The Restricted Freedom of College by Kai

The Restricted Freedom of College by Kai - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

Often the edifice of society can be quite staggering to any eighteen year old fresh out of high school who thinks they are going to change the world. But no one can change the world when they do not even know how it works. In recent years, schooling has become more about academics than actually preparing you for the real world. This is where college comes in; it allows one to live freely on one's own while still under the wing of a school. This allows a person to fully come into their own all without having to worry about finding a job and how to pay for next month's rent. College is a necessary quest in life if not for the academic qualities, then for the experience.

No matter how industrious a person is, they will never go anywhere if they don’t learn how to play by society’s rules. Without the proper training, they will be pulled into the steady humdrum of a nine-to-five job that they will hate until the day they die. College is necessary for any young neophyte looking to bring even the dullest shade of red to this colorless world. College allows one to feel free while still having a strict set of rules to follow. Seeds require precise conditions to fully bloom into the beautiful flowers they were meant to be, just as humans need healthy environments to develop their own idiosyncrasies that make people unique. However, college is still, at its core, about academics.

High schools make kids take as many classes as they can across a broad spectrum of subjects. Most of which won’t appeal to them and they’ll grow to loathe their school and the subjects that don’t excite them. This is intentional so everyone has an equal opportunity to discover something they are truly passionate about and by not going to college, all that preparation is thrown out the window into the open sea where it is pulled apart by sharks into a million little pieces and will never be seen again. One can show the most passionate vehemence for a topic, but without knowing it inside and out, they will never go anywhere in life. College gives you the colors one needs to paint and then they release them into the world to find a blank canvas or one to change.

College is the most essential step in becoming an adult. Letting ideas, political views, and one’s brain blossom into a completed piece would be impossible without it. High school doesn’t set kids up to be adults; it sets them up to go to college. College is the most essential experience anyone will ever have simply for the real world experience gained from attending.