Should I go to college?

[Thoreau]

Hey so im 18 and I was wondering if it would be worth it to go college. Im in a Social Science course on high school wich its goal is superior education attendence, my teachers and what ive learned there, about History mostly, made me realize that the world is a fucked up place and that our current economic lie that has been governing the world for about 200 years its about to collapse and major famiine may ocour if that happens, thats why I started studying anarchist values and alternatives. My History teacher for exemple is the most inteligent man i had ever come across, and i mean ever, hes sorta like my undeclared mentor, and we both want knowledge, I love studying things im interested in, ie anarchist and travel, I dont see myself to have a job with an house and a car and god forbid, a famility, not into that no how.
Ive also learned that TV is ALL propaganda, but 100%, the inteligent people are never asked and usualy do not have power against the master of all puppet governments in the world, interesting and a sign that things may change is that my geography teacher finaly admited that Globalization is a bad thing and it works for companys, you dont see people goin from place to place, its a lie, like the fundation of the european union and worst of all, its currency wich is currently enslaving countries like Greece and Portugal, I know all of us did mistakes, but some had the force to silence and impose to others, others of course, cant do that.

Now the batle is that I love to learn, very much so, and university in Portugal is mostly public and about 1000€/year, wich is not much compared to maybe the US? where all i hear is that universities are private and ungodly expensive. So the question is not so much about money, its what I know and also i am very sure I wont find a job in my area, a job like you know, the ''normal'' thing, nor do I think I would like.

Im expecting to do a full term travel for 3 months, wich is the summer holidays, but the registration for college happens also right after school ends. Kinda

Should I take a gap year? I do not think I have what it takes for it, and to tell the truth traveling alone is oftenly weird and scary, although I did it before.

So any advice?

EDIT: I do my learning mostly for self education, reading, debating and alternative movies and short films. It takes one to stand up against everyone but it is hard, im already the revolutionary in my village xD

 

[Kim Chee]

If you are interested in college simply for the sake of learning and not for earning a degree which you can go around showing to others, I'd say don't go. There is plenty of learning that takes place/could take place outside of a university. I love to learn, but I'm a terrible scholar. When it comes to being told what to absorb and what to regurgitate, count me out. I've plenty knowledge that either can't or wont be taught in school. On the other hand, should your values change over time, you may wish you had furthered your education instead of squandering it seeing the world and experiencing "real life" outside of school.

Life is full of choices.

 

[Earth]

This is a tough call...
When I was 18 (1983), a high school diploma was all one really needed, maybe a little trade school... but nobody felt completely obligated to go to collage, the focus was more on getting a job and moving out.
But today, it seems that the bachlors degree is the new high school diploma, and by sort of forcing kids to have to go to collage, it kinda allows them to waste time hanging out instead of really focusing on getting it together.
I guess where I'm going with this is back in the day, one who was 18 was considered done with school and ready to take on the world. Now that age is what, many 30??
I'm just glad I don't have to do it all again....

My own opinion on taking time off to do nothing is really a waste of time that could be better spent.
What I mean is yeah, you are only young once (forget that age is just a number bullshit) but at the same time - that's when you should be doing whatever it takes to get your dream together.

I'm 47 now.
I left home at 21 ( I did choose to go to a technical school)
I put in 25 fucking years in a factory, and now I'm reaping the rewards.
Built an analog studio, got a fleet of kayaks of every shape and size which I use all year round...
Have my animals... am involved with the ecology, still do my art / photography (print film, not digital)
In other words, I'm living the dream I set out for my self at age 12.
Sure, it was not an easy ride, in fact the last 3 years were terrible - it's only now - within the last couple of months - where everything's come together and life is suddenly very beautiful.
And believe me, the last 25 years went by pretty fast.
Important thing is your health.

Can't emphise that enough.............
You got to have good health, then you can set your mind to do anything you want.

But that's the question that will answer your collage question:
What is it you want out of life, and what are you willing to do to get there??
That will answer your question regarding if you should go to collage or not.

Good Luck, and Stay Focused !!

 

[Deleted member 2626]

ditto what michael said. i've learned so much more outside of college and what is "forced" upon you. High school i feel was a waste of my life, being taught some things everyone damn well knew wasn't going to be used in everyday life. My sister is going to college, my dad's gonna be broke, and it could end up her going for a few months or so and wanting to do something else or be more like me and just work here and there and travel. but i'm also not saying college is so bad lots of cheaper tech and community schools to go to

 

[scatwomb]

College, like life, is what you make of it. You could have an amazing experience in college by learning new things, being challenged, making interesting friends, etc. Traveling provides the same things, just in a less institutional/formal way.

The only thing colleges provide that traveling does not, however, is an ability to navigate through large bureaucracies. This basically means that colleges will prepare you for working a typical/bureaucratic type job and traveling full time will not.

It really depends on what you want in the future - don't place a value judgement on anything. If you know what makes you happy, go for it. It does not have to be what culture tells you to want.

 

[daveycrockett]

shut the fuck up and get back to class dont let me see you in the streets

 

[Deleted member 363]

"university in Portugal is mostly public and about 1000€/year"

Holy shit, that is really cheap.

Dude, stay in school or learn a skill. If you don't know what to study then take a gap year. Travel for a bit and find out what you like in life.

 

[Deleted member 20]

Dont let school get in the way of your education. I would also get out there & try to figure out what you truly want to do. I have spent 15 years figuring out what I dont want to do pursuing a sort of bucket list of adventurous & wacky jobs, some of them created from childhood memories of movies i watched. The simple fact that you are having this internal struggle when most everyone in your village is walking the line of normalcy, tells me you will be ok & find your way. I am sure your direction will naturaly evolve as things have a way of doing. If you ever get over to the states, come visit New Bedford, Massachusetts & look me up. It has the highest population of Portugeese people in the state & I also live there.

 

[Thoreau]

College, like life, is what you make of it. You could have an amazing experience in college by learning new things, being challenged, making interesting friends, etc. Traveling provides the same things, just in a less institutional/formal way.

The only thing colleges provide that traveling does not, however, is an ability to navigate through large bureaucracies. This basically means that colleges will prepare you for working a typical/bureaucratic type job and traveling full time will not.

It really depends on what you want in the future - don't place a value judgement on anything. If you know what makes you happy, go for it. It does not have to be what culture tells you to want.

Yes I also think I view myself in the last 2 sentences, but im afraid that I may fail and/or that it may just be worth it on the short term, comparing to college, wich is 3 years here in europe. Maybe I should just take an year off, hardly anyone does it becouse its not a tradition but with the mess in Europe cause of all the unemployed young people with degress makes me feel like i should really go for the alternative to college. Probably Gap year should be a worthy experience

 

[ped]

This notion that an 18 year old knows who he is and what he wants to spend the rest of his life doing, or that there will be a job for him the rest of his life, and humans should only be qualitfied for one thing and one thing only, is part of the mass delusion. Run, not walk, but RUN from college. It is nothing more than training for the corporate machine. It's there to make you an employee. And not to actually train you for a job, but to prove that you can tolerate submission to management and bureaucracy. It has nothing NOTHING to do with education. It may have 300 years ago but not today. You have all the same books and knowledge at your fingertips for free right now.

A job and the money you make will not bring happiness. It brings temporary distraction at a high price. Working 5 to enjoy 2 so you can keep a house you dont care for, in a boring neighborhood, with a new Chevy in the driveway, a big TV on the wall, and shity plastic friends while waiting around for hopefully a few good solid years of retirement to actually live you life before you're dead... if you're lucky and you don't get fired like yesterdays trash or some 30 year old on wallstreet pisses your ever diminishing pention away on banking scams is not what the TV makes it out to be. There is a reason we're the richest nation in the world and the vast majority of americans are some of the most miserable in the [western] world. It's this dream of uppward mobility we have been deliberately and craftily sold for many generations now. All it does is make you work harder for less while chasing the carrot. And university has to be the most glarring example of the scheme today. They make you pay and compete against each other, going into massive debt, so you can be used like a whore by a seedy bunch of over-privelaged sociopaths in ties....and feel good about doing it.

I'm into my 30's now so I'm not exactly someone who hasn't been there and just talking out of my ass. What I did was find a lame but steady job while I saved every penny. I worked for over half a decade to save for a mobile dwelling. An RV. Actually a class B which is a van setup to live out of. At the same time I spent the vast majority of my time at my job absorbing knowledge and building my real skills for freelance money making. Learning photography, solar systems, wrenching on my own vehicles, welding, EMT first aid, horticulture, beer/wine making, etc. Whatever floats your boat personally. (beware of living for hipster cred)

Now I live in a nice RV on $3,500 a year and am quite comfortable. For work I find temp jobs when I need it be it on a winery, swinging a hammer, pushing a pencil, freelance writing, USDA forest host, selling art, whatever. And I work 3 months a year and travel (comfortably) whenever and practically where ever I want. I talk to many of suburbanites that are in awe and totally envious of the life like they're dogs in the pound watching another get taken to a new home.

There's plenty of other ways out there. To each his own. But they're not the "normal" image you see on sitcoms and they're not all rosey and exciting all the time. But trust me they beat the school-work-house-family-retirement-death paradigm any day. You have one short life, don't waste it sleepwalking under florescent lights for a steady check.

My apologies for the amerocentrism but I'm betting it isn't a whole lot different in most places today.

 

[Thoreau]

sorry when i posted the second time i did refresh so i could not see anymore posts beyond the post in quoted earlier.

So for KC9, yes most higher education institutions are public and private one's credibility range around 0, there is a social conception (mis or not?/for the sinner pays the saint) that grades are bought, and that is of course persived as imoral and stupid, so the state as the monopoly, although it does not control them, they have great liberty. thats why is so cheap, comparing to the US, but for example germany has free college for european citizens, dont know how that works, still id rather pay to be taught here then to learn german, too scary.

For Highwaynman, I agree with you but my problem is precisly that I have no safeground, for example, i still havent found people that would want to do things like long term travel and/or that can really be reliable for when situations get really though. So basicly I could just go to some city and try to find some people like that, but its a very big decision. And yes i would like to visit the US if i can, more specificly areas that you may live currently.


For ped, totaly agree with you, what more can be said? the whole picture is there. Although its not exacly our comon way to see life. At least it used not to be, but you know, propaganda does wonders

 

[uncivilize]

If you understand the game, you can still obtain a valuable education using the university system, and even start working against the standard agenda, working towards an alternative, without becoming a cog nor letting it destroy you. That's a step up, it's easy to rant and rave and talk shit about the system, it takes real brains and strength to start changing shit while, even if it's a total farce on your part, working within it.

If I had been smarter years ago, I would have gone to school, and just started working towards creating a healthy and sustainable way of life. Even though it's total bullshit, people would take me more seriously with a degree, and I would be able to affect more significant change. Now my only hope is getting land to homestead and becoming a hermit, or else I'll snap, and alot of people will regret letting a mind like mine slip through the cracks. People think I'm playing games or looking at porn on my iPod, while I'm sitting there reading about soil science or forestry. That's just the way it is. Seriously, what are you going to do otherwise? Drop out, waste your breath screaming about how fucked up shit is, throw bricks at corporate store windows?

Anyone that calls you a sell-out or anything like that is a pathetic ego-driven piece of shit, they're fucking vampires and will drain you. There is certainly a shitload to be angry about, and it's healthy to be, but don't let it cloud your vision nor paralyze you.

Your university is crazy cheap, it's ridiculously expensive and difficult to obtain a university degree here in the states, just another way to maintain social stratification (not going to school helps maintain the status quo as well as going, things are pretty fucked!) I say go for it, you're very young, it's only three years, you'll have great opportunities to learn more about yourself in a social context, have some fun, etc. Taking a year off first might not be a bad idea, but you could get stuck in something else and never make it back. Try to study something you would enjoy, but that is actually relevant to your concerns. I'd say anything having to do with producing food in a healthy sustainable way is a good bet. The basics of life are (obviously) relevant to everyone, and usually relatively stable.

Good luck with whatever you do!

 

[Pheonix]

I agree with uncivilize, I'm very smart too but since I don't have a degree nobody listens.

 

[Dan Keizer]

If you want to get into mainstream filmmakiing you'd better go to college. If not, you will have to find your own way of getting your own equipment (or using somebody else's) and just do everything on your own which is very much possible if you have the will.

I would recommend to anybody that they should learn some trade to support themself, which may or may not include college but will definitely include training and study.

For a lot of the people on this site that might mean skills that travel. Some trades you can pretty much go anywhere and get a job doing. Welding, translating, cooking etc... if you're new in a town and need a job there are some businesses that have a constant revolving door of personel.

Anyways, if you have something you know you want to do then do it. If college is required then go. But if you're like a lot of us where you aren't really interested in work in general, just find something that will at least sustain you without tying you down.

 

[Mouse]

If you love to learn, go for it.

 

[Beegod Santana]

I agree with uncivilize, I'm very smart too but since I don't have a degree nobody listens.

I don't know dude, aren't you the guy about to join the Army?

jokes...

 

[Thoreau]

AS uncivilized said, yup i have all these ebooks about permaculture and food production, im also thinking about squating to do that. The laws here lets you be sort of a free tenant of the land you are ocupying, if you are actually living in there, and what better way that to grow crops, even if the land as a real owner that may come around, people will still apluade your initiative of agriculture. I would like to start some sort of comunity or really just a group of people for co-housing and working towards self suficiency, like many WOOFing farms try to accomplish

You cannot save people from theirselves but if i get the chance to become also an acitivst, sabotage interests me pretty much (not the kind of sabotage that hurts people directly)

 

[Unslap]

Keep in mind that most users here have never had (never will) have the opportunity to go to college and this may influence their advice.

 

[soapybum]

I was going to college for awhile, and honestly unless you wanna go to possibly make more income than you can now then you you're better off not goin, you can teach yourself more and in less time if you have the drive.

2

 

[Mouse]

I've taken on the burden of student loans and am working toward a master's degree. I have no intention of paying that debt or giving a shit about what I do with my degree. I just love learning