Hm... about graduation

I have a strange feeling...

The feeling of not belonging anywhere...
I'm pretty out of every ordinary gang, meaning friends. Last week was the graduation day of final years' at the uni. In our AIESEC, most of the oldies graduated now. They are friends.

I saw those black-gold robes they were wearing... and the hat. It looks good, and when hundred others wearing it, you do feel belonging to somewhere. On the other hand, the diploma itself looks really unremarkable.

Graduation is a funny thing...

I believe a paper does not mean anything. I believe motivation means a lot. I believe people can become expert on a field even without ever stepping to uni.

Why do people go to uni? Cos they have no better to do? They don't want to work yet? They believe they will get a more well-paying job?

For me, uni means one thing only: accessibility. Accessibility to networks and to resources.
But graduating does not equal to being able to carry out tasks. I do believe a person who studied by himself can do just as well, or even better than those having been taught.

Here we get back to motivation. Most of the people at uni (undergraduates) have no clue what they want from life, what they are capable of doing, what kind of profession would make them happy. Many of them goes because mum&dad has high qualification too, or on the contrary.
But when choosing profession... its stupendous... we hear it from news, feel it on our own skin, and still choosing so called trendy professions... however packed the market is.

I think there is no real help from any side. Family, school, society...

Back to graduation.
Finishing uni is pretty much a survival training. It teaches you how to become someone you are not and meet others' expectations, just because it's the only way to proceed.
Funny, isn't it?

In a world where innovation is crucial to survival... and being able to adapt quickly.
I won't start to explicate my views on formal education (including uni) now, but in a later post probably.

So, to finish this post I just want to add... I guess it is also uplifting... to stand there and get that paper...
That it is over, it is done... 5 years... it's passed. You got the paper... you had fun, you struggled, you stressed, but it is done...