What do we actually learn in college? How is the experience of any benefit to us? It is clear that the longer one lives, the more experience they gain, and it doesn’t really matter what it is they are doing. As long as you are living, eyes open, reaching out, endeavoring, slobbing, and doing the things we do, you are gaining–at the very least–experience.

So what of this “college experience”? There are a lot of angles to approach it from. In one sense, there are really no alternatives for one if they desire a better life. Sure, of course we could all exercise more, practice meditation, eat healthy, and shun (to the best of our ability) bad habits such as drugs and all-week television marathons, but none of that qualifies us for say… a six-figure position.

Six-figures is a bit of a stretch. How about five-figures, a car, a house, and a decent (not too resplendent) amount of spending cash for the weekends? Are these things more than we deserve, or should hope for? Okay, how about a used car, a condo, and an easily paid off credit card for the weekends? Is that too much?

These material pleasures are earned through the application of some type of occupation. We call it “work.” More jobs become available to those who have a college education. These are facts. Sure, let’s not take anything away from hard work and applying ourselves. Plenty of people make it without the degree. Trades, service industry, caretaking, these are decent careers that do not require that fabled piece of paper. However, many of these positions are hourly or tip based and require one to work long hours over a lifetime to really see the grandest pay out.

So why are we doing college? Are we simply buying our way into a career? What does one really take away from the experience? Are we gaining skills from lectures, discussion boards, and essays?

I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’ve never had to do homework for a job. Once my time at the job is over for the day, it’s over for good, and no way in hell am I bringing that work home.

It’s cynical to think that we are merely “buying” a career. Optimistically, one would hope that there is something intrinsic in all of us, a calling, so to speak, that one follows, studies, and practices until they are in a state of mastery. Something that wakes us up and drives us to add a greater piece of ourselves to the fledgling world.

Not the case, for many college students.

“I have no idea what I want to do with my life,” is the answer I get all the time after asking students the (for some reason) extremely difficult question: “So what do you want to do with your life?”

It is a tricky question, and it doesn’t necessarily have just one answer, but it is a little disheartening to see the lack of concern and direction on student’s faces. If they don’t know what they want to do with their lives, then what are they doing in college? Is college just something people do? Should it be? Or should college be something that is approached with tact, reason, and passion? Everyone can understand “the next step,” but what if you’re going into that next phase of your life blind? We’re paying for this, after all. How can you be sure you’re making the right choices?

Avalon Helena is a college graduate of Loyola University. She says she doesn’t regret going to college, but still wishes she majored in a degree where she could make more money.

“It’s stupid and annoying,” she said. “But you need something to pay the bills.”

Her attitude, frustrated by flippant, a sort of shrugging defeat, is reflected in many college graduates. None of them seem to openly regret college. They say that they gained a lot. They usually aren’t sure what, so we’ll chalk it up to a natural growth through the slow accumulation of experience, and that time just happened to be spent in a college.

Usually, one’s happiness with their degree correlates directly to how much money they are able to make.

“I need more money,” said Ashley, a communications major from Columbia. She too, like Helena, doesn’t regret going to school, but is aggravated by how difficult it is to save any money. Add on the tens of thousands of dollars she owes to the university and, though highly educated, she is unable to move up, and is stressed.

So I ask again: what are we gaining? And how do we actually learn? What gets taken away from this experience? Perhaps it’s a stretch to say that we only gain from our interactions with peers and teachers, and not the actual content we are drilled on in class. If this be the case, then there ought to be more teamwork, togetherness, and social skills lessons taught in our classes. We can share a small windowless room with eight other people for half a year and barely get to know them. Isn’t that odd? Don’t we get to have (at the very least, superficially intimate) relationships with our colleagues in the “working world”? Aren’t these connections though at times shallow and lame, basically all we remember (or gain) from all our hours of effort and toil?

So many questions…. I suppose I’m selfishly looking to the reader for impossible answers.

If you do go to college, don’t do it just to do it. Don’t be blown asunder by the winds of our times. Have a purpose, a meaning. There are already so many people who find life more and more meaningless the longer it goes on. This is not true. Life is meaningful, but you have to mine its potential, and do so carefully, and wisely.

When you’re in class, sure, respect the professor enough to half listen to their lecture, but pay very close attention to your classmates as well. These are the people who you will learn from. Do not fear them, or give in to whatever you say is wrong with you (anxiety etc.). The real knowledge comes from your interaction with the strange people all around you. This is how we learn. It’s where we learn. From being curious, compassionate, and questioning our fellow peoples. This is not BS. Sure, it’s a bit of a rant, but try and open your heart, and see what this does for your “experience.”