Spiegro

Reminiscing about college with a friend, I became nostalgic about being an undergraduate student (which was only three years ago), and began to ponder my next step in life.

I miss going to school. I miss the challenge, the dialog, the exploration, and discussing ideas. It is a pity so much rides on the outcome of college. I wish it didn't, then I'd stay there forever, just because I like learning and ideas.

I didn't have the typical college life; this isn't nostalgia for the stereotypical college partying, drinking, or debauchery I'm speaking of. I genuinely miss talking about interesting things with (mostly) interesting people.

Now, I'm a grown-up. Complete with a full-time job and my own laundry list of regular non-work responsibilities (including laundry).

Being grown up isn't as bad as we were told it would be as kids; responsibilities aren't easy but the benefit of being an adult is doing what you want to do, and only answering to who or what you want.

My childhood was fun but I was always ready to grow up. I always felt like an old soul, an adult stuck in a child's body. I had ideas and I needed access to things in order to turn them into reality, and those things just aren't available to kids. Plus people rarely take kids seriously, and even as a child I wanted my ideas taken seriously.

Now, as an official "grown-up," it's my child-like mentality towards exploration that's one of my most useful and marketable traits. But it's not so easy to venture out into the world just to ask "so whatcha got?"

I miss being an undergrad sometimes (but then I look at my paycheck :-P )

I'm trying to figure out how to fill this void. Perhaps it's time I applied for grad school. But I think applying to grad school out of boredom is frowned upon at institutions of higher learning. It's just I have so many interests it's difficult to pick the one to pursue for the next three-to-five years.

How does someone who can learn to be interested in anything pick something to be interested in?

What I loved about undergraduate school was the absence of pressure to chose something specific right away. I could explore topics I don't know much about just for the sake of exploring. Even with the pressure on me to graduate promptly, I still took the time to smell the roses and immerse myself in my coursework. I chose classes I wanted to attend.

Physical education, literature, mythology, astronomy, HTML; that's a list of a few of the electives I took during undergrad. I thoroughly enjoyed each of them.

Life is full of so many interesting things to study, how do I pick one? I just have to continue to follow my passion and see where it gets me, after all, I've gotten this far doing just that. Let's see how far I can go.