Sometimes we forget how much we pay to go to school here, mainly because the amount is so much it’s difficult for our brains to comprehend.
It’s an unfortunate trait many people in America are guilty of possessing. We take our education so deeply for granted that we not only expect it, we expect it to be easy and fun.
I went in to see my counselor last week. I expected to hear a lecture on how I should be taking summer classes and 17 hours next semester if I wanted to graduate on time with my major and minor. Instead, she told me I was on track to graduate December of my senior year.
The initial internal dialogue I had with myself is pretty embarrassing. I went through the same stages many of my friends went through when I told them the news of my predestined graduation date.
“So you won’t be graduating with your friends? You won’t get to party an extra semester? You won’t get to experience another spring with the dreaded caterpillars?”
Wait, that last one was a good thing.
After I had my bratty little first-world problems rant about how I didn’t want to graduate early, I starting thinking of the pros of my situation. Now I can’t stop thinking of the pros and wish I could be graduating next week.
I began by thinking about the fact that graduating early will allow me to save, excuse my language, a squiglyton amount of money from out-of-state tuition. This fact alone turned my opinion of early graduation around.
After I realized I would be thousands of dollars richer with a December graduation, I started thinking of how we as students value college in general. All I had been thinking about was the social aspect. And while that is a huge component of college life, it’s not the ultimate goal.
It’s as if we compile every college movie we grew up watching and try to replicate it through personal experience. But no, college is not about meeting babes and drunkenly attending every possible themed party. Mostly.
People in other less fortunate countries dream of getting an education past the second grade. Their idea of a university might be akin to a poorly built schoolhouse and English lessons. And here I am over here worried I’ll be missing a semester of Tigerland trips (not really).
We quickly forget amid end-of-the-year social gatherings that the point of education is to get a degree and, hopefully, a job. So graduating early is not something to be upset about, it’s basically a Disneyland fastpass at life.
But this is not to say that graduating early means going straight to work or an internship. I was thinking something a bit more recreational.
Another common misconception is that students have to follow the high school-college-job track.
Here we go again with the American tendency to organize life like a high-speed chase. I don’t think it’s necessary to follow a traditional path if your situation doesn’t insist on it. Life is short. But it’s also pretty long, and there’s no rush to settling down with a 9-to-5 job and paying $1,000 per month for a studio apartment.
Perks of early graduation can mean travel, volunteering or simply de-stressing after an entire young adult life of tests and deadlines. I plan to hopefully do all three.
So with this semester coming to a close and class scheduling open for fall, consider doing what it takes to get ahead and gain your fastpass. Early graduation is not something to be scared of. It’s something to be taken advantage of.
Annette Sommers is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Dublin, Calif.