So You Didn’t Go to College

A note to myself four years after not going to college

So, you skipped out on college because you hated school and couldn’t imagine 4+ more years of that hell. You opted out because you wanted to “find yourself” first. You figured the world was waiting for your well of creativity and brilliant ideas. College was built to prepare you for a career, but you already had that path right in front of you. Or so you thought. Stupid boy. Ignorant, immature, selfish little imp. Look back at what you’ve had to go through these past four years, look at all the things you’ve had to learn. All the experiences you’ve had to go through to learn all these things that have put you where you are today. Looks a lot like an education doesn’t it? It’s not just the hundreds of articles and books, the hours and hours of online classes and lectures. It’s the hard lessons of failing time and time again at everything. Every time you set your hand to the plow the world would smack it down and laugh right in your uneducated face. You fool. You don’t have a degree, it’s been four years, idiot.

Yes, perhaps I don’t have a slip of paper or a string of debt to prove I’ve learned something, but I’ve got four years of creating, four years of falling, four years of standing, four years of trying, four years of doing. I know a lot about a lot. It’s true, I was wrong to think that by skipping college I would be able to focus solely on the things I love most. I’ve had to expand my mind into a thousand uncomfortable areas. It’s been work. No one telling me what to learn or how to learn it. I’ve had to discover on my own what I need to know to do what I want. However after four years, at the end of the day, I have absolutely no regrets. I admit it, I was wrong to think this way would inherently be easier, more successful and fulfilling. It hasn’t been. It’s been bloody hard. Yet, through these four years I’ve discovered what it is I want to do and more importantly how I’m going to do it. So to heck with my arrogance, pride and free spirit. Life takes work and maturity can suck, but at least I know that and won’t have to spend the rest of my career paying for it.

“Freedom is a scary thing, the fences are gone, the paths are gone. It’s a field and a forest. Go build something.”