely able to express at that time. How naïve we were at that time. Every time, we see an old photo, it brings those days back. The memory is funny, it plays weird games on us. Most of the teachers tried their best to give us education. We were there for life lessons more than actual education. Barring few individuals, most never used their undergrad education further in their careers.
Grad school on the other hand provided important life skills to be able to survive on your own. We formed new friendships across cultures and that opened the mind for global view. At the end, all people are same, same emotions, only the ways we experience those emotions are different.
Here, Cheers to College.