On My Love for School

Hello there Edsters,

This is it, my last summer as a student is officially done with. How did I grow up so fast? How am I, all of a sudden, this enormous being? With two decades (decades!) of life experience?
With the end of the summer comes the beginning of the school year. Oh, how I love this scent in the air. Staples is rushing to get in the newest Five Star notebook, Bic’s producing an infinite amount of pens, and Apple is, once again, selling out of iMacs thanks to their student discounts. I know. I’m a geek. But it’s in my blood; I can’t do anything about it. I like to embrace the feeling. Given that this will be my last “first day of school,” I decided to dedicate this post to higher education.

After spending the summer working full-time, I realized how little I actually treasured my education. I always dreamed of working like a grown-up, with real responsibilities, and no homework. But, let me tell you, that kind of life isn’t too much fun. You’re always tired, you feel fat because of all the sitting down, you actually do get bored at times, and, most importantly, you don’t feel special anymore.

As a student, I always felt like I was this extraordinary being. I thought of myself as this little ball of potential, waiting to explode. I liked to warn the world, “Watch out! I’ll be done with this soon, and I’ll change the world!” I felt like I had the power to choose what I wanted to do, and I truly felt like the world, the real world needed someone like me. “Just wait until I graduate, and I’ll be the change I always dreamed of being.”

Then I started working, I started mingling with the commuters, rushing to work and back, counting down the minutes when I could finally step outside and enjoy the sun, counting down the days to a weekend of absolute nothingness. I eventually realized that the sparkle I felt inside of me, as a student, with all the potential and creative energy in the world, was slowly fading away. I tried hard to hold on to it: I read a lot of books, I made up homework assignments in the hopes of recreating the spur of creativity that had until then characterized me, I tried to fill up my weekends with activities (even though all I wanted to do is sleep). Let me tell you – it’s hard. And, at least, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel: in September, I would go back to school, and that feeling of world-power would eventually creep back into me. But this is the last time I go back to school. What happens when I graduate, when there isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel?

Edsters, let’s hold on to this special feeling together! Growing up can't mean losing that sense of joy and the voracity to learn. I will not let growing up mean that to me. Let’s, as this new generation of interns and almost-graduates, find ways to assuage the pain of the real world and find solutions to hold on to the joie de vivre that every student, even though not as geeky as I am, has inside. Suggestions?

XOXO,
Web Intern