The Value Of A Formal Education And Why It Can’t Ever Be Wasted

I wasn’t the best student in school.

In fact, I was pretty damn lazy about it.

I once woke up to an actual hiding from my aunt for not studying. In my defence though, it was really boring and I was 12. Anything else in the world was more exciting than the book I was supposed to be learning from.

When I got to high school, it was always the same. I’d get my work done immediately after school so that I didn’t have to think about it again. Instead I could watch TV with my family or talk on the phone with my friends or write letters. I loved writing letters. I have always loved writing, even back then.

Then I got to University and I was still me. I remember writing assignments while watching law series on TV. If you couldn’t multi-task then what was the point of living. I never missed a class. Studious? Hell No. I just found that if you concentrated on what the lecturer was actually saying, you didn’t have to also read the material. You could get enough knowledge to write an essay and then just find the sources to reference it at the end.

The defining moment (there’s always one isn’t there?)

Every time my dad called and asked what I was doing I’d lie and say “studying” because isn’t that what dads want to hear.

Until the day I overheard my dad say to a business colleague;

“That’s my daughter – she’s not very bright but she works very hard.”

I knew I had only myself to blame for that one. Years of being at school and pretending to be working really hard when actually all I wanted was to live my life. My grades did not reflect someone who was working “very hard.”

So my dad thought, I must be dumb and it didn’t sit well with me.

Making Change Happen

I vowed to change that and I did. It was too late for him to know but I graduated top of my Masters degree. I think it was more about proving a point than anything else.

In spite of it all,  I learnt a lot through my education.

I learnt that there is so much more that you discover while in school. You don’t just learn the material in the books. You learn about life. You learn the value of life and living. You learn communication skills and you learn negotiation. You learn to question everything. You learn to be skeptical and you learn about what makes you tick.

[bctt tweet=”Education changes everything about the way you see the world #QOTD “]

I have all these degrees and people say I’m way too educated to JUST be a stay at home mom. I should be out there doing something magical with my education and yet here I am. Happy as hell! I know the value of my education. I know the value of happiness and I know that no matter how many people think I’m wasting my life, this is the life that makes me happy. I know I don’t need to justify that to anyone but I know so many of us do.

How things shape us

I wouldn’t trade my education for anything because it has shaped who I am and the opinions I have about the world. It has taught me to look at things from various angles. It has opened my mind to so many possibilities and truths that exist in this world. Being educated has added to my quality of life in many more ways than I knew possible.

The only thing I would change would be studying something I love over what I thought I should do but even in those moments – there were lessons to learn. No regrets.

Life is all about the lessons you can learn from every situation and every experience and I wouldn’t change a single one.