Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Recipe for success.

It seems to be pretty standard that, to be successful and do things in life, you have to do the following:
  • Graduate high school.
  • Go to college, graduate.
  • Go to grad school (optional).
  • Get a job.
  • Work work work.
And with that you'll get your American dream, your house with the fence, two kids, a dog, a car and a significant other. But WHY is this "the norm"?

And all through high school I thought that's what I would do. I looked forward to college and the future; I thought it would be exciting and new. But now that I'm in college, I can't stand it.

What if I want to live an unconventional life and travel and not get married or have kids? What if I just want to see the world and write books? Why can't I do that without going to college?

What really got me thinking about this was yesterday when I dropped my anthropology class. I was texting my friend and we were talking about how I would only have four classes and twelve credits. When she asked me how I felt about that, I had to stop and think. How would I feel about that?

Five classes is what's normal; twelve credits is what you need to be a full-time student. So what if I only have four classes? Why shouldn't I have a slightly more relaxed semester? The thing that I hate most about school is their idea that to be doing good, I have to be taking a certain number of credits and classes. So what if I have four, five, or six classes? As long as I do well in them, shouldn't that be the only thing that matters?

We're brainwashed since birth practically that we have to go to school in order to do well. School school school. I've spent most of my life in school.

I DON'T WANT TO BE IN SCHOOL ANYMORE.

I'm almost 20 and I want to experience something that has nothing to do with school. It's like if I'm not in school until I'm in my mid-twenties than I'm a failure. Sure, you can't get a great job without a college degree, but I just want to write. There is nothing else I can think of that I want to do. Yeah, maybe classes could help me with structure and flow and all that technical crap, but COME ON. I want to live my life; I don't want to spend it in school.

I've just been feeling frustrated lately because I can't make up my mind about what I want to do with my life. Oh. Speaking of that, why do I need to have my life planned out by the time I'm 22? I'm 19 years old; why do I need to know what I want to do RIGHT NOW? The thing about college is that it forces you into studying something that will potentially be what you're going to do for the rest of your life, and you don't have a lot of opportunity to fully explore your interests and passions.

I don't want to plan. I just want to live and take everything as it comes at me. Why does everything have to be structured and orderly? A little mess and disorganization never hurt anyone.