Let's Be Honest - Students Forever!!

I'm finding more and more students start school because it's "what you do" and the expected thing for success. They have no interest in what they're learning and have no clue what the heck they want to do with their lives. This seems like a recipe for scholarship loss and drunken debauchery.

Now some weird kids just like learning, I was one of these, and they can go to college all life long. Actually, they will do well in college but run the risk of never getting out, never being content with how much they know, never wanting to graduate and enter the real world of adults. I could go to college forever and enjoy it. In fact, when I graduated from Francis Marion University with my undergraduate degree, I had 155 credit hours (120 is the norm). I earned my degree in English with a minor in Mass Communications. I definitely took some Education classes, extra science classes (I love Astronomy) and even took some pre-nursing courses, thinking nursing school would be better than being out of college. When I decided nursing was what people in my life wanted me to do rather than what I wanted to do, grad. school was the next event on the horizon. So I did some more school.

Some part of me thrives on working on papers until the last minute. Some part of me loves exams, tests, and reading critical sources. Some part of me loves being poor and having no money just so I can enjoy learning, reading, studying in coffee shops, and staying up late. I definitely didn't have the normal college experience because I lived at home and had an infant/toddler/child during my years of school. I didn't love school for the "college experience." I loved it for the learning and the professors.

I think this is why I've ended up in the field of teaching. It's almost like being in college, but not quite. I still have the random hours (forget trying to remember my schedule, my husband doesn't even attempt that), and I still have homework at night. I definitely don't enjoy assigning homework and grading papers as much as I enjoyed reading and writing them.

Some nights I use scare tactics on Tyler by suggesting I go back to school to get this degree or that degree. I don't know if it's because I'm discontent or because I just love the idea of school. It probably means I'm not being content where I am, of course I always thought graduating meant turning into a crotchety adult who spends their time holed up in a cubicle typing memos and emails.

So the difference between me and the students who start college because they're expected to is not that much different this side of college. We still don't have a clue what we want to do, but I enjoyed the reading, writing, and arithmetic, instead of drinking, partying, and waking up with a hang over, along the way.

SCHOOL FOREVER!!!