College—Higher Education—has been one of the most perplexing, frustrating, fascinating, wonderful and terrible things I could ever imagine. And I have a good imagination, let me tell you. It turned out to be nothing like I thought and only sometimes better than what I had hoped.
College is a personal experience marked by a never-ending cycle of lost and found.
People find things in college, things they didn’t know they wanted or needed. Things they could probably do without, but no longer want to. Things about themselves, both good and bad. Things about the world, both good and bad.
People gain things, like new knowledge and maybe some new friends. Confidence. Opportunity. A stronger sense of self.
But people also lose things. Ironically, they lose many of the same things they gain, things like selfhood and family and friends.
Let’s not forget money and time.
College can be a wonderful thing, but it’s not without sacrifice. College changes us. Ideally, we are changed for the better. We are well-rounded and more aware of our roles as local and global citizens. We communicate more effectively. We think critically and solve problems creatively. We are better people for our time in academia.
But to get there, we often have to leave things behind. We often leave people behind, especially if education takes us to new locations, whether for more education or for career reasons. In this process, we become new, making what we leave behind seem very different from how we remember it, or maybe how we want it to be.
This too, is a gain and a loss all at once.
