It’s been 5 years in this institution…
It’s been 5 years of learning…
It’s been 5 years trying even when we didn’t want to…
It’s been 5 years of relationship establishment and termination…
It’s been 5 years of heartwarming as well as heartbreaking experiences…
I do not wish to reminisce for long, because there were moments when some of us had the hopes of our parents crushed due to one silly mistake and some of us even died…
However, I wish to point out a critical blunder of these 5 years…
When I got into this institution, I had the sole intention of learning what I didn’t know, to get a certificate I had no clue what to do with save the elaborate purpose of, you know, getting a job…
Well, it turns out, that was short-sighted and a little idiotic…
If the end was properly defined, I mean, the purpose of getting the certificate – The darn work, then everything would have been, well, reasonable.
It’s a good thing our parents paid with their hard-earned money for our schooling… But it’s a shame very few of us would do anything with it…
After 5 years, we came to realize that even the teachers themselves were struggling,… I mean, the people we feared and strived to impress with good grades, the people who graduated with the best grades and got retained by the institution, those people were also struggling…
They struggle with money, relationships, self-worth, with life…
But that’s just the tip of the growing iceberg…
When we were in school we had lecturers who would come seeking sex from our colleagues, they got it… There was some that sort money, they got it… Some sort to be feared, they got it as well…
It was a hunting ground… It was a massacre of both desire and creativity… Even worse, it was contagious, and yes, we contacted this too (the mentality of hunting ourselves)…
Trapped by both the sincere good wish of our parents (which was for us to have a bright future), our fear of not wanting to disappoint our parents, and our hope of getting an upper hand in society by earning this certificate to WORK, the fence was completely sealed and we were inside…
We continued – broke and tired with this constant lingering thought of being a burden to our parents, which we truly were…
Well, the iceberg, the main problem was that, when we finished, when we earned this certificate, we came to a very shocking realization… We came to discover that the certificate we sort after could only fit us into well-defined positions that enabled us to work in only certain ways
The certificates enabled us to fit in perfectly as “COGS” in a very complicated system, a system whose purpose was not our business to understand or dictate…
THE BLUNDER of all this was not just that there weren’t enough jobs in the country, but there was no meaning attached to what we were seeking…
Now with a certificate…
Having fulfilled our parent’s desire… Which of course was genuine… We got thrown into a life where we were EMPLOYABLE – which is a nice way of saying USABLE…
Not that being unstable is bad, everyone must be relevant in the society, but the problem was that humans, unlike the cogs in a gear require MEANING to be driven…
Where this meaning has been stripped off by monotony and red lines, how does one find meaning?
Worse, how does one compensate for all the time spent trying to impress everyone without really impressing oneself?
And how does one impress oneself if one doesn’t do what is meaningful to them?
So.. Like our teachers, we found ourselves in a situation where we sort after money for luxury, sex for validation, and fear just to soothe our ego and insecurities…
We didn’t have anything that made us jump up in the morning excited, instead, we got out of bed grumpy, doing it just for the paycheck…
And when they fail to give us the ONLY reason we are still doing this JOB – when they fail to PAY us so we can keep the Landlord at bay – we quickly gather together and go on a STRIKE.
The school doesn’t teach how to make money(it only promises you a job), it doesn’t teach how to make friends, it doesn’t teach how to be happy, it doesn’t teach how to love and be lovable, it doesn’t teach how to pour your heart into anything you are doing, it doesn’t teach how to LIVE.
It would however teach you the rudiments of your curse of study, it would scare you with deadlines, it would increase your anxiety with exams and tests, and then it would make you feel entitled to a good and easy life which you would be SHOCKED to discover is a fantasy – as pains and struggles are intertwined with life…
You are going to be a very USEFUL cog… You are going to be EMPLOYABLE if you pay attention
But hopefully, before you finish, it won’t strip out your creativity with its narrow judgment of right and wrong, hopefully, it won’t make you short-sighted up to the extent of thinking money and happiness can only come from what you’ve studied for those 5years, hopefully, it won’t make you lose valuable friendship due to the ego of being in school. Hopefully, it won’t make you so arrogant that you begin to cover your face when your parents fail to speak good English or understand what you and your colleagues are saying
Hopefully, it doesn’t strip your understanding that life is beyond school so you should thus grow and nurture your FRIENDSHIPS and RELATIONSHIPS…
Hopefully, its mentality of achieving and winning doesn’t strip your APPRECIATION of the little things all around you or even the importance of sacrifice.
Hopefully, after your five years in school, you would still be able to drop the certificate if need be and function as a proper HUMAN BEING
To use the massive BRAIN you have been endowed with, to be creative and help others, to enjoy life, and teach others not to hurt or exploit their fellow humans… To be WELL-ADJUSTED – trying to understand and tolerate others
Hopefully, you don’t end up like the teachers who came seeking SEX, and MONEY, and FEAR from the people they should be nurturing. ..
Hopefully, you would be able to get sex from the person or people you love and who love you too by loving and being lovable. Hopefully, you would be able to develop multiple sources of income by doing more useful things for society so money won’t be a problem. Hopefully, you would be a man of honor so that you won’t need people to fear you to feel important…
Hopefully, you don’t make THE BLUNDER of thinking it’s all about getting the CERTIFICATE
A book was inspired by this post. Find out more about the book here (5 YEARS IN SCHOOL – how to get high grades, friendships, and money in school)
I enjoy writing long-form SEO content for self-help and personal development blogs. I can also do simple graphics design and copywriting. I’m an author, coach, logician, introvert, and storyteller. I love simplicity.
