I will be lying if I told you that you won’t be successful if you decide not to attend college. That’s because there are people whom you may have heard of who did not attend, or who even “dropped out” of college and went on to become successful (think of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg). But if you compare those success stories against the global population, they are but a (very) small percentage. They are the outliers on a graph, and it’s dangerous to think you’ll be like them. I know dangerous is a strong word, but let me explain.
The truth is that the rest of us, which is most of us, have to equip ourselves with the right tools to become successful in life. Think of your life as an empty toolbox and receiving an education is the process of acquiring tools. Depending on the amount time and effort you put in, your toolbox can be very basic or completely full with specialized tools. If you are following my analogy: that’s primary, secondary and college educations in successive steps. You need to learn the basics before you can get into the specialized “stuff.”
Receiving an education is not about acquiring a piece of paper that defines your self-worth. It’s more so the process of building a database of knowledge that will be used to navigate through the complexities of life. The tools (or knowledge) may or may not be related, however I can assure you, that when the time comes, it will be quite useful. Think about it this way: different tools help with different tasks, and yet sometimes they can work together to solve one problem.
I strongly believe that a college education is not just about becoming a skilled professional; it’s much more about becoming a skilled learner. The better learner you become, the more options are available to you. This is the only way I can explain how, after majoring in business and biology, I very much enjoy learning computer coding! Think of your education as a manual reader for all those tools in the box: if you can read and understand the manual, you can use the tool. A college education makes you an expert manual reader.
One other thing to add: a college education affects the kind of person you become. The way you learn to communicate and think critically, and the way you become an effective and contributing member to society, are shaped through your college interactions. I could use yet another analogy about a toolbox, but I think you get the point.
If there’s ever a time when you think earning a college degree and getting a college education is a waste of time and that you can be successful without it, remember what I said earlier: outliers are a very small percentage. Get a toolbox and start filling it with really useful tools!
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