My response to "In Search of... Something"

Well, first of all, I liked this essay because I live in a college town but decided not to go to college right away after high school. Even though I was working hard and making good money, people tended to label me as an underachiever or act as though I was missing out on something because I wasn't in school. To most of the town of Pullman, I think that "school" definitely equals "success". This was a major theme in the essay, "College students constantly hear the praises of education as if it were the blueprint to receiving our desires."

However, I have never felt that one must have a college education to be successful in life. Most certainly I do not think that it is the most important or essential element for success. I think that qualities like integrity, hard work and a positive attitude are the most important issues, and education alone isn't going to affect these things. The essay touches on this when it says, "They expect to be propelled into a lifestyle where all of their dreams come true without effort."

I think that the author is really trying to say though that success isn't truly the goal of education, at least not success defined as having money, popularity and fame. Therefore, she isn't just taking on the idea of education but also the idea of success. A broad definition of success would be achieving what is most important to us, and the challenge for us all to try and figure out what IS most important and why. I think that essay writer believes that thinking deeply about the issues of life, as one often does in college, helps one to realize the truly important things of life and adjust your priorities accordingly.

Another thing I appreciate is that the author doesn't say meaning comes from education itself. She implies that a "glamoros" life will not give meaning, and she says that education helps one desire a meaningful life over an effortless life by opening one's mind to all the issues. But meaning itself has to come from more than just knowledge, because you can always ask yourself what does that knowledge mean? Why is that knowledge important? As a Christian, I believe that meaning comes from God, and knowledge has meaning because we are learning about God's design and why He did things the way He did. Our lives have meaning because God has a purpose for our lives.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today.