Finding ways to diversify education and life
By Natalie Serafini, Opinions Editor
I love learning. If I ever won the lottery, I would probably put that money towards staying in school. Even with my education enamor, I’ve found myself questioning the value of unilateral learning. By that, I mean I question my growth as a person when I spend so much of my life focused on school and earning money for school.
We as students centre a whole lot of our time around studying. Even when I’m not studying I worry about doing well, getting everything done in time, and figuring out what I want to major in. I don’t devote time towards improving myself in other ways.
I bought a ukulele a couple of weeks ago, and apart from the enthusiastic, finger-aching, non-stop playing of the first weekend, I haven’t made the time to pick it up since. I haven’t read a book for fun in months, and my plans to garden, cook, and take up jewelry-making have all fallen by the wayside.
Obviously education is important, and not just for that slip of paper or blurb on your resumé announcing that you accomplished this huge thing. Even so, it’s foolish to think that all there is to learn is absorbed from within the walls of a classroom. Not everyone will go volunteering in Africa or spelunking through caves, but there are talents and hobbies, life experiences, and little projects that make life more diverse than the weekly filling up of an agenda.
Life in university and college has a tendency to stagnate when you’re focusing on essays, working, seeing friends in between busy schedules, and doing it all over again. It loses the quality of diversity that some of us can still vaguely remember: the days when you had time to take part in a school play, be on multiple sports teams, or take extracurricular classes. Instead, I find myself just struggling to make time for regular obligations, let alone dedicating energy to something new and different.
Although education is extremely important, it’s not all that makes the person. Between school and working for money for school, we don’t make the time to pursue other endeavors—educating ourselves in ways that don’t relate to an essay by Aristotle, or understanding chemical compounds. The other side of education is learning in a variety of ways to become a multifaceted person. Although this might infringe on my time spent sleeping late or watching too much Seinfeld, I’d say it’s worth it.
