It's hard to believe I'll be done with my lifetime's worth of schooling in (almost exactly) six months time. Walking around UCLA, I'm from time to time struck by not just the beauty of the campus, but also the unique privilege and environment that makes up my higher education experience.
Clearly, these benefits are not unique to my own experience at UCI and UCLA. A few of the more universal qualities that I will miss about college (and its professional school variations)...
1. A sense of community. This is probably the most missed aspect of school for new grads moving home or to a new setting. There's something comforting about simply seeing a group of people on a near-daily basis, walking the halls, in class, and at class events.
2. The ability to purely learn. Of course there are those who are simply trying to do the bare minimum to graduate, and can't wait to leave school, but for the most part people are paying excessive amounts of money because they have some genuine interest in learning. The freedom to choose your area of interest, and the ability to pursue goals unattached from a direct monetary-sum reward (as in work settings) are equal parts precious and invaluable.
3. A sense of pride in your school. This unifying quality is partly what keeps people so attached to their alma mater, I think. People like to belong to a larger entity, and while there are some elements of this at work, there's nothing quite like showing off your schools' best eats and sights, or cheering for your basketball team or football team.
4. Freedom. Sure there are your occasional enslaughts of exams and papers, but on a day-to-day basis, school affords you unparalleled daily freedom in your schedule. The lack of consequences for missing a day of class and convenience of planning a short trip unhindered are seriously taken for granted.
Okay, enough brown nosing to the higher education system for today. Down with tuition increases, down with the student loan system, down with ugly bureaucratic waste!
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