How Important is Education to Me?
Let’s just start off by saying, this is such a touchy subject for a lot of people. I don’t mind if someone is against it or for it. However, I want to give you my personal experience and what I think. My own personal opinion arrives from my family and I’s experiences.
I do want to mention that I am a first generation college student. I may have been the first, but I guarantee you I won’t be the last. I dreamed of college when I was only 8. I wanted to have a really well paid job and help my family own their own business and be of some sort of support. I love my family and I know it is NOT my responsibility to take care of them, and they don’t ask me to do that either. But I’m Patty, and if you know me, you know I love helping.
I was very fortunate to be able to go to college and that was not easy at all. Here is a blog post all about that. So in my younger days, I did feel like it was important to go to college. If you didn’t go it meant you either couldn’t or you just didn’t care about learning. My mentality has changed significantly since then. Education is something so powerful, beyond just sitting in class and taking a test. If you are learning about something you are passionate about, you are LEARNING. Education is something that won’t depreciate and no one can take that away from me you or what you learned. That is yours forever! This is why I see it as being important because it’s like a gift.
But just like it is a gift, it also means that some people will receive that gift and some won’t. It could be for a variety of reasons, money, no desire, etc. Because there is someone that didn’t receive that gift, that does not mean they are less than you are. On the contrary, people may not get to sit in a classroom and learn but they get to learn in a different way through life and their occupation. My mom and dad do not have an education past the third and sixth grade. You might be a little surprised that that is even allowed, but it is, in Mexico it was. However, my mom is so knowledgeable about cooking, overcoming obstacles, and so much more. Yes, she struggles to write her name or respond in English, but she teaches me these lessons without having some form of education. My father knows so much about agriculture (about 30 years), motivation, and he even learned how to speak English without even getting to the 7th grade. My parents represent the importance of not having an education but being educated in another way. Tell me why the lack of education that they had, should be something that someone should belittle them for?
Education is great, and I took advantage of the gift my parents didn’t have, by attending UNR. I will continue to keep learning because I am passionate to keep growing, but my education isn’t any greater than my parents. My dad doesn’t need a Ph.D. to be accepted in society and I don’t need to go to school if it isn’t for me. These are choices we all make, but they don’t represent if we are successful or not. I would much rather be rich in knowledge from life lessons, than have a piece of paper, but I go to school because I am passionate about it. It’s important for me to keep learning, but that doesn’t mean I’m any better than my parents are.
Please comment down below if you are going to school and what you are majoring in, I’d love to hear!
