The number and kinds of connections you make are directly proportional to how well you fare in this world. Most people know about connections that can get them into a particular school or a particular job.
These are important, but I am more concerned about a different type of connection, connections that can sustain you during those bad times.
Years ago I began telling my college classes on the first day that the most important word is "connection," and the most important action is to connect. I have now concluded that education is responsible for some of the greatest connections in my life.
Many of these people I know because of connections I made with them as far back as first grade or as recent as the last craft show. I have so many interests, and I know some of them are the result of college.
The literature, required and suggested, opened vistas I could not possibly have dreamed. Learning about so many subjects made me want to see them. A visit to the New York Metropolitan Museum may have been the first place I realized that I could indeed see much of what I had read in books. My first trip to Europe in 1979 was larger appetizer. Thirteen countries in 62 days allowed me to see more than I could possibly have dreamed of seeing.
Correspondence from fellow travelers and folks I met continue to raise my spirits. Selecting the world's major museums as a guide, I received an education like none other on my 169-day trip around the world. Book content became more valuable than ever. What I had seen in and learned from the books, I saw firsthand, often wanting to know more. Connections I had not known existed materialized.
Frequently I meet people with whom I am still in touch. A German sent me a piece of the Berlin Wall because she thought I "would like having it." One Australian left me a legacy of $10,000; another I met in Las Vegas hoped I survived the flooding. An Egyptian with whom I have corresponded since 1984 still writes although we have never met; I sympathized when 60 tourists were killed in Egypt in 1997, and he was one of many from around the world to contact me after Sept. 11, 2001. A Pole in Finland and I exchange feedback on our poetry.
Other times it's not the people but the places with which I make the connection. Are you one of the people who acknowledge the Space Needle on the television screen? Imagine being able to have hands-on experiences with the world's marvels: the Great Wall, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, The Louvre, Pearl Harbor, Elmina, the Pyramids, Patmos, Pergamon, Mount Rushmore and the nearby Crazy Horse, Reclining Buddha, the Atlantic and Indian oceans meeting in South Africa, New York City, the Statue of Liberty, Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee and Yellowstone National Park.
For me, all hold special places in my heart, and my journals make the memories more special. Some of these places I first encountered in a book or film. I am not saying college is the only place to get this information or to make these connections, but the rich concentration is unbeatable. I know of no place where a person can learn, in such a short time, so much which can be used throughout their life, regardless of one's major.
The structure and discipline necessary to earn a degree are not shrugged aside once school ends. Knowing the vast variety of careers and how often employers want only a college degree provided an entrée to me which would have been closed minus the degree. Yes, high school graduates generally make more in a lifetime than dropouts, and college-degree holders generally make more than high school graduates. But the quality of life may be the greatest benefit of a college education.
My advice is to give college a minimum of one year. Many graduates went to college for all the wrong reasons but stayed and completed the course for some good and right reasons because they were pleasantly surprised, regardless of age.
Learning about the world of beautiful, interesting, good people, places, and things is an experience all of us should have. To eradicate or overcome that which is not beautiful, interesting or good in your life is a matter of your survival. Books, and the concentrated learning college offers, can be of immense assistance.
Seattle writer Georgia McDade may be reached via mptimes@nwlink.com.
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