Sure, I’ve taken away some great information about the subjects I took classes about. Hopefully I won’t forget the things I learned that I will need for a future career, but looking back I can say I have gained way more than that thanks to my time spent in college.
My college experience has been abnormal, bouncing around from university to community college back to another university across the country. That tends to broaden the perspective just a little. You learn a little about the differences that separate our nation and how areas that seem completely different are really all the same.
I look back on my time spent at Oklahoma State University with fondness, the usual grass is greener fondness that everyone has. The truth is, that even though it was a good school, I really didn’t learn anything important until I came to UVU.
I found ways to expand myself here. I worked for the paper. I tried to make friends in all my classes and I was put into groups with people completely unlike myself. I learned about life and how to deal with the people that populate our campus.
I have complained that college has been losing that magical experience that you need to make you a rounded person. Maybe that magic isn’t gone, maybe it’s just shifting a little, changing in ways I don’t understand yet.
I couldn’t have gotten the education I received here anywhere else in the world. I have stumbled my way through semester after semester, making mistakes and getting help when I needed it.
UVU offered me something that I hadn’t seen anywhere else, a place that felt like a home.
Maybe that’s what we’re taking away from college these days. Maybe it’s just something that is unique to our college.
I’m not sure what the answer is to what we’re supposed to take away from college in the end. This is supposed to prepare us for our careers and give us the education we need to succeed. Maybe our university prepares us for the people in our future and what we should do to succeed with people.
That’s what I have taken away, at least.
Cameron Simek is the Opinions editor for the UVU Review at Utah Valley University. He can be reached at camsimek@gmail.com, and on twitter @Skabomb. www.uvureview.com
