How I View My Time at College: A Mathematical Breakdown
(Disclaimer: first and foremost, college education should be made more accessible, affordable, and inclusive. I was privileged and lucky enough to be able to have the opportunity to study away from my home country at an American University for the last 4 years so I understand if not everyone reading this is in a similar position and is unable to relate. But I hope you can still take something away from this read)
Bear with me. It’s not that mathematical, the title is a clickbait and I promise it’s just basic arithmetic.
Numbers have always made more sense to me than words so I had to look at college through a slightly more quantitative lens to push myself to get the most out of it.
If I thought about it, my average lifespan is expected to be about 80 years.
I imagine it to look something like:
0 year -17 years: Babied at home
18 years - 21/22 years: College
22years - 79 years: Real life, adulthood, and all the responsibilities and expectations that accompany it.
80 years: Forgetting my parachute while skydiving (that was supposed to be funny, you may laugh)
The first 17–18 years of my life were spent living at home with my parents much like most of my peers. Living at home with parents meant being taken care of, supported, and fed (which I’m grateful for). But it also meant living by their rules, living up to their expectations, and being held responsible for my actions by a parent. This naturally meant that there were lesser chances of me making mistakes and also the fact that I was scared to mess up or disappoint in front of a parent.
What I expect adulthood to be is once again a set of expectations, responsibilities, and accountability for your actions. I haven’t entered this portion of my life yet but it isn’t hard to piece together the fact that stakes are higher and your actions don’t affect solely you anymore (AKA you have a partner(s)/kids/pets/family you support and are responsible for). Let’s also factor in capitalism, work-life and corporate responsibilities. That leaves even lesser leeway for mistakes and disappointments because the real-world implications of your failure may be grave.
That means for 18 years, my parents kept me from failing “too badly”. From when I’m 22 it’s less ok to fail (but we all inevitably will anyway). But in the 4 years in between, I’m somehow expected to learn more than just how to be a good engineer.
In my opinion, there’s more to learn from failure than success because
a. There are more instances of failures than successes,
b. It’s just as important to know what didn’t work for you.
Now, here’s the math:
College
22 years — 18 years = 4 years
4 years / 80 years = 1/20
1/20 * 100% = 5%
Life after
80 years — 22 years = 58 years
58/80 = 0.725
(0.725 * 100) % = 72.5%
Essentially what that means is I get 5% of my life to figure out the remaining…~73% of my life because college in a way insulated me (and my peers) in a protective bubble. Failing and disappointing in college is more normalized (and probably more common) than in the “real world”. So I get 5% (4 years out of the 80 I will perhaps exist for) to truly mess up and learn from my mistakes and be a better person who knows what she wants and who she is.
When I started looking at college as the 5% of my life that was going to shape the rest of the 73% of my life it was certainly overwhelming, but also in a weird way motivating because I decided it was the one time in my life I could fail miserably and learn. Be it academically or personally or socially or professionally. The 4(ish) years I got at college felt like the only time I truly felt a sense of freedom where I had to learn to set my own expectations, boundaries, and responsibilities.
I guess what I am trying to say is, 5% of your life in no way is going to be enough to figure out the rest of it and probably will not happen. But you still get that 5% of your life to fail in many ways which I hope is something that serves as motivation to try new things, to challenge yourself, to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to push yourself to do things you wouldn’t have done otherwise.
I consider myself beyond lucky to have experienced that 5% of my life at UCLA surrounded by some of the most awe-inspiring people, failing and learning and growing. Not sure what the next 73% of my life holds. All I know is that I tried to fail as much as possible in my time at UCLA which I hope has prepared me at least for my immediate move to Chicago.
One step at a time :)
(If you got through all that, send me your coat recommendations to survive Midwestern winters, and drop me a line if you’ll be in the Midwest/Chicago too!)
