I am 23 years old, and I realize that I am officially old as hell. I
was on the bus the other day, and a boy who looked like he was about the same
age as my sister sat next to me. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I look
young, but I don’t think I look like I could be my sister’s age. That’s being a
little dramatic. Anyway, he sits down and attempts to court me (and just from
using the word “court,” I have further dated myself). After he finishes his
shpill about the high school at which he’s currently a junior and how he was
“on his way to the studio” because he was an up-and-coming rapper, I heard
myself utter words I never thought would come out of my mouth at the age of 23,
“Boy, I’m too old for you.” For a second, I thought my mother was there until I
realized that it really was me talking. I sounded like her. And it didn’t stop
there. I went on to semi-lecture him (it wasn’t really a semi-lecture so much
as a full-blown lecture, but I’m calling it semi to feel better about myself).
I asked how he was doing in school, encouraged him to apply to college, asked
what his favorite subject in school was, etc. All of these were questions that
my mother would ask.
The boy responded favorably to my lecturing, which I know was only
under the motivation of me breaking the law and getting with him. And by
favorably, I mean he didn’t cuss me out like I thought he would do because that
seems to be what all these damn kids like to do. He did, however, have a
rebuttal for everything I told him. “College is too expensive.” My response:
scholarships, grants, and loans can take care of that. “Nobody in my family
went to college.” My response: do you want to be like everybody in your family,
or do you want more? “College takes too long.” To that, I had no response. For
two reasons, my stop was next and I was taken aback by his statement. I got up
from the seat and encouraged him to at least consider college. Then I got off
the bus. As I made my way home, I couldn’t help but question: Do these kids
really see college as if it’s some long, drawn-out prison sentence? And if so,
when the hell did that happen?
I grew up seeing college as a necessity. If you listen to my sister
talk about college, it sounds more like a financial death trap. Even though she
knows she’s going because she really has no other choice, she sees college as a
short vacation for which you will immediately pay. And don’t even mention Post
Graduate studies to her. She may reach across the table and slap the taste out
of your mouth. But I can’t help but sort of wish that I had looked at college
under the same critical eye. This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have gone, but I
would have been more cognizant of life after if I had.
When I mentioned to my sister what the boy on the bus told me, she said
she kind of agreed. “It does take a long time just to get a piece of paper that
won’t guarantee you a job right away.” My sister and the boy from the bus are
fortunate enough to be investigating their post high school options during a
period of great joblessness, high graduation statistics, and incredible loan deferment/delinquency
numbers. These are the hot topics that surround them every day, so they have no
other choice but to be aware and form an opinion.
Still, it hurts my heart to hear such negativity spewed from my little
sister’s lips about higher education. It stings just a bit when we have
conversations about what schools she’s contemplating applying to, and the first
thing she comments on is a school’s tuition before she even thinks about the
program. For her, determining the worth of college can only be measured
monetarily, and that makes me a little disappointed. I attempt to reason with
her that a school like University of Kentucky may be more affordable, but if it
doesn’t have what you want and are interested in, is it really worth four years
of your life (she really did mention the University of Kentucky)? Because I
went to the schools that I wanted to go to, I had the best experiences I
possibly could have had. I’ve grown immensely, learned how to take care of
myself, how to take care of others, and I fell in love with learning. The short
end of the stick is that they cost a pretty penny and all my pennies are ugly.
But that’s okay. Uncle Sam can’t take away the experience.
I thank God my sister and I are close, and that she can’t seem to make
a decision on anything without coming to me first because I’d be really afraid
of what she would do with her life. But my sister is fortunate enough to have
someone older to help steer her thinking in a different direction. The boy from
the bus doesn’t. So I say we reach out to these crazy kids and get them to
change their value systems. Until that day on the bus, I hadn’t realized just
how different teenagers are from us 20-somethings. Despite the not-so-big age
gap between us and them, they view things in an entirely different way than we
do. While it can have its advantages, for the most part, their ideals are
pretty messed up. Somebody help these babies.
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