Becoming an Adult

In becoming an adult, more specifically an adult in my early 20s, I have realized that my education has severely failed me. School was always about things that had very little to do with real life. I thought school and college were supposed to prepare you for the real world. Well I’ve been in the so called “real world” for just over five years, and I am still clueless on many aspects of living. I feel cheated.

            In school I learned how to read, write, run, calculate using a machine, and type a word document, how to sing, how to play dodge ball and other sports, and how to use a combination lock. While that is all swell knowledge and has made my life fun and somewhat easier, I find being an adult needs much more knowledge; not just for the workforce but simply to live and survive.

            My years spent in school from kindergarten to several years of college prepared me for basic knowledge of academics. It prepared me for a life spent in school or for a career involving lots of research. School did not prepare me for life which I thought was the whole point. I am thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt for my education, and I don’t even have a degree yet. I am struggling with the necessity of higher education as it has done very little for me. It most certainly is not worth the $40,000 plus for which I am in debt. If I had to put a price on the education I’ve received, my college experience might be worth about $5,000. I’d go up to $10,000 if I had my BA in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice.

         The problem I have with higher education in not that I must pay for it or even that it does not teach me about life but rather my issue is the requirements in degree programs that are there only to make students pay money for something that will never be used in their chosen field. College needs to be more focused on specific classes and instruction that will give students the ability to see what their chosen career will be like in real life. Give us a choice if we want to take the general required classes. Frankly I could have saved thousands of dollars and two years worth of my time if I could have skipped classes like Western Civilization, Advanced Human Anatomy (which I failed), Anthropology, and Philosophy. I want classes that teach me about the human psyche and how the brains of criminals differ from those of a “normal” human being. I want classes that show blood spattering, finger printing, DNA Analysis, and crime scene analysis. I want to take classes that show patterns of serial killers versus mass genocide. I want to know how to track criminals and put them behind bars. I don’t give two flying fucks about the difference between animatism and animism. If you don’t know what that is, good for you because honestly unless you’re an Anthropology major, no one cares.

            However, ranting about useless college classes is not my main point. While I feel college is simply a way to rob us of our time and money, it is our education as children and teenagers that is lacking. I want to focus on high school. I remember high school being full of useless drama but also having fun in sports and choir. Teachers told us that we were preparing for our future but looking back, nothing in high school really prepared me for the real world. I never learned how to apply for jobs; how to create a resume; what to do for an interview; how to open a bank account or balance a checkbook; I didn’t learn about principle investments or savings accounts or how to create a budget. I did take a government class my senior year, but I learned about the house versus Supreme Court; I didn’t learn how to register to vote or why I should care. I didn’t learn about different types of taxes and what percentages meant when referring to them.

            I never learned about buying a vehicle and how to get insurance and what those percentages mean. I didn’t learn what paperwork was needed or how to file an insurance claim if I was in an accident regardless of whose fault it was. I never learned what plan would be best for car insurance or what each type of coverage meant. Even when I talked to the insurance company they didn’t explain it. My parents set up my insurance without ever talking to me about the options. I ended up getting screwed because I was not educated on my own car insurance that I was paying for! I still know close to nothing about taking care of a vehicle even after owning one for seven years. I can’t change my oil, change a tire, fix a flat, swap my wipers, or change my spark plugs. I don’t even know how to jump a car. I find my lack of knowledge about vehicles quite pitiful and pathetic.

            Never in high school did I learn about having an apartment versus a house. What property taxes are or what they go towards. I didn’t learn about health insurance or how to file taxes. Although I have to say I did take a health class once; I didn’t learn anything useful, but I had the class. It wasn’t until I got an older girlfriend who loved the TV show “Queer as Folk” that I learned about STDs and safe sex. I knew about condoms but not about their importance in staying safe. Also, there are many types of condoms out there and how many young men are grabbing whatever just because it’s the first condom they see? They could be making a huge mistake because they are not knowledgeable. What about dental dams and female condoms- things I never heard of until taking a sexuality class as a sophomore in college. Ok I honestly didn’t even know what sex was until college because no one ever explained it to me. I didn’t understand how the pieces and parts went together. Yes, I know I was INCREDIBLY sheltered but since I grew up in the Mormon Church, that’s just how it is unfortunately.

            My education failed me in my health class for nutrition as well. My biology and anatomy classes failed to communicate how the body actually works and what it needs versus what it doesn’t. I don’t remember a damn thing from those classes, but I know I was never taught how to take care of my body. I didn’t know what healthy food was or that my body needed certain nutrients to function properly. I had no idea what processed foods versus natural foods were. Yes I know now and I get that it is really silly to not know these things, but I didn’t. I had no idea. I didn’t know how to be healthy or even what healthy for my body type was. I thought we all had to be skinny sticks. HA! Yeah right- me, a stick. That’s fucking hilarious! I didn’t understand that my body would need something different than my friends’ bodies. I was always told that to be healthy I just needed to eat less and exercise more. Well after ten years of that same advice, I said fuck it! In my own research, I found out more in one day than I ever learned in my one semester of health class.

            I feel that my education severely disabled me in my beginning years as an adult. I struggled in everything I did and stressed out my mind and body because I had to learn to survive while also trying to attend college. If it were up to me, I would add an extra year onto high school. I would go back to high school for an extra year to learn how to be an adult and survive in the world if I could. I see so many young people struggling because they don’t even know the basics of taking care of themselves nevertheless a family. I’m incredibly blessed to not be married and have no children and only having to focus on taking care of myself. I stress out enough just trying to figure out my own life. There is no way I’d be able to help a child grow with my lack of knowledge of the world and how things work.

            As a 24 year old, I feel incredibly lacking in what is considered common knowledge. Luckily I’ve always had friends and older adults around to help guide me in my life choices, but I still fall behind and don’t understand so many things and take so much longer to get where I need to go because I have to learn as I go. I feel my education failed me in many ways. School was always about friends and field trips. What happened to teaching us how to survive in the real world? Yes I have an education, but it is far less than what I thought I had. I should be so much further along in my life. I don’t understand how people my age are already husbands, wives, and parents. I’d be lucky to be ready for that by the age of thirty. Does that make me incredibly stupid… or incredibly smart?