You know that feeling when you get home from a trip where you're forced to stay overnight, and then your bed feels really nice? Yeah, story of my life, especially this month, considering that I'll be running from place to place. I mean, I literally just got back from Washington DC (yes, I missed school. It's okay-you all have my permission to call me a lucky bitch. I won't get mad, I promise.)Friday, I leave for Albany, where I'll be at a conference all weekend, next weekend, I'm spending with my cousins for St. Patrick's Day. Us Irish folks have to go and party together that week. And then the following week is that All Time Low Concert! SO PUMPED!
Anyone who isn't a senior, here's my advice-COLLEGE SHIT SUCKS! Make sure you do as much of it as you can, whenever you can. It's a huge pain in the ass, and apply to colleges that waive your fee, so that you save a shit ton of money. This is also a segue into my topic for... the remaining hour and 17 minutes of the day.
EDUCATION. We need it, or so we're made to believe. We hear stories of people like Mark Zuckerberg, or those two guys who invented Google, and how they didn't finish college. We hear stories about millionaires of the past, and by the past I mean people such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Nobel. There are plenty of them, but how did they get where they are? We're currently in a pretty shitty economic state right now, where everything is ultra-competitive, and the more education you have, the better, right? But if the United States entered one period of development thinking that if they worked hard, they would do well, why can't we see it like that again? If you think about it, Bill Gates got lucky. Half of the richest people in the world for inventions did exactly the same thing-got lucky. I don't mean they scored with women (or men, depending), I mean just what I said-they got lucky. They were in the right place at the right time, or they came up with the right thing-at the right time. If today's "right thing" involves more education (which at this point, looks like it's in the field of nanotechnology-which you need a lot of education for), then that "American Dream" from so long ago seems pointless.
I know that it must get pretty boring to anyone reading this (if people actually do) that I constantly reference history, but there are parallels. There's a book out called "Are We Rome?" (I haven't actually read it), but it's comparing the fall of the Roman empire to the fall of the United States as a world power. While the United States has only technically been a world power since we defeated the Spanish in the Spanish-American war in the 1890's, with the help of President Theodore Roosevelt, who led the country through one of the greatest periods of change ever. (If you're curious, go look up the his anti-trust laws, his support for the muckrakers, as well as his founding of the national parks-Yellowstone being the first... at least, I think so....) But note, about 15 years after Teddy's plans are put into action, and there's all this growth, we enter the great depression, in October of 1929. The 80's and 90's were great periods of change and economic growth, and look, 15 years later.... we're in a recession. Please, I can see parallels here, and I'm a 17 year old girl. You really can't argue with my logic there.
I just wanted to point out that history repeats itself, and education can be really beneficial, but there are some fields that it isn't necessary for, but you have to have the talent... as well as the drive in order to make sure that you can accomplish whatever it is without the education that makes our society so competitive. I'm sorry for the late post (as well as abandoning you all this weekend.... I had a good entry planned out about the history of Mardi Gras, but I'll save that for next year now)
I'm also going to bail on the music for tonight, simply because I'm tired, and I didn't actually find any good songs this weekend.... I'll leave you with one-not for small children of course. "L.G. F.U.A.D" by Motion City Soundtrack. Enjoy!
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