"It might have ruined him..."
January 14, 2004
As obscure as it is, we stumbled upon the topic of Bill Gates in art-english today (don't ask about the class name, I'm just as confused) and how he droped out of college after his sophomore year to persue Microsoft things. In a different but similar fashion, Steve Jobs only spent a semester at Reed (he hung around but wasn't enrolled for a second semester).
Anyway, I quote my professor for this class, Chris Duncan with this line (refering to Bill):
"You don't know. It might have ruined him; to go to school..."
And then we completely switched topics as we often do. I wrote a little during that class, here's what I had to say:
Every moment I take to think about it I find myself practically begging for a better place. As if by sitting here, thinking about suffering in classes that mean nothing to me will change the decision of a man 3000 miles away. This thing, the concept of college and what it's supposed to be, isn't for me. The emphasis is placed in all the wrong places and on itself too greatly. Looking past all the people who have droped out of college for the typical reasons, think of the brilliance that has come from people who didn't finish college. Through college, you are allowed many avenues of exploration, all between failure and above-average. But without college, you start at one of two places; failure or brilliance. How do you deal with that when it's not in your hands?
It's edited because I can often not read my scribly handwritting. I felt good after writing that. Better than I was feeling as I walked in to class. It's another day, another chance to get a really great phone call.
Just making my way through the day...
-edit- Ok... just strange coincidence that this showed up on Metafilter today:
Nobel Prize Winners Hate School
I am, however, absolutely for anything up to highschool. I thought it was at least a fairly decent experience. Education needs to be reworked in many ways though...
Comments
What's gonna happen is that you're gonna drop out of school and get all famous and stuff because you've got all that in you... And Union's gonna have bragging rights with the "yea, he went to Union. Come to Union- famous people went here once!" and only after people get in do they realize "yea... Nick went here, but he dropped out after a year."
But then, Steve Jobs liked Reed, which is why we're so Mac savvy and stuff. Union'll get down on their hands and knees to beg for money... and you'll get to laugh in their face. Won't that be worth it? Sort of?
Posted by: Hopeless Romantique | January 14, 2004 2:06 PM
Your perception is incredibly savvy.
Posted by: Smithy | January 15, 2004 10:38 AM