Mind Editorial: Don’t believe the hype.
Jumping through hoops for college won’t get you the life that you want.
In 2017, New York Times writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis wrote an article about an overachieving teenager, Jake, and his fear of academic failure. Jake personifies thousands of teenagers across the country whose lives orbit around the infamous end goal: college. The article accounts Jake’s struggle with anxiety, stressful academic endeavors, and self-harm.
“[If I fail a quiz] then I’ll get a bad grade in the class, I won’t get into the college I want, I won’t get a good job and I’ll be a total failure,” Jake said. Jake’s academic anxiety and stress-induced downward spirals are similar to students at nearly every school in America. Teenagers like Jake, who measure their worth through college acceptances or academic achievement, set themselves up for failure when they inevitably fall short of impossible academic standards.
This fear of academic failure is inflated in affluent counties such as Marin where the common assumption is to attend a four-year college. Students pour everything into earning a high GPA and SAT scores that will win them admission to prestigious universities. After spending years concentrating all of their attention on college acceptance, many students have never considered an alternate track to a four-year college. At 18 (or earlier, considering when students begin touring colleges and submitting applications), it’s foolish to think teenagers would know what they want the rest of their lives to look like or how they want to get there.
Students in this circumstance must know that there are alternatives to charging straight into freshman year at a university, especially when college is so expensive and not everyone will thrive in that environment.
Gap years exist. For many students, taking a year to work or travel is an opportunity for them to reflect on identity and where they would best fit in the cogs of society. Community colleges exist. Living at home and spending two years at College of Marin knocking out general education requirements saves thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars and offers a lower-stakes environment for students to discover career paths they feel passionate about.
Society shoves ideas down the throats of students and parents that college is the end goal. It’s the place that every student must strive for, or else they will fail at life. That’s Jake’s fear, right? That without college he will fail? To Jake, and every student that identifies with him: four years at a prestigious university will not guarantee you happiness and success. No path will one hundred percent guarantee that. Not to say students should wage a massive strike on college, but there’s nothing wrong with taking time after high school to ponder next steps. Heading into your early adult life having spent time working out your identity and what you’re passionate about will clarify your vision for the future. There are hundreds of paths out there leading to a joy-filled, successful life. Choose what feels right for you.
Kelsey is a senior in her fourth year of journalism. She love classic rock, taking candid photos of friends, and binge watching brooklyn nine-nine. You...
