Why? Why? Why?

Why do people come to University? Obviously to study! Yet most students do not know exactly why they are studying, or what they are going to do after they have finished studying. Then there are students who are only studying because their parents want them to and not because they wanted to. I myself do not have an answer to this question, but hopefully by the end of this piece I will have one and not just a general answer, but one that is a little more specific, but that could be a little bit difficult considering the individual and erratic nature of the human race.

Thus putting students into boxes of “why I came to university” would not be appropriate, because reasons can overlap or maybe even change. Yet how can such a set answer to such a question change, especially if “that is the reason why you came to university”, after all that was the defining moment. Quiet honestly one does change over the years, months, even days (to be dramatic) and reasons that might have seemed simple or clear at the start, with hind sight, suddenly become a jumble of complicated reasons of cause and effect that have been playing out all through high school and perhaps even primary school.

Since the beginning of one’s school career there has been this constant essence of higher education, even though in preprimary it might not have been that clear what exactly it was, but deep down inside there was always this sense of the continuity of further education. Perhaps the main instigators are the parents? They were the ones that planted the seed of the possibility of going further, to some tertiary educational facility. Well that’s where it started for me, mom wanted me to have the university experience, according to her it was mind broadening and nothing in life could offer me a better opportunity to do that than in university.

Then came all those freebees from the universities along with their glossy pamphlets with happy students photographed, either studying on the green lawns or in the libraries, but always smiling and looking like they knew what they were doing at that particular university. If the pictures were not enough to convince one, then there was always the creative language to gouge ones interest.

So there one is, with all this pressure from all around, teachers, parents, friends and those in the class which present some type of competition to match ones superior intelligence to and not mention the glossy pamphlets. All of which are screaming choices in one’s ear and reasons why one should study there and not here. Then, just as suddenly, one is choosing the courses that seem best suited for the chosen profession and one thinks he or she knows exactly where he or she is going, just like those students in the photograph.

The sad reality is that, most students believe that a degree is a golden ticket that will give them the riches they desire, however that is a lie. A degree is about studying ones passions so that one can get into the area of profession that makes them happy and does not put the required amount of cash in ones back pocket.

But that does not really answer why those who, when asked that vital question why did you come to university, shrug their shoulders and have that lost puppy or vacant look in their eyes, whichever one suites them. There is possibly no answer for them, that is that there answer is a case of “I will find out when I get there, or along the way”, perhaps they were tricked into coming to university by their parents planting that small seed and then by the attraction of those glossy descriptive pamphlets.Yet however one looks at it, in the end it is not the success of the degree that one will be talking about at the end of the day, but the adventure one had along the way in achieving it. Thus no matter how solid or nonchalant the reason for coming to university is, it is in the end the experience that one should or is after.