Taking Education For Granted

Another stream of consciousness January 16th, 2020

I’ve always been expected to get a college degree. Maybe even a graduate degree. It was never a question of whether or not I was going to be college-educated, but more along the lines of what I would major in college. Computer science? Engineering? Medicine? Business? My options were limited, but I never really considered how privileged I was to be able to make this choice. I grew up with other South/East Asian students, so this was a mentality that was enforced in my brain since my elementary school days. I never questioned it.

I didn’t actually realize how privileged I was to go to a great university until I started reading a great book called Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (great read, I plan on writing a review for it later), where the main characters stress the importance of getting a college degree to escape poverty. It was a ticket for freedom, a chance for a better life, and an opportunity that was fair to all who could get past the initial financial and social barriers. Growing up in Plano, I had never really seen this side of the world. Most of my classmates were first generation immigrants with parents who had good paying professional jobs. We never worried about rationing food for meals, working side jobs to get some side cash, or figuring out how we would afford our college tuition. In fact, I vividly remember my dad advising me to not get a side-job my sophomore year of high school since he wanted me to focus on my education and not have to worry about anything financially related. Albeit, I was trying to do it for the experience, but in his eyes, he didn’t want me to have to live that life at all. My parents wanted to provide, and in all honesty, I had accepted that everyone had a life like this. I didn’t understand that the grand majority of students in the world, had to fight for things that I had been given on a silver platter. Now, my family is not as wealthy as some of the stupidly rich families you’d see living on the coasts of southern California, but we were very comfortable. I just didn’t know it.

Devaluation of “Learning” in College

The majority of my college life has been surrounded by tech bros who pretty much only discuss CS job interviews, internships, and salaries. Looking back on it, we were, and are, ridiculously jaded. My brain would constantly compare myself to some of these insane salaries people would be making right out of college. Ah damn! It looks like Raj is making $350,000 working at his trading firm this year. Meanwhile I’ll only be making $150,000. In all honesty, typing this train of thought makes me cringe at how ridiculous that comparison was. Sure, it’s important to set high expectations and goals, but I think there’s a certain level where different priorities should take place. It’s become almost a rite of passage for a CS student to stop “trying” after securing a good internship. Yeah, it’s cool to have a job, but why not try taking some classes to expand your horizons? Take a philosophy class, a music class, a sports class, or a drama class.

I’m not trying to bash people for setting such high expectations, but I’ve noticed that a large chunk of CS students (at least at my school), don’t value education as much once they see their eyes set on the money. They forget about the fun aspects of learning for the heck of it and questioning how/why things work. We fail to be grateful for the boon of education and instead flock towards a glittery life that may not guarantee the satisfaction that we really want from our lives. I shouldn’t judge, especially since I’ve been on that side of the fence myself. But I do believe that gratitude goes a long way in setting the right attitude in our minds.