I have always believed in the importance of a quality education. Being the first in my household to make it this far through college, I am constantly reminded of how important my education is to me when I hear my mother complain about how much she hates her job in the mortgage industry. She always wanted to be a nurse. Or when my dad constantly tells me he can’t send me any money to help pay for tuition or textbooks because people just aren’t buying cars like they used to. I hate to admit it, but hearing things like this coming out of my parents has probably been the biggest motivation in pushing me to not give up on my education.
Mmother is under the impression that everyone can work during the day and go to school at night because Vivian, a young girl working in her office, is getting her B.A. in Business Administration and is able to take the classes she needs at night. I, on the other hand, am an Art History major. As if going to school while trying to make enough money to pay my own bills wasn’t hard enough, I have to constantly try and juggle around my work schedule with my class schedule because my department only offers one section of one class at one time slot each semester. It’s really difficult to find an employer that will let you come in and out of the office because you have to take a class in the afternoon a few days out of the week.
Classes started today for the fall semester – my last fall semester as an undergraduate. I was just told today by my advisor that I will be able to graduate this coming summer. As graduation finally seems within reach, and I start to figure out what it is I want to do after getting my Bachelor’s degree, I am becoming more and more grateful for my education.
I’m not exactly sure yet what I want to do with a degree in Art History, but I am sure that without my understanding of the pre historic female goddess and her evolution into the Virgin Mary, or why Jackson Pollack was such a pioneer and not just a poor S.O.B. who did some finger paints and made it big, I wouldn’t have the insight into the world around me that lets me see through the smoke screen that big advertising and politics wants us to buy into. My education has taught me to read between the lines, and because of that, I feel a responsibility to shake things up and make a difference in the world I live in.
I believe education is the greatest gift that anybody can give them self. People always complain about the cost of tuition going up and up – and the amount of debt they’ll end up in with student loans. But so what? We’re all going to have some debt at one point or another. It’s the American way of life. What better reason to be in debt that for an education?