When I was younger, I wanted to be a psychologist. I thought ink blots looked funny and I enjoyed the idea of hearing what others thought about all day long.<\/p>\n
Later on, I decided I wanted to be a psychologist-teacher hybrid because I watched that movie Matilda where the girl with the telekinesis has a teacher with a name as sweet as she: Ms. Honey.<\/p>\n
I dropped the idea when I realized I\u2019d have to actually work with kids and went back to dreaming of a career in social sciences.<\/p>\n
One day, though, well into my teens and long after my grade school musings, I thought, maybe I should not be chasing a job, but a life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you studying now?\u201d \u201cWhat will you study next?\u201d \u201cWhere are you transferring?\u201d \u201cWhat colleges have you applied to?\u201d<\/p>\n
The worst part of being a second year student at a two-year college is being a second year student at a two-year college; if only because I have to endure these questions on a daily basis. Two years ago when we graduated from high school, the onlookers in our lives assumed it was the perfect time to pounce; to ask for the first instance in our young years, \u201cSo, like, what are you going to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only natural that they\u2019d ask. Graduating from high school is a rite of passage, after all, just another ceremonious hymen-breaking of sorts (except that it\u2019s set to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, a.k.a. the only song graduation bands ever know.)<\/p>\n
When you decide you\u2019ll be a transfer student, a second round of interrogation is expected. Too bad these hemorrhage-inducing questions are designed to expect only certain answers. In terms of average yearly incomes, statistics say that having an associate\u2019s degree is the same thing as having nothing but a high school diploma. It seems that having an associate\u2019s degree is only seen as a stepping stone and therein lays the issue.<\/p>\n
Having an associate\u2019s degree is not just two years into getting a bachelors. It\u2019s two years worth of classes taken and knowledge gained.<\/p>\n
Getting an education in this day and age only means you\u2019re on your way to chasing a good job; valuing an education for education\u2019s sake is an antiquated perspective in a time where having money is all anyone aspires for.<\/p>\n
We know without a doubt that knowledge, like the terrible clich\u00e9 goes, is power.<\/p>\n
But the only form of power students are taught to acknowledge is the kind that comes from a bi-weekly company check and a soul-killing daily work routine.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s no way to a fulfilling life; maybe a rich life, maybe a life\u00a0 of status in the community, multiple assets to your name and power in the markets but who wants that? (What side am I arguing again?)<\/p>\n
The objective of going to school should not be so that you are able to add a few lines of credibility to your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 but to simply become educated.<\/p>\n
Education is a privilege and that no one ever sees it that way is a travesty to our depth as a society. Education is only seen as the means through which we may hope to acquire what the American standard deems significant: a pretty house, a respectable job with perks, a bank account the ladies will fawn over.<\/p>\n
Despite all the different ways people have asked the question, \u201cwhat now?\u201d upon hearing that I am approaching my final semester at Dade; I am not any closer to knowing the answer.<\/p>\n
I am not chasing my career. I\u2019m not dreaming of a 401k. I just aspire to be happy.<\/p>\n
For now, I imitate the responses I\u2019ve heard others use, even when I know the only thing I plan on doing once I take off the toga is to ditch the heels on the way to the car, degree in hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was younger, I wanted to be a psychologist. I thought ink blots looked funny and I enjoyed the idea of hearing what others thought about all day long. Later on, I decided I wanted to be a psychologist-teacher hybrid because I watched that movie Matilda where the girl with the telekinesis has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-forum"},"yoast_head":"\n