::intermission::
on college.
The problem with going for a major in college is that people think they know what they want. Or maybe it's not that they know what they want, but they think they know what they are good at. They make no concession to what they like or really enjoy doing, thinking just about what's ahead and how they get there. We live in a very goal oriented society. Life is like the web of the spider who lives in my windowsill. People start out in the center, wide-eyed at all the threads stretching out with infinate possibility ahead of them, and start to slide down one of them. As soon as they start out on a skein, they never look at the others. It's not a path, it's a network, there are a million ends to each thread and a thousand ways to get there. There are so many different routes out there that if we fixate on one, we'll never have a chance to explore the others. I'm at college. Why? To find out what I'm good at and enjoy doing. I thought I knew when I came in, and that I was simply learning how to get there. Get where? College art courses arn't going to teach me how to make a living at my art, and I already knew what art I liked, all the courses did in that regard was confuse me. UC Berkeley is NOT a vocational school, so why spend a very important 4 years of my life pretending to train for a job which I may decide 3 years later isn't for me anyway? My counselor pointed out today that my chance of predicting what I'd be doing in 4 years was about as high as my chance of correctly predicting what I'd be wearing four years from now, at 3 pm on the 10th of october. I have a good idea of the range of clothing I like and own now, a vague idea of the weather typical to that month, but what about global warming and that wardrobe makeover??? Either way, the point is that there are far more variables then I can ever account for that factor into choosing (or being chosen by) a career, there's no way I could predict all of them. So, I spend my time here experimenting, and if it leads to a major, whoop-de-do. Or so the counselor said. He even suggested that use the term "emphasis in:..." on my resume, implying a major but not claiming to have gotten credit for it. Because there are about 10,000 different jobs out there, and how many majors are there at Cal? only about 100. (A hell of a lot! but not enough) So why NOT take the classes which interest me the absolute most and have ALL of them become useful later, as opposed to taking obnoxious ones that I know are a waste of my time here at Cal just to get a major, missing out on some excellent classes? who knows.
do you?
The problem with going for a major in college is that people think they know what they want. Or maybe it's not that they know what they want, but they think they know what they are good at. They make no concession to what they like or really enjoy doing, thinking just about what's ahead and how they get there. We live in a very goal oriented society. Life is like the web of the spider who lives in my windowsill. People start out in the center, wide-eyed at all the threads stretching out with infinate possibility ahead of them, and start to slide down one of them. As soon as they start out on a skein, they never look at the others. It's not a path, it's a network, there are a million ends to each thread and a thousand ways to get there. There are so many different routes out there that if we fixate on one, we'll never have a chance to explore the others. I'm at college. Why? To find out what I'm good at and enjoy doing. I thought I knew when I came in, and that I was simply learning how to get there. Get where? College art courses arn't going to teach me how to make a living at my art, and I already knew what art I liked, all the courses did in that regard was confuse me. UC Berkeley is NOT a vocational school, so why spend a very important 4 years of my life pretending to train for a job which I may decide 3 years later isn't for me anyway? My counselor pointed out today that my chance of predicting what I'd be doing in 4 years was about as high as my chance of correctly predicting what I'd be wearing four years from now, at 3 pm on the 10th of october. I have a good idea of the range of clothing I like and own now, a vague idea of the weather typical to that month, but what about global warming and that wardrobe makeover??? Either way, the point is that there are far more variables then I can ever account for that factor into choosing (or being chosen by) a career, there's no way I could predict all of them. So, I spend my time here experimenting, and if it leads to a major, whoop-de-do. Or so the counselor said. He even suggested that use the term "emphasis in:..." on my resume, implying a major but not claiming to have gotten credit for it. Because there are about 10,000 different jobs out there, and how many majors are there at Cal? only about 100. (A hell of a lot! but not enough) So why NOT take the classes which interest me the absolute most and have ALL of them become useful later, as opposed to taking obnoxious ones that I know are a waste of my time here at Cal just to get a major, missing out on some excellent classes? who knows.
do you?