Sunday, September 22, 2013


To College, or not to College?

To college, or not to college?  That is the question—
Whether it is braver to face a new life and all the barriers you will encounter,
Or to avoid the barriers by choosing the quick path, striking away higher education.
To be living and learning in the world—for that is what life without schooling is,
That is a worthwhile endeavor. To not attend, and to learn by living, and maybe to explore the world as innocents.
Ah, but that’s the issue. Innocence and ignorance are siblings, crab bodies without shells in the ocean, and who knows how to survive defenseless? Certainly, that’s cause for concern. That fear is why we scrape clean our pockets to pay for college.

After all, who would stand for all the bitterness of going to college—the competition, the lofty tuition, the terrifying transition, the lack of air conditioning in the freshman dormitories—when you could simply opt to survive, maybe thrive, on only a high school diploma? Who would choose the awful fears and sacrifices of college, unless they were afraid of what would happen without, the limitless world with its limitless facets, intricate and unknown, which we wonder about without receiving answers from and which makes us cling to the traditions we know rather than initiate ones of our own? Fear of the unknown makes us all cowards, and our bravery is weakened by our over speculation. Choices that should be made quickly are over-processed, ground until they are the dust that floats away with the air. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Anna!
    I really enjoyed reading this, especially since the topic is so closely related to what every senior is feeling right about now while applying for college and it was also so well written. If I had to pick a side I would pick the one to go to college because there is always underlying curiosity in the unknown, even though you state that there is "fear in the unknown", I agree with the fact that there is fear in "what would happen without it".

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