Back to School

Remember Remember the 1st of September. I’m not 100% sure that’s how the saying goes but it has a nice ring to it none the less. I was watching the local morning news show this morning when I remembered that its back to school day for the nation’s youth. This undoubtedly means, new shoes, new uniforms, new backpacks, new books, stationery of all sorts and all manner of other necessities that makes the first day of the new school year an event rivaled only by Christmas and Birthdays. After thinking about how much more traffic is going to be on the roads, I began summing up the amount of years I spent as a student. Not surprisingly though it amounted to twenty years i.e. (2-preschool, 7-primary, 5-secondary, 2- college, 4-university). Needless to say that at 25 that’s more than half my life. What do I have to show for it? Well in a literal sense 3 school leaving certificates, 6 CXC’s, a Diploma, and a Bachelors degree. Sounds like a good collection huh. I guess so. But it was a long time coming and allot of hours spent reading, writing, editing, and also not forgetting procrastination (the number one reason people fail in school). I have had more graduations than I have parking tickets (none actually) and have done more group presentations and speeches than eulogies (none of those either). I guess it’s safe to say that I am an experienced schooler (not an actual word but could be defined as someone who has attended school for most of their life). However no amount of schooling (actual word) can prepare you for what is to come after you graduate from school as there is no graduation from life as long as you’re still living it.

Each day is a new experience with more opportunities than there are days in a week (7 if you’re following) the onus is on us to find them, exploit them, and embrace them. Knowing what I know now, I would go back to secondary/primary school, simply because I know I would be that much more in tuned with what was going on. I can safely say now that all the teachers who said “take your school work seriously because you never know where you’ll end up in life” definitely knew what they were speaking about. In hindsight, the values they tried to instill in us are the same ones the world of work now demands (hard work, dedication, team work, and doing your homework). Needless to say that homework seems that much more attractive when it is tied into your yearend bonus but not when it means you can’t watch endless hours of Cartoon Network/BET. I guess we just needed some perspective and motivation to get us going.

Some might want to insert here that there are hundreds of not thousands or millions of persons who made it without setting foot in a classroom and to them I say well done. But for those who have to pass through the hallowed walls of the institutions of learning I say congratulations to you as well. For it is in these hollowed walls that you will be challenged, berated, idolized, and “educated”. You will make lifelong friends and or enemies but rest assured you may one day look back on these days and say beyond the shadow of a doubt “best days ever”.

Believe it or not we live in a world that values people for what they know. Notwithstanding that you can know allot without being formally educated but it’s always good to be able to trace your roots and be able to say, I am a product of School X,Y, or even Z. At the end of the day you can put a price on education (just ask your parents) but the value of a sound education reaches way beyond the classroom, your cubicle, or even your corner office with the view.

So for those who are heading back to school or for those of you already in the world of work I say enjoy it and make the best of it each and every day.