Tomorrow,
August 3, 2000, is my final day of college at the
University of Kentucky. I almost dread having to go home and be praised by my
Mom and relatives. I've been told over and over again how great it is to have made it through such a tough
challenge. Everyone seems to think that I've been working hard at my schoolwork, and even working a part-time job
to boot. But school was never very difficult, and I worked 20+ hours a week in a
computer lab as a consultant (
ie, I sat around doing nothing). I'm getting my
Computer Science degree.
IMHO, I've taken the easy route. If I wasn't such a
bum I would have skipped college, learned stuff on my own, and either started my own business or found a job. I haven't even bothered to
co-op. Working hard is doing something construction work. A guy who starts off in a
manual labor job and works his way to a
management position has accomplished something difficult
in my book. All I did was sit through classes (well, at least through some of them), write
toy programs, and an occasional less than 10 page paper.
Big Whoop.
My friends who have graduated seem to feel the same way. I'm taking a wild guess that most noders that have college degrees feel similar. I guess my girlfriend didn't have quite the same experience. Or maybe hers was worse. Her Mom and Dad both have Masters degrees and her only brother graduated the year before she did. So her parents weren't all crazy about her managing to graduate (they weren't even crazy about her 3.9 GPA). But, outside of her house most people would be overly impressed.
Anyway, my point is that so many people think I've accomplished something, but I don't think I've done much at all. It makes you feel like you're living a lie. I'm wondering if this feeling is going to change. It seems it will only get worse. I'll get a job that's not to difficult and get to live at a higher standard than people who actually work hard. Yay.