“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
~ Confucius
We do seem very good at that, certainly.
I always hear people say that your college years are the best years of your life, and I remember thinking, “No way.” I mean, if college really is a person’s best years, what does that mean for our futures? What kind of years could we look forward to after that? Sure, entering the “real world” means people have to take things more seriously, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be great years, that we can’t have fun or set about creating great memories. I listened to the grownups talk about those “best years” and I promised myself that I wasn’t going to let my life get less interesting after college graduation.
Well, now I’ve been a college graduate for almost two years, and I think I understand better now why my parents and everyone else used to say that about college. It’s not that you don’t have fun after you graduate. College comprises some of the best years of our lives because, while we’re in college, we know exactly where we stand in the world. We know what we’re supposed to be doing, what our goals are in the near future, and how we have to work in order to achieve those goals. Life is simple when your position is so straightforward and organized.
So maybe college doesn’t have to be the best years of your life, but you should certainly enjoy them while you can. That kind of simplicity can be so rare in our lives these days.
Thinking along these lines, I suppose that one way to make life more simple is to figure out just where it is we belong, who it is we are or want to be, and set a clear plan for how to proceed. Of course, such things are always easier said than done. It’s just not that easy to stamp out all the doubts that make life so complicated.
We've been out of college a few years, and I'm starting to see another side as well. It's not that college is inherently better than anything to come, or that we won't ever enjoy life, but that in college, opportunities to try new things are lying on the ground, the consequences of doing so are lessened, and responsibilities are a bit more forgiving. In the Real World, you have to go off the beaten path to find the things outside of work that make life worth living. And you're never going to have the same experience again.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you can say that about everything, but college has a number of experiences freely available that you appreciate even more when you realize they wouldn't have to be (and aren't, in the real world).
I need to find a performance group again because I miss performance, but it won't be the same as Theatre Rice.
We've interacted with a handful of students in the last two years that are applying or going to be applying to college, and I do find myself advising them to just go and try things when they get there. That was definitely one of the great things about being in college. I love to introduce things like the DeCal program to potential UCB students, among other things.
DeleteGranted, I suppose that also hinges on students being good at handling their own workload. A person probably wouldn't be able to enjoy the sheer number of opportunities much of he or she was stressed about classes or felt worked into the ground by them. The better one is at managing one's time, the more one can get out of these years (eh, though that's probably true anywhere).
Good luck with finding a performance group! I remember you mentioned wanting to look for one last time too.
I agree that college is much simpler than "real life". Sometimes I wonder whether I entered a graduate program partly because I like the straightforwardness of student life.
ReplyDeleteI really do prefer the simple life. To be honest, I don't care much for traveling or seeing sights. I have no desire for a big house or a fancy car. Unlike an increasing number of my peers, I don't have a family of my own and am not in a rush to start one. I value security and serenity a lot more than high-rolling achievement. I frankly don't care what great academic achievements I might attain as a professor at a top school; if I could somehow be guaranteed a life teaching philosophy at a little community college and living in a cheap apartment, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Alas, the philosophical job market isn't that great right now, so I'm aiming high in the hope that I'll at least hit something.
I wish you luck with finding something like that, although I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing about the job market for philosophy.
DeleteSadly, I sometimes feel like the world is making it harder and harder to really live a "simple" life. It's like human beings endeavor to be more and more complicated creatures. And it's like we have no choice but to join the competition in order to keep moving forward in the society we've got.