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| "Freedom from Fear" (1943) by Norman Rockwell |
To what extent do you associate college with the opportunity to “be the author of your life” and to what extent does going to college feel more like meeting the expectations that society or your family has for you?
Are there any college restrictions (residential requirements, classes you have to take, money you have to spend, etc.) that you feel are unnecessary or that unfairly limit your ability to become the “author of your life”?
I find the answers to Dr. Benton’s questions in the quote that appeared in page 210 of this book. If you have autonomy through control over what you do with life’s uncontrollable choices, then the answer lies in your choices. As such, going to college was a choice made by each student. It’s true that those around you may have pressured you to go but it was still possible to say no I won’t go. Likewise, if you wished to go to college but those around you encouraged you not to, then a choice was still made because it was possible to say yes I will go. That being said, college was not created by the student simply because they chose to attend, instead, your choice came uncontrollable circumstances or consequences. You may have to take classes you don’t want, live on campus your first year, or spend money on tuitions and fees you don’t agree with, but the freedom lies in how you choose to deal with these items. Therefore, you can exercise your freedom by protesting the practices of the college, by getting the most you can out of these practices, or both.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dylan: no one forces you to go to college. Sure, your family and society may pressure you into going, but ultimately you make the decision if you want to wake up and learn, or go back to sleep. Additionally, there are many different colleges for one to chose from. This is how life works for most, but unfortunately is not the case for everyone. For examples, one of my friends from China had dreamed about going to school in America. His parents agreed to cover all costs of his education - tuition, housing, food - as long as he earned a degree in business. His dream was to earn a music degree. Unbeknownst to his parents, however, he still used all of his free elective hours to take music classes, while still earning his business degree. In his culture, your parents make education decisions for you, yet trade-offs often happen in everyone's lives. In my opinion, however, there are always options that give us the freedom to be the authors of our own lives.
DeleteI agree with both Dylan and Linzi; college is ultimately a choice: it is a time where a person usually obtains his or her first experience of stepping into the real world, and with the opportunities college provides (from majors, campus organizations to housing and student loans) there will be pros and cons. If a student chooses to live on campus he or she will be required to have a meal plan, something that person may not necessarily want to pay for; however, we can control our reaction and action upon what outcomes happen to and around us. Maya Angelou once said, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." This quote can be applied to the college experience; there may be certain strings attached to opportunities we want (such as having to pay for a meal plan or pay student loans if you do not have a scholarship but want a degree), and we choose whether or not to go through with certain actions (although the cafeteria may not have exactly what I want to eat today, if I eat here everyday I will end up saving money and not buy groceries) but with any decision we make, it is how we deal with the current scenario that enables us to be the author of our lives (if a student chooses to go ahead and immediately pay off his or her loans as quickly as possible by taking up a job while in school, that will likely result in him or her graduating debt-free instead of dealing with the debt later). We cannot necessarily be the author of every circumstance attached with what we want, but we can be the author who chooses to work through those circumstances and mold them into a result we would like to achieve.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I always considered college as the ultimate expression of freedom, of me grasping the reigns to my own life, until I actually started preparing for it. The largest dilemma facing young American college students is, of course, the cost. More than distance, more than time, the expenses of university nearly made attending even a smaller college like East Central University impossible. Coming from a single-parent, paycheck-to-paycheck household meant that college was always viewed with a sense of wistfulness and impending mystery. "What a grandiose idea, but how can we afford it?" "College would make your life easier, would give you so many opportunities I never had, but I struggle with the opportunity to send you." It meant that my eidetic memory became less of a novelty and more of a necessity. My success with test taking became my saving grace. By my senior year of high school, achieving scholarships was downright obligatory. College was viewed as compulsory, but definitely wasn't priced as such.
ReplyDeleteWhile here at university, I definitely have reclaimed the sense of freedom and choice, though they exist within an almost invisible barrier of limits. There are monetary and curricular restrictions that limit my ability to steer my own life in the exact direction I choose. I also feel heavily limited by my mother's expectations of my future paycheck. While I love to entertain the idea that I will become fabulously wealthy (because who doesn't?) I don't feel it is the absolute be-all and end-all for my future career. Personally, becoming an author and a professional student is my ideal, but because "no one can get rich doing that", I am instead following a secondary path, one that is more financially secure and rewarding.
I definitely agree with your statement, CJ. While college is perceived by many as the pinnacle of freedom, it quickly becomes evident that there are not fewer obstacles to autonomy, only different ones.
DeleteI spent a great deal of my senior year in high school dreaming wistfully of the freedom I'd imagined would come with my arrival at ECU. However, over the course of the summer, I began to realize the many harsh realities of college life. Financial drawbacks cannot be underestimated. I found myself nearly overwhelmed when I discovered how much my loans will eventually amount to. The high expectations of my family members can be intimidating at times, in spite of the fact that I hold myself to similar expectations.
I believe that the upside, however, is that being "on my own" will allow me to have a bit more of a say in my everyday life. There is a satisfaction in knowing that my decisions are mine to make, and the consequences are mine to be held responsible for. Whether I fail or succeed in the challenges that may come, I can find comfort in knowing that my life from now on is up to me, at least for the most part.
College, for me, was always something that was GOING to happen. My parents didn’t even really push the issue, but I always thought, “after high school, you go to college.” It’s what everyone else does. I went through a lot of different projected careers when I was younger – Firefighter/astronaut/policeman (yes, all at the same time), or maybe a designer at a video game developer, and now, a high school math teacher. No one ever tried to pigeon-hole my expectations or try to dissuade me from changing my path. I picked it myself because it was what made sense, what felt right at the time. Of course, now that I’m here, I’m freaking out about every single thing because I have to take care of issues myself and what happens if I don’t take care of something and why am I doing this? The scary restrictions to face, however, are the ones you place on yourself - when you start telling yourself, “I CAN’T”, or, “I WON’T”. And the scariest of them all, “I CAN’T fail.” While these statements may be true, you can’t dwell on them or make them your only operating guidelines. If you do that, you CAN spiral, crash, and burn. But those are the circumstances. We are in college. We are now “adults”. And with these circumstances, we are going to author the best lives we can possibly create.
ReplyDelete-Colin Saner