COLUMN: Never stop learning
Twenty-seven. There is nothing special or remarkable about this number until I remember it is the number of days standing between me and the walk across a stage that will end my college career.
On May 9, hundreds of us will graduate with bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees and move on to our next big adventures.
As I am bombarded with final projects, graduation email reminders and end-of-the year outings and banquets, it is impossible to escape the feeling that something is coming to an end.
In one sense, that is true. My four wonderful, eye-opening and informative years at Central Michigan University are coming to a fast close. This chapter of my life is nearly written.
On the other hand, my education is far from over. While my experience as an undergraduate student will end, my status as a student remains intact.
Sometimes, I feel so much of our energies are focused on getting a college degree that we forget what little significance they have in the grand scheme of things. We work in high school for the grades to get us in, work multiple jobs to pay for it and work internships to make our degrees look applicable.
All this to get a job, and then what? We're done? We've paid our dues and now we get to check out, focusing on the jobs we hopefully got and nothing more?
That's not how I want to live my life after graduation. Personally, I plan to return to graduate school later in life to pursue a master's degree. Whether you plan to stay in academia forever, or leave and never look back, graduation should never be the end of your education.
Learning can be as extensive as taking night classes or traveling and as simple as a cooking class or reading a new book. With all the world has to offer beyond our narrowly-focused college degrees, to cease being curious simply because your formal education has ended would be a disservice to yourself.
I want to be a lifelong learner, and I encourage all graduates-to-be to pursue the same goal. The world we live in, and people we share it with are too amazing to ignore, and we certainly don't need a classroom to learn about them.
So, while you may never be a student at CMU again, you will always be a student of the world.
