In just one weeks time I will be returning to school to polish of my junior year at the University of Puget Sound. After this next semester I’ll only have one year left before I have to go out and join the real world. I say “real world” because college is not like the real world, there are penalties for your mistakes, but not nearly as severe as those you find outside of it. It’s not just about the punishments either, most people I know at UPS aren’t working, and most of our bills, food, housing, electricity, are already taken care of. In all honesty, the real world freaks the hell out of me. For god’s sake I don’t even know how to find an apartment! It makes me feel like a giant kid, and I’m terrified of what will happen once I leave college and that protective net is gone. All I can say is that I am enormously grateful to my parents for allowing me the opportunity to go this school.
I’ve learned more in these past two-and-a-half years than I could ever have hoped to have gleaned out of high school. Not only that, I’ve made an amazing group of friends there. Most of all though, I’ve learned a lot about myself; two years ago I was a quiet, shy, weak little boy. In two years here I’ve gone from someone who would give his friends money to rent games with because he was too self-conscious to do it himself, to someone who can embarrass himself freely in public without having a nervous breakdown. I used to hide the fact that I was a gamer, I would try and avoid discussions about games in public, and I tried to shop for games online so people wouldn’t see me. Now here I am, looking up game design internships and discussing the industry. College has been an integral part of all of these changes.
I guess that’s what makes me not understand parents who refuse to help pay for their child’s college education. I mean, these people spend thousands of dollars feeding, clothing, and generally raising this child, and finally when they’re at their peak, ready to change into adults like some gangly caterpillar, they rip open the cocoon. What’s worse is the excuse that most of these parents use, “this way they’ll appreciate their education.” Do you have any idea how hard it is to work while studying? You become a zombie, and what’s worse, you miss out on the social aspects of college. Honestly, if I came out of this university having taken no courses, it still would have been worth it just for the interpersonal skills and contacts I’ve gathered. How about the appreciation part of that phrase, clearly I don’t appreciate my college education as much as someone who had to pay for it themselves, right? Wrong bucko! If anything I appreciate my college education more, I realize exactly how much money this is costing my parents, and I can see how much they love me in what they’re having to sacrifice in order to help me get through. Going to my school has been an amazing experience, and I wouldn’t trade my time there for anything in the world, and every day that I talk to my parents I try to tell them just how much I appreciate what they are doing for me, because they have given me something truly remarkable.
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