It's the afternoon, the sun is slowly beginning its homeward journey to the horizon, and the shadows which had disappeared begin to grow and stretch across the dry dusty landscape. On the main street of town, an outsider waits with his clean shaven skin searing in hot amber sun. He's waiting for the man he has to kill, the man who is from this part of town. The outsider continues to wait.
The sun moves lower in the sky, readying itself for its evening rest, using its daily travel as a way to escape the anxious tension that is building up in this little town. The sun can't run fast enough, the silhouette of a man casually walks across its gaze and blocks the suns view of the outsider, the new shadow stretched across the outsiders face. Like two great giants stood these two men. Their shadows in the dimming light casting images only a fraction the size of their worth.
The faceoff I've described here is much like any western film you may have watched. Two people longing for each others deaths, and the cliched saying "This town ain't big enough for the two of us". Well, this town isn't big enough for the two people in my story... Or is it?
My gripe today is with the trade off many people make between happiness and lifestyle versus professional success and why might people feel that this is a trade off they have to make. This is reflected in the introduction, as often peoples lives aren't big enough for the career they want and the lifestyle they need. It can be a showdown where one bullet, or one decision can lead them on a road with little or no way home.
So why would you chose professional success over lifestyle? There's a simple answer for this. Money. But is that actually the case? In speaking with a friend the other day, I was made aware that its possible to feel trapped into this cycle of professional success and career achievement. In this scenario, people who have been educated from the world's finest universities feel they NEED to have professional success in order to justify their education. For example, if someone who went to Cambridge ended up working in a position which a person from an unknown university could have worked, then their expensive and elite education would have been a waste (to them). So in order to no waste their education, they're happy to - or feel trapped into a cycle of professional success or achievement.
This idea was revolutionary to me - in the past I only thought that money earned was the root for all unhappiness, but apparently money spent (on education) can be equally as troublesome. I applied this understanding of educational pressure to something closer to home for me - High Schools. The more a parent pays for a child's education, the more they expect the child to perform. This places a lot of expectation and pressure on the child and so initiates this system of professional success vs. lifestyle.
So then is it the education which makes them feel the need to succeed or the culture taught by their parents?
This is something which occurs when education has no other purpose than career and financial gain. Which is the opposite of what education should be. Once again this is a lost ideal which will never actually find its place in the real world, but education for the education's sake should be the goal of everyone.
I began my university career with the aims of finishing as soon as possible and beginning in my chosen career path so I could make money. The stress which came from this need to finish, and the reasons for my education made it difficult to study and do well, as always I couldn't see my education as anything more than an enabler to allow me to reach my career. Over the last 6 months though I've had a change of approach to my educuation and it has freed me. I came to the realisation now that everything I have learnt to this moment has made me a better person. Everything I have read, everything my teachers have taught me and everyone who I've surrounded myself with while learning has taught me to be better able to challenge and question the injustices that are occurring, it has taught me to better think for myself and has enabled my own train of thought to evolve. So regardless of why I went to university, and regardless of the outcome, I will come out a better person than I went in, and everything I learn from here till I finish is a continuation of this journey.
When you're learning for yourself and your own betterment instead of your career it becomes much more motivating to learn and a much more rewarding experience. If people who feel trapped in a cycle of justifying their education could apply the same philosophy to their own education and life then perhaps they too could enjoy what they have achieved personally, and not worry so much about what they're not achieving professionally.
Perhaps when education for educations sake is taken into consideration both professional success and a better lifestyle can co-exist in harmony.
I haven't lived enough years to be able to answer this in its entirety, and if I had wisdom above my years I probably wouldn't tell you, as discovering the balance, meaning and reasons in life is something a person has to do on their own. All I know is there is no such thing as a wasted education...
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