WHAT AM I STUDYING FOR?

This is a question that I often ask myself, a question that likes to tug at the corners of my thoughts when midterm time comes.

It is that enjoyable time of semester where your overworked mind tries to search for the escape route, making you reconsider your motivations for putting yourself in such a mess to start with.

Why would you study this?

Will this even help you to get to where you want to be? And where exactly was it that I wanted to be again… somehow I got lost.

University education is long and the footpath that you take that is meant to lead to wider and more attractive roads has so many turns. The end never seems in sight.

At least that is how I feel a lot of the time.

Some people enter into university with clear goals in mind and aims for what they want as a profession in the future.

Others – and I will say most but judging from those around me – have no damn clue. But there is nothing wrong with that either.

They see university education as just a ticket to what should be a life full of opportunities. A university education is what is expected if you want a secure job and stable life.

And for those who may feel stuck in a low economic bracket, being able to gain a higher education could be that one chance to break from a poverty trap.

This is why despite financial hardships people fight to gain acceptance to university.

Yet having a university degree alone is not enough to obtain that ticket to a better life. You certainly increase your opportunities to one but it is really up to you to seize those opportunities.

Especially with increasing numbers of educated people entering the job market, having a university degree in many places is becoming standardised.

I don’t believe not knowing what you want to do in university is necessarily bad. But it is essential that you remember what your passions and interests are and direct your studies towards them.

Even if your classes may sometimes seem un-relatable to what you really want to be learning about.

If you can find some how to relate the new knowledge to a practical way you can utilise it later it makes student life a hell of a lot easier I am sure.

And in university you will learn a lot of things (I would hope) and during your long winding 3. 4 or 4.5 (me…) of however many years of study, if you remembered what you love, and kept it in mind – hopefully – ideally – you would of figured out some way to make that passion your life.

University isn’t just about taking classes and getting good grades and that piece of paper at the end (although that bloody piece of paper is a lot of it…)

It is about learning about what you actually give a damn about and not something you’re forced to like during high school.

So if you’re a student now and the omnipresent reality that the present one day becomes the future worries you – my two cents are:

Never forget what you love.

If it is a craft – work on it. An interest – study it more, Make time for what you love because in the end it is what will help you build the life you want and not that piece of paper.

That piece of paper is a tool but it is up to you to decide how to use it.

So why am I even writing this?

Quite simply: to remind myself of the same thing. What matters to me.

I can’t speak personally that everything will work out like I have wrote - I’m only a 2nd (.5) year student after all. But from those people I have met who have made something of themselves that they can say they’re happy to be – they remembered what they loved and made something from it.

It is better not to add to the number of well-educated individuals who may have good paying jobs but are not happy.

It is all too easy to forget your passions when you’re worried about class exams, finding time to write essays in between classes and part time jobs. I can say that from experience.

But do you really have the time not to make time?