For better or for worse, both institutions present certain opportunities and yield given consequences. It cannot be said what those opportunities or consequences are until you reach them, but it can be said that both institutions, though separated by the expectations and thoughts a youthful generation, will change the student fundamentally, and both will change that student for the better from at least some perspective. At least, that's how I view things.
In college, just as in high school, friends and allies are to be made. Enemies and rivals are to be made. Bonds which will last for decades after they are initially created will occur just as relationships that fail within mere moments of forming will. The student will still be a sum of that which surrounds him. I can proudly say that I myself push myself toward success, whether socially or academically, not only as a product of my personal determination, but because I know where I've come from--Richmond High School--and I know that it needs a better name. It needs to be recognized for the good is produces as much as the bad in which it is suffocated. And, in college, I know that I will, on a similar plane as high school, strive for excellence, but, perhaps the context will differ. Whether I push myself because of the shear competition of the classroom or because I meet or am with someone who simply convinces me to make myself better, I will succeed--I will attempt to succeed.
My point is that, while both institutions provide us with principal contrasts, the roots from which their separate trees grow are from the same Earth. I am saying that both educational outlets are built upon a similar foundation, yet fabricated differently.
That is not to undermine the more superficial benefits of a college atmosphere. I realize that apathy is replaced by attraction, that complacency is replaced by conviction. But I also realize that independence is static, that ability is mobile. What I mean by that is independence will be as heavily sought after in college as in high school. The context, however, the sum of, if you will, is different. When I think of independence, I think of a dam.
Independence itself is the water; it's always there; it's always at a certain level. And, restriction is the floodgate. Perhaps, a student's parents grasp a tighter leash on a given high school student, and the gate nudges open. But, that same student who attends college unwraps the leash from which he was previously bound, and that body of independence--that accumulated water that has always been there--is unleashed much more tremendously than in the past, for the floodgate of restriction is released.
Essentially, college students are different from high school students, definitely, but that is not to deny the commonalities they do share, those themes of which they are both defined.
The college student compared to the high school student is like a refined essay, where the focus of the piece remains unscathed, but the organization and details depicting the core of the paper vary exceedingly.
As I said in the first part, I am still excited for college for all that I will become. But, I am also excited for college for all that I will show I am already, and that is high school's product.
I figure I've done these past two blogs from a comparative, yet abstract standpoint because I've always heard my peers when they exalted departure from high school, as if it was purposeless--as if skipping that educational step on the ladder of knowledge would be better, and going to college straight out of middle school would be fine. I just find that to me a rather moot, not to mention ignorant, point.
What I've also come to realize in these past two blogs is that when I do analytically process these types of things, whether in assessment of education or something completely different, I tend to clear some space in my cramped mind. Ideas that have always been there but have never been screened are able to be sorted through. Indeed, it's kind of cool to philosophically ponder some of these instances; the blog is a good place for them.
And, yet again, those are my disorganized, rambled thoughts for the day.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Cirque du Soleil: Zarkana tonight; Cirque du Soleil: Zarkana review tomorrow. I'm definitely excited.
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