We begin with a very basic question (taken from the article): What for you is a college education for?

Why is it important to you? What value can it or should it bring? If it does not bring much value, what must change so that it does?

First and foremost, I must warn the reader that I am taking complete advantage of being asked to write these essays to both test myself, and while doing so have a little bit of fun. You could say I am trying to figure out if I am worthy of Mr. Menands definition of intelligent. I feel I fall short of someone who is open- minded, outside the box, self-critical, consistent, and so on!! but I thought, I could try my best to act as well as I possibly can, in hopes of keeping my little secret. Of course if my attempts fail miserably and you feel I fall short of this wonderfully carved definition, it is most important that you contact CEP and bring it to their attention; they have made a bigbig mistake. In his article Live and Learn Menand, speaks of two different trains of thought behind both the value of college and also the reasoning behind why an individual like you or myself, for that matter anyone, would invest several years in a university environment. Both theories, when simplified, define college as a mechanism developed by society, for society. One theory suggests the mechanism exists to identify the cream of the intelligence crop. However this theory reveals to us something much more when one pays close attention to its fine print. What it also tells us is that society gages not just at the top but all the different strata of peoples intellectual capacity and productive potential, and based on these results, each person simply gets placed into roles it feel best support the interest of Society.

As someone who has a deep appreciation for Lynyrd Skynyrds song Free Bird, this really worries me1. His second theory can be easily twisted to mean something very similar. Yes, he talks of how college enlightens and empowers individuals by exposing them to magic materials. But I ask you, are these individuals really enlightened? If they are, then why does the world have so many problems? Are these individuals really empowered? I didnt realise being taught how to master accepted ways of doing things and everyone being on the same page, or being part of a society of like-minded grownups who fall in line with mainstream norms of reason and taste sounded fun, forget empowering. At one point I was beginning to feel Menand might have spent the better part of his life blanketed by religious dogma when I read his words there is stuff that every adult ought to know, and college is the best delivery system for getting that stuff into peoples heads. Sound familiar anybody? Im sure it come to no surprise when I say to you my most patient audience that I disagree with Mr. Menand on a few of his points. I feel his Achilles heel, lies not in his belief of college as both machine and utopia but in his lack of understanding of the individual.

A far cry from its original purpose as a house in quaero of verum quod scientia2. College, Academies, Universities have a multitude of different meanings for a multitude of different people. For some its simply a means to an end. For others its a wonderful bubble, where you just dont have to take life that seriously. But instead of boring you to death with an infinite list of reasons why people go to college, what I can tell you is what college means to me. Today, standing in front of you I am a man of twenty-three. The University of Washington is my second higher educational home. CEP is the fourth subject I have desired to study. The reasons why I stand before you today are dramatically different to the reasons my teenage self wanted to be at university. To begin, I feel very lucky that unlike many millions, perhaps billions who never get the chance to go to university. Not going to college was never, and would never be an option for me. My family has had an iron rule for the past four generations. Education comes first. Luckily we never survive a conversation to really discuss what the word education means, so my definition never got questioned back at home. When I went to Trinity College Dublin, I was not passionate about Mathematics, it was something I had success in during school which enabled me to have a future in a variety of different fields, but sadly it did not ignite the same passion in me as it did for most of my mathematician peers. My real mission at university was to grow as a person. Get a better understanding of who I was, by doing so advance to the next level maybe even evolve like a Pokmon. The massive amounts of free time, both during Term and 2 In search of truth and knowledge.

especially in the holidays, being surrounded by thousands of people around my age to learn from and test myself against as well as having a copyright library to keep me entertained were definitely some of the more attractive qualities about university for me. The only problem was that though the experience was helping me grow, I still felt light years away from answering the more important questions. What am I meant to do in life? Should I pursue a life of purpose or a life of happiness? For some lucky individuals these purpose and happiness might sound exactly the same, but for me they were galaxies apart. I felt as thought everything in my life was divided, into these two camps, and it wasnt until last summer that everything just fit into place. I recognise the realisation I had then was not born out of some freak coincidence, but was the product of my self-work at university. The only problem now was that since I had reached the next step, I found myself asking, what use did I have for university? As I was now armed with Passion, Conviction and Clarity why should I wait a year, why shouldnt I dive into the deep end and begin my existential journey? The reason was simple, I as an individual despite having a vision of the life I wanted to lead, lacked the knowledge, the experience, the depth of understanding for the ambitions I want to achieve. To gain these, to mature my conviction and grow into a person who stands a chance at succeeding down the path I wish to take, I decided to exile myself from the city I call home and come study here. I needed the ability to study a variety of

subjects and have my understanding tested. I needed to be surrounded by individuals who shared many of my passions. To be in a culture whose foundation was based on the cultural and ethnic diversity that resembles the makeup of the world and a geography that symbolized the beauty of our planet. But most importantly I need to be taught, trained and mentored by the right people and that is why I am here. In conclusion, a college education brings with it value, completely subjective to each individual. As I found what I wanted in the system, I find it difficult to imagine why some one else cant find it as well. Having studied in different systems, I feel the only thing missing, is more authority to the student. Especially in deciding which courses he or she should take. Such decisions of course should always be well thought out, and discussed with more experienced individuals, but at the end of the day, someone passionate to become an marine biologist, will not take chances in his or her curriculum neither would someone wishing to become an aeronautical engineer, for those who lack they direction, why not let them fish around until they feel theyve caught something big enough to fill their stomach.