James Macay
Prof. Kitana Ananda
ENG103
September 18, 2017
Thinking back to one of my first memories of learning encourages me to laugh. As a young child, I was always very nosy and clever. My first learning experience comes even before my age met the requirements of being enrolled in school. I was with family at a waterfront and there was a fence that I wanted to climb over, simply to make it to the otherside. However, my mother convinced me that there would be consequences if I climbed over. In a nutshell, I tossed my hat over the fence, climbing over suddenly became an obligation. From this, I learned that certain rules can be bent under acceptable circumstances. Seems manipulative, but nothing was taken from anybody, at most I gained some physical capabilities and sense of balance. From this I took the idea that I am free to live up to my potential in a harmless and instinctual manner. Remember, baby steps are still signs of progression.
Now, on the topic of school, the amount of mixed emotions I have are too broad to individually narrow down. It is absolutely a love hate relationship that I have with school, but overall appreciate it and feel that everyone should be entitled to an education. Alongside this people should feel the need to go to school, to build an education for themselves. Aside from becoming educated, school comes with endless memories and experiences. Whether it makes you smile, laugh or cry, it is an experience that leads to a fresh perception of the world. Most of my memories in school are either moments of struggle or success. Being in the midst of pre-school the realization that mom or dad aren’t around struck me. To be respectful under the rule of someone that has no tie to my life aside from feeding me education seems odd at that age. We all know that we should be capable of caring for oneself and to be respectful to our surroundings, but as a kid it feels as if you are breaking your instinctual actions and begin to warp into the systematic standard. My love for school is the education and how much can be accomplished if you use your education properly. The hate comes from the system, the unethical ways of seeing and ultimatums that we are forced to fear.
In my more recent experiences, I’m enlightened to know that college has a different method of getting through to students. The capability to be able to think for yourself, to rationalize what we see without judgement but mere fact. This concept can be appreciated at a heightened level when you consider that most college students have no idea what they are going to do for the rest of their lives. Even if you are studying a specific field, who’s to say that is where you are going to end up for the rest of your existence? College allows our minds to float and absorb what our surroundings give off. Whilst dealing with the workload we also find ourselves alone, similar to elementary, when your parents drop you off. Only in college, you realize that priorities change, and managing the load trains you to manage yourself in the real world.
Outside of school, my education has a lot of street lessons, some random, some meaningless, others full of meaning and morals. I was an aggressive rollerblader for 7 years of my life. Starting at 5 years old and getting my first sponsor at 9 years old, (I have my older brother to thank.) Overall, my youth consisted of countless street hours while maintaining good grades in school. Had my grades been poor, my mom wouldn’t have let me skate. Now in my more recent years, for the past 4-5 years I have been a cyclist and taking it to a professional level has lead to me endless social and professional encounters. It is safe to say that regardless of the caliber in which I perform , I do it purely for the love of it. Which eventually lead to a great source of physical activity. What I want for people to take from this is simply to always remember, you are allowed to live life instinctually and freely, never turn down knowledge, and always ask questions. I believe school can improve these aspects of your life.