OMG Guess what?
- Thread starter Abercrombie6202
- Start date
While it is important to get a good education in the traditional sense, just remember that all those good grades mean jack if you can't learn life's lessons. An education comes from everywhere, from your part time job after school, from the best friend who is down on their luck, from the mistakes you make, from the mistakes others make, and from that age-old teacher in the school of hard knocks, fate.
The older I grow, the less and less employers or other people look at my transcrips. The less they care about certifications. They ask about my experiences. How much experience do I get from sitting behind a desk learning how the heart works? How much do I get from being in a trama ward when an HBC emerency comes in and we have an open thorax? The piece of paper I carry says I'm qualified to perform CPR, yet my boyfriend who's an EMT can give you wonderfully graphic details on what it feels like to really have to do CPR. I have a degree, he doesn't. He has the experiences, I don't.
If there was any advice I could give young people, it would be please, please, please don't wrap yourself up in school work and the "importance" of good grades. I did, and now I find that I would rather be a "professional" student in the classroom than apply everything I've learnd. This is a waste of an education. I'm on deans list this semester, and if I could I would redo the whole damn thing, every horrible exam, every midnight cram, because I feel like I didn't learn anything, nadda, even though the piece of paper says "A" on it. I didn't earn that grade, I showed up to class and got it. That's a very hollow feeling.
Go out and enjoy the learning that is all around you. Then take that learning to the classroom. Not the other way around. It took me this long to figure it out the hard way.
~~Colesea
The older I grow, the less and less employers or other people look at my transcrips. The less they care about certifications. They ask about my experiences. How much experience do I get from sitting behind a desk learning how the heart works? How much do I get from being in a trama ward when an HBC emerency comes in and we have an open thorax? The piece of paper I carry says I'm qualified to perform CPR, yet my boyfriend who's an EMT can give you wonderfully graphic details on what it feels like to really have to do CPR. I have a degree, he doesn't. He has the experiences, I don't.
If there was any advice I could give young people, it would be please, please, please don't wrap yourself up in school work and the "importance" of good grades. I did, and now I find that I would rather be a "professional" student in the classroom than apply everything I've learnd. This is a waste of an education. I'm on deans list this semester, and if I could I would redo the whole damn thing, every horrible exam, every midnight cram, because I feel like I didn't learn anything, nadda, even though the piece of paper says "A" on it. I didn't earn that grade, I showed up to class and got it. That's a very hollow feeling.
Go out and enjoy the learning that is all around you. Then take that learning to the classroom. Not the other way around. It took me this long to figure it out the hard way.
~~Colesea
wow colsea
thats a somewhat sour outlook in my opinoin...it is true that life's lessons are just as important as school's lessons...and I agree that working your [tail] off for an A isn't more important than hapiness, but i think education has its place, especially for those who enjoy the learning...and by golly whats wrong with being a professional student (aka professor) if thats what will make you happy?
but then these are just opinions...and like some other things, everyone has em and they all stink
Kevin
thats a somewhat sour outlook in my opinoin...it is true that life's lessons are just as important as school's lessons...and I agree that working your [tail] off for an A isn't more important than hapiness, but i think education has its place, especially for those who enjoy the learning...and by golly whats wrong with being a professional student (aka professor) if thats what will make you happy?
but then these are just opinions...and like some other things, everyone has em and they all stink
Kevin
Colsea is largely right in most areas....I used to be a computer tech...degreee or certs? Nada....but I had experence...thats what carried me from my first to the second techie position. After the second company fell down and went boom...I tried for some other computer tech slots...this time, experence didn't take me very far...nor did a degree....they all wanted certifications PLUS experence. A degree in the computer science field right now won't go far, leats not near as far as experence and certs. Anyhow...I'm just now tring my luck at getting some experence on this whole fish keeping thing....heh....maybe some day I'll "major" in it...haha (hey, its late, did 10 hour shift at work)
I wasn't trying to say one form of learning was better than the other. A high school degree is of utmost importance in today's society, but must we rush out the door to college so soon? If I hadn't had the parental shove in that direction, I probably would've taken a year or two off to work myself cross country, or to backpack in Europe, or to do something, anything, that was life experiencing. Then through those experiences I'd've been able to better narrow down a choice of majors, assess what "nitch" I belong in, and what I was happiest doing. Instead of struggling to learn the whole new language of my choosen field, I'd've had at least the bottom rung understanding of it, and graduated a rung higher instead of having to start on the bottom even though the piece of paper I have claims I'm "smarter" than the poor individual they are trying to force into early retirement so they can hire me at less money.
I am cynical about education. I am tired of the importance placed on institutional learning. That is just me, I've been in school for six years now. I fear working in the "real" world because I fear all my education won't mean a thing when I'm presented with situations people will expect me to respond in, but that I don't "know" how to. Again, that is just me.
If my words can save another youth from the agony of my fate, so be it.
~~Colesea
I am cynical about education. I am tired of the importance placed on institutional learning. That is just me, I've been in school for six years now. I fear working in the "real" world because I fear all my education won't mean a thing when I'm presented with situations people will expect me to respond in, but that I don't "know" how to. Again, that is just me.
If my words can save another youth from the agony of my fate, so be it.
~~Colesea
Bah...I decided long before I got out of HS that all the years of HS taught me totally nothing for what I planned, jobwise. Never have gone to college, more than likely never will. Do I regret it? No...but this is me, and not you 
Good bud of mine, never finished HS, but got his GED....now he is back in college. Everyone has their own goals in life, job, or what have you. I remember my sophmore year, could only keep thinking I was wasting 4 years of my life for a piece of paper! Sad truth is, you may know it, but in the world you need that paper to PROVE it. Hated that from my family. "oh yeah? PROVE IT"....worse yet...people kill other people for paper (green notes, slight to massive value......money)....but it all comes down to this: To Thine Own Self Be True. (if I got the words right) my favorite quote....for me it means "to heck with what people think, if I like it, thats what counts"....and thats the bottom line for me....do what makes you happy. What is life if you aren't living it?
Good bud of mine, never finished HS, but got his GED....now he is back in college. Everyone has their own goals in life, job, or what have you. I remember my sophmore year, could only keep thinking I was wasting 4 years of my life for a piece of paper! Sad truth is, you may know it, but in the world you need that paper to PROVE it. Hated that from my family. "oh yeah? PROVE IT"....worse yet...people kill other people for paper (green notes, slight to massive value......money)....but it all comes down to this: To Thine Own Self Be True. (if I got the words right) my favorite quote....for me it means "to heck with what people think, if I like it, thats what counts"....and thats the bottom line for me....do what makes you happy. What is life if you aren't living it? 