Peer: “So where did you go to school & what did you study?”
Me: “Well, actually I didn’t graduate from college, but I’m working in marketing & communications for an agency in St. Louis.”
Peer: “Oh wow, I envy you. I should’ve dropped out, too.”
That’s the gist of an exchange that comes up a lot this time of year as many of my peers are graduating from college or going on to graduate programs. It drives me crazy and is somewhat insulting, albeit unintentionally on their end.
There’s two ways someone could generally react after my answer. They could respond as above, or they could challenge why I went that route, maybe even not agree with it. By answering in a variation of the above, it implies that I took an easier route than the one they just took with the same reward at the end.
Was dropping out of school and learning things on my own rather than staying the course in college easier for me? Absolutely. That’s not to say it was any easier than someone going through a four-year program at a university.
An academic environment and learning in a classroom may be the best way someone learns. There are also the other benefits of college like figuring out what interests you professionally and personally, building one’s social skills, and the general experience of college life.
Alternatively, someone’s response could challenge my thinking on what motivated me to do things the way I did. That allows for an exchange of information and I get to learn more about your motivations and why you chose your path. I would prefer this over anything else.
The style of learning I succeed most by is kinesthetic learning, or learning by doing. The classroom usually doesn’t allow for this kind of learning. The path I took was the one that was right for me. Chances are, the college path was right for you. And that’s okay. Let’s all just be proud of our own accomplishments and individual stories.