Today I received, as I have weekly for the past four years of my life, an email from a college.
The subject? "Don't Miss Out On Your Education!"
The first line read, "It's been almost a year since you applied to [our university]! Don't miss out on the chance to fulfill your educational goals!"
This way of thinking, so commonplace and widespread in the States, concerns me. The idea that a person will inevitably amount to nothing if they do not, first and foremost, get a college degree.
As it happens, I remember the specific incident to which this email refers. I was sitting in a language school in Guatemala, and I decided to apply to their university, in case in the next year I would have liked to attend. I was sitting in a language school, where I was learning to teach English as a foreign language. I was sitting in a language school, where I daily met with a local boy to practice our respective foreign languages together.
In the past year, as I have been missing out on my education, I have seen seven new countries, become proficient in one foreign language and conversational in a second, and met people from all over the world and learned about their cultures. I have learned about world religion and world politics. I have built homes for widows, worn traditional clothing, and given free English lessons. I have sailed and hiked and zip-lined and gotten sick from street food. But still, I have so unfortunately missed out on my education.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go relish my time avoiding my American University Education by visiting an Islamic palace in southern Spain and, as I will not be in a stuffy classroom, learning nothing at all.