Postponing the Future

It's late March, and we only have a few weeks of school left.

Seniors, you are getting ready to graduate and are scrambling to find something to do next year. But what about the rest of us? What are we doing next year? The same thing most of us have done since we were five years old-going through the motions of another year of school.

Plenty of us are ready for a break, but how many of us will take one? If all goes well, we'll graduate on time, get married, start a career and settle down for the rest of our lives. But I would like to offer you one piece of advice: don't settle down too early. You have the opportunity to do amazing things when you're this age, so don't spend all your time at college.

If you often wonder what you are doing here at EMU, I promise you you're not alone. College is a funny thing. We put a thousand people into dorms together, put them in extracurricular activities like sports, music, drama, SGA, CAC, BSU, ISO, LSA, (I could list acronyms for a while, but I'll spare you), we encourage community service, some students might party a little bit, and now and then you go to class. You might get good grades, you might not, but if you do it right at the end you'll have a piece of paper that's worth 20 grand a year for the rest of your life. That's right. According to the Minnesota office of Higher Education, the median income for college graduates aged 25-34 was $20,000 higher than for non-graduates of the same age. OK, if you're reading closely, your degree will only get you that extra $20,000 for ten years. But you get the idea. It's nothing new, though; you've heard it all through high school.

There's another option for something to do next year, and I would argue you might learn a lot more than you ever can at college. Take a year off. Check out another country. Don't "learn" the traditional way for a while. There are plenty of programs out there that will allow you to earn your room and board by working on a farm or otherwise. It's free, in other words. You could also pay 13 grand and go somewhere with EMU, but hey, if you want that extra 20 grand a year you're going to come back later and do that anyway (and from what I hear, it will be an invaluable experience).

After my sophomore year, I essentially dropped out of EMU and went to Germany to work for a year. When I decided to participate in an exchange program called Intermenno, a year seemed like such a long time. But then there I was, engulfed in something completely new, and getting ready for the rest of my life (does that sound a little bit like college?) It wasn't always easy, and yes I missed my friends, but when I came back last August they were still there. Sure, now I won't graduate until 2008, but what do I have to look forward to then? Probably sitting in an office somewhere staring at a computer. I didn't get any college credits during that year. I have nothing physical to show for it-no documentation, no certificate. It won't add $20,000 to my paycheck.

So if that extra cash is what you want out of these years, hit the books hard enough to get a 3.0 grade point average, try not to get in trouble, and get that degree. When you graduate you might make more money than me. But when you graduate, will you be happy because you learned a lot? Or because you are done?

Wherever you are in your college career, it's never a bad time to take a break. If you want to learn, let me assure you that you need not go to college to do it. In six months of farming I got more practical experience for life than I probably did in my first two years of college. I learned more of a language than I had in four years of Spanish classes. Oh, and did I mention I had an amazing time? I went to soccer games, drank beer at Oktoberfest, and went to some amazing German Christmas markets. No, I didn't write any research papers or read books by John Howard Yoder, but that's why I came back to college. Now in another thirteen months I'll have a certificate to frame and put on my wall, and suddenly I'll be able to make an extra 20 grand a year. Oh, and I'll be 22 instead of 21 when I'm done. One year closer to dying. Oh well. I don't think when I'm lying on my nursing home bed I'll be wishing I worked that extra year so I could die in a nicer place.