Two days ago, as I walked out of my last class ever after taking my last final ever, I did a celebratory dance around the halls of McClelland before I strutted out the doors for the final time. After five years of papers, presentations, group projects, and homework assignments, it was finally over. College was over.
In the midst of my ecstasy, a thought hit me: was it worth it? Was it worth the studying and hard work? Was it worth the investment of time and money? Was my time in college time well spent? I think the answer is yes and no.
Sure, it’s not a bad thing to have a college degree, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a requirement for the kind of work I do. I know plenty of talented programmers and developers who never went to college, and I can back that up with firsthand experience: about 95% of the skills I use in my job are either self-taught or things I learned while working there. This only really applies to computer and IT jobs, though. If I ever needed brain surgery, I know I’d want my surgeon to have more training than reading “Brain Surgery for Dummies” and Wikipedia.
Just like when I left my last job, the most important thing I can take away from college is the relationships. I met a lot of great people and made a lot of friendships that will probably stay with me for my entire life. When I look back in ten years, I’m pretty sure I won’t remember anything I learned in Organizational Behavior or Operations Management, but I will remember all the people I hung out with until deep into the night on many occasions.
Finally, I think the biggest change for me will be the lack of nightly homework. I’m going to come home from work, make dinner, and then what? Free time in the evenings is going to be weird at first, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it quickly. I can see myself buying a nice recliner and falling asleep around nine o’clock every night after reading a book for an hour. Or maybe I’ll get a satellite dish and subscribe to four or five soccer channels for endless hours of entertainment.
Or maybe I’ll sign up for night classes at Pima to pick up some new languages. At the rate of one language every two years (assuming fourth-semester proficiency is the desired outcome), I could possibly be speaking seven languages by 2018.
