College Is Pointless

For the past couple of months, I've been temping at a college in the Office of Admissions. The other day I was walking around the school, looking at all the twenty-something kids bustling to and from class and had an epiphany: college is pointless. Sure, it's cool to say you went to college because it makes you seem intelligent and well-rounded. College is good for making friends, attending weekend keggers, building social skills, and "finding yourself." But that's it. I understand high school. You have to get good grades in high school so you can get into a good college. But what's the point in getting straight A's in college? A potential employer doesn't even look at your grades. I've never been on a job interview where the interviewee was like: "Oh my, you got a C in Earth Science! We can't hire you." I can't even remember what my final college and high school GPA were. I realize you also go to school to learn things, but honestly, how much knowledge do we really retain? I can't even recite the Spanish alphabet even though I took two years of Spanish in college. I'm looking at these kids thinking probably 60-70% will not put their degree to use. Most of them will end up working in retail or doing something shitty like answering phones for a paper company. I understand some degrees are useful. If you get a degree in business, the chances are you will find some corporate job and work in a business capacity. Or if you got to law school, you're guaranteed to be a lawyer (well, my brother may be the only exception). But what about those who get a degree in English? Or History? Or Film, like me? What the hell are you going to do with that? A lot of the other temps I work with have degrees in English, Theatre and such, but what are we doing all day? Alphabetizing files. Doing data entry. It doesn't take a degree to master these tasks. And then there are the student workers who are still in school. They're doing the exact same thing we're doing. This depresses me. You go to college, get a degree, and get a job college kids can do. At least they still have the opportunity to change their fate. You hope for something better, but alas, there isn't anything better. I know a lot of people who reach maybe the age of 25 or so and realize how much the real world sucks and decide to get a Masters or something and proceed to spend the next few years in school buying time to avoid the real world again. Smart, but expensive. I've been out of college for 6 years now and haven't really put my degree to use. I have no desire to make movies anymore. I also have no desire to shuffle papers all day. I have no desire to sell my soul to a corporation so I can afford to buy a yacht. Basically, I'm fucked.

Exceptfor the fact apparently every Wednesday the University of Ministry serves free soup and chips in the Student Union, college is pointless. Mmmm.....free creamy potato.