The Friends We Make Along the Way
One of the biggest events in my college had just passed, and despite not attending myself (it was too crowded, too big for me) I have no shortage of gratitude towards its existence. Over the weekend, I managed to catch up with many people I haven't seen for years as people used this event as an excuse to return to the city.
College experience has been derided hard in the last 15 years, with the price rising, the workplace landscape shifting, and "self-made dropout billionaire" taking the spotlight. I'm sure you've heard enough people saying college taught them no useful thing and no one they met was worthwhile.
Consider me lucky, then. As a dropout, I consider attending college the best thing that ever happened to me, degree completion notwithstanding. Never once in my life I think of it as a waste of time and money (and some people seem to expect this because I dropped out!). I may not get that piece of paper, but I learnt lots, I met the most brilliant people (across both faculty and student body) I wouldn't get to meet otherwise given my family's modest background.
Many of my part-time jobs and gigs and eventually "serious" fulltime roles originated from the people I met in college. My college club was the source of many strong friendships persisting more than a decade (and we still relish every opportunity to meet). They kept me tethered to life during periods of massive upheavals. People I do art with, we were all members of that same club. Over a decade in, some of us married each other, moved in to live with each other. Some strewn halfway across the world pursuing further education or a dream job. Whenever one of them is in the country, we'd have a makeshift gathering.
My college classes were brutal, but they equipped me with all the fundamentals I needed to adapt to whatever I had to learn in the years after. I learned to shed my arrogance. Scarred? Ha. I could count my blessings having survived the whole thing. Not gonna repeat it, and the experience is not something I would wish for anyone else, but I sure have no regret.
Do I recommend attending college? Not if you have to pawn off your limbs and internal organs to pay for it. Not if all you want is a piece of paper. I worked my way throughout college and I dropped out in the end because I couldn't keep up classes and working multiple jobs, but by then I had reaped everything I could.
If you find a good place, don't let the naysayers dissuade you.