What I Learned in College

Four years ago, I and the soon-to-be graduate class of 2009 came to the College of Charleston as naive freshmen, eager to begin what was then a new and exciting experience, the college experience.

We had all heard tales about wild keg parties, “experimental” behavior, and how our parents missed what they remembered as the best days of their lives.

We were a little younger, a lot dumber and, in hindsight, completely clueless about what college was really all about.

For all of those soon to begin, or soon to end their college experience, this is for you.

These are some thoughts that one person with one college experience has gathered and stored over the course of four years and wishes to share as the impending leap into the real world lurks just around the corner while the fear that accompanies it is consciously looming.

First and foremost, the question I have continuously asked myself as I write this article is, “what did I think about college?” And the answer, while it may seem rather “no-brainer,” is I loved it.

I absolutely loved it.

But, more importantly, I realize now as I prepare to leave this place and move on to the next, that I did not love college for any of the reasons that I thought I might as I entered its ranks as a naive freshmen.

I certainly enjoyed wild keg parties, I definitely liked “experimental” behavior, and to date, there is no question that my college experience has supplied me with the best days of my life.

However, as I look back, these are not even close to the things that I “loved” about college.

What I loved about college is the change that it inspired in me as a person. I came here as naive freshman and I will leave here happily as an even more naive graduate.

The difference is that when I was a freshman, I didn’t know how little I knew.

Now I do.

It turns out that college was much less about learning things than it was learning how much there was to learn.

My time at the College of Charleston inspired my intellectual curiosity, it destroyed my egotistical presumption that I was a “pretty smart guy,” and it taught me what is perhaps the most important lesson that no single class, professor, or experience can teach: that the world, in its infinite complexity and simultaneous simplicity, is pretty darn interesting.

I thank my professors, every single one, even those that insisted that I deserved a C in their class, for demanding, above all else, that I think about stuff. I thank you for instilling in me the value of introspection, and for introducing me to entire subjects of thought that showed me an assortment of human creativity and an endless array of intellectual pursuits.

I thank my peers, even the ones I didn’t like or agree with, for showing me, on a microcosmic scale, the varying backgrounds, cultures and perspectives that make up a planet infused with diversity.

And finally, I thank you College of Charleston. You have provided me with the greatest educational gift that any graduate can ask for, to leave their undergraduate institution with far more questions than answers.

Anatole France one said, “An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.”

That is what I learned in college, and I hope that all those leaving with me and all of those coming after learn something similar.