When education gets in the way of your learning

The following is the longer version of my article that was published in Point Loma Nazarene University's publication. Because my own blog is not constrained to a 500 word limit, I wanted to publish the original version and original title. As always, thoughts and rebuttals are always appreciated. :)

Da Capo

The beginning of the end has begun. An exciting “end” that is. Last week I started my final year of undergraduate studies and while very cliché, I can’t help but say that time flies. I remember the very day I made the drive to San Diego. Car packed, heart pounding and student debt pending, all I wanted to do was get there. All that stood between me and PLNU was the traffic jammed 5 freeway.

I remember unloading the car, I remember staring at blank white walls and staring at the ocean out the window. I remember wanting to get the unpacking and paperwork over. I remember the hot weather, the maxi dress I wore and the first time I met my roommate. I remember buying a ridiculous amount of food and top ramen at Target. I remember the painful goodbye to my parents and being shocked by my own reaction. All I had wanted to do was get to San Diego and suddenly all I wanted was for my parents to take me back home with them.

Moving wasn’t anything new to me. There’s nothing much left to shock a girl who has lived in 2 different countries, 3 states and 6 cities. I get the process and adjustment thing. What was different this time around was that I was staying put, in a foreign place with strange people, with lots of expensive books and time consuming assignments and my family couldn’t be there and I have to pay a whole bunch of money for a 8.5 by 11 piece of paper. While I have always been an independent, full time school, full time employee, there was something different about this independence. It wasn’t about location or distance; it was the beginning of a transition.

Skipping forward a few years, its surreal to think that in just 8 months, I go from current student to former student and I am really excited. Like everyone says, it’s a bittersweet feeling. Bitter to leave the people and memories, but sweet to enter a new phase or perhaps da capo? 

Quote of the Day 1/3/12

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."         [Muhammad Ali]

Quote of the Day 12/7/11

Still alive, promise. its almost finals week. 


"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race."           [Calvin Coolidge]

Quote of the Day 10/11/11

"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
[C.S. Lewis]