Thinking back to the days when I was a freshman in college, eating hot pockets and one dollar mac and cheese for months on end because my minimum wage job wasn’t covering the basics anymore, it’s almost nostalgic—little naive me. I would go to the gas station and put a grand total of three dollars in my tank just to be able to drive five minutes away to campus. I was consistently scraping the bottom of the barrel just so I could pay rent and buy cat food while making tuition payments.
At this point in my life, I knew nothing about universal potential or energetic manifestation (they just don’t teach that stuff in high school). What I did know was this: that 17 and 18 year olds are thrown into massive life decision-making positions, taking out $100,000 loans for an education when just three months ago they had to ask permission to use the bathroom.
This isn’t the way the future was presented, though. It was all wrapped up in a shiny box as the thing to do—who were you if not educated by a decent university with great school colors—and everyone was doing it. It was the norm, so it wasn’t questioned, and we were sent off like little baby turtles going to sea in hopes of returning with a piece of paper that said we made it.
The problem is not the world of further education, though. College is a tool we add to the belt of knowledge and skills in the job field we choose to pursue. The problem is that school prepares you for more school. How to write an essay in MLA format. How to solve an algebraic equation, or take a test. In the event that you pass all the prelims two years later, you just might make it on to learn about the subject you signed up to major in. Is this good information? Yes! Is it necessary life knowledge—the kind that you’ll end up working at a crappy restaurant for the rest of your life without? No.
Can you imagine a school system that would have taught you that you can create your own reality? I can’t imagine that it would really be a good business model, because all the students slugging through intro to geology with their eyes half closed and no clear vision of the future would have realized that reality doesn’t have to be so black-and-white, and maybe they didn’t need to be there.
When I left college, I was scared, because I was raised conditioned to believe that without a degree, I was a guaranteed failure. It’s something that still crosses my mind fairly often. To buffer this fear, I promised myself that I would continue to learn on my own. I would teach myself what I wanted to learn, at my own pace, to make sure I was really absorbing the information. Without societal pressure and expectation to succeed at something I was unsure of/not passionate about, I was able to create the space I didn’t even know I needed, in order to expand who I was.
I’ve learned more than ever since leaving the classroom setting. I study science, psychology, and personal development in my free time. I’ve dipped a toe or two in the spiritual realm, and broadened my consciousness through manifestation work and meditation. I’ve learned some Sanskrit, the bare bones of web design, and how to run a business. I’ve read so many powerful books—even a couple from college classes I never went to—gained experience from traveling, and discovered who I am as an energetic being.
What I wish I would have known at 17 years old: an expanding knowledge and success are 100% correlating companions. College may or may not contribute to that expansion, but if it’s something that has to be forced, it’s not right. There are other ways to learn, and as long as growth is happening, it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from.
There isn’t just one right answer.
Xx, Anna