A college education these days is not an optional luxury, where you go to spend time with friends, rather than stay at home or, heaven forbid, get a job. Not that it’s ever been like that but now, in a time of recession, it’s more important than ever to make yourself as valuable as you can to society. Continuing as a student is one of the best ways of doing that and it’s necessary, not just to get ahead in the jobs market, but to be in the market at all.
You could, of course, simply go out, get yourself a few part time jobs and make yourself a reasonable living for the foreseeable future, maybe even save. But at some point, you’ll realise that you’ve been left behind and those who educated themselves are streaking ahead of you, in their earning power and in their quality of life. That’s when you’ll regret it and maybe try to catch up. You’ll find that catching up is much harder than being a front runner.
Educated doesn’t simply mean “cleverer”. What you learn is how to think on a higher level. Imagine the situation where you’re out with a group of friends who are all better educated than yourself, and the conversation turns to some slightly heavier topic. For one thing, you’ll feel a bit left out and unable to make a contribution. For another, your friends will be aware of this and will make allowance for your lower level of thinking skills, up to a point. Eventually you’ll be too embarrassed to join them and they could begin avoiding you anyway.
On the positive side, as you get deeper into learning, you find new avenues beginning to open up to you, new opportunities to make use of ideas and skills you’ve gained. You could well find your entrepreneurial side being brought out and there’s no knowing where that could lead. There are many examples of wealthy entrepreneurs in all walks of life who started out in joint ventures with college friends.
As you progress in your life, you’ll find that your outlook as a result of educating yourself will be very different to those who shunned the opportunity. You will have the ability to change people’s lives for the better, perhaps in ways you could not otherwise have dreamed of.
By any measure of quality of life, you’ll find that those who have educated themselves come out way above those who haven’t, from health, through place of residence, to social standing in the community. These are all factors that take on more significance as you grow older, so it’s best to take steps in the right direction before it gets too late.
The social life is not only a good thing during the student years, although that in itself is something not to be missed. Valuable friendships and relationships can be built up that can last a lifetime, even extending to marriages and business partnerships.
So, all in all, college education is much to be desired. From the individual’s point of view, it can be seen as taking steps toward making themselves a “better person”. Seen from a national perspective, it can only be good for the whole nation to have a better educated workforce, and population as a whole.