Do What You Want! (Take Classes for Pleasure )

Dearest Readers,
Next year, I am actually going to try to study what I want to study. I’m not advocating abandoning all required classes, but seriously, why not take the classes I actually want to take?? Crazy concept I know. As the father of one of my close friends from home (who I will call Broadway Bound Bombshell…the friend not her dad, that would be weird) always says “college is the one time you have to be selfish.”
How did I come to this conclusion you might ask ... oh clever reader … well last weekend I attended the Society of Professional Journalist’s Conference (SPJ) in Cleveland, where we were able to chat with everyone from Social Media Experts to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Editor, and the editor (who will in fact be doing the hiring...just in case you were unaware) continually stressed the need for students to have a solid base education. The editor of the Post Gazette coined the phrase “I want my journalists educated not trained.” I had never thought this way before. Now, I am not sure I whole-heartedly agree with his perspective here, because I am currently taking Online Journalism … which is apparently a no no … but I do think his point has validation. You can’t write about what you don’t know, and those hiring journalists, as well as those hiring in all other professions, are looking for people with specialties. And let’s be real, in this economy the more obscure your specialty, the better. Not to mention, if the editor is telling me to take econ classes not journalism classes, but I got my internship based on my journalism classes … no one employer is looking for the same thing, so you have to be yourself and take who wants you. Besides, do you really want to get hired at a place that likes that you took all the classes you hated? I bet you’ll love working there (insert sarcastic tone here).
I was further influenced by the visit of Ana Marie Cox who was the keynote speaker of a symposium at OU, who literally emphasized that you should keep wasting your time doing what you do, because that is what you love and that is what will really get you hired. She messed around on the Internet back in its beginning stages, which landed her a job at an online blog and now she is an editor at GQ, by making witty sex jokes and political criticisms. (two things that she ‘wasted’ her time doing … sounds like we could be friends.)
I think I have been too caught up in ‘what does my employer want me to have learned’ mentality. (because if I don’t get a job I’ll die poor and alone in a dark alley!!) Instead I should be thinking, what do I want to actually study. Do I have to take a language if I don’t like it at all (I know…so sue me)? No! Can I take a minor in maybe Psychology or English, because I actually think these topics sound interesting? Yes … mayhaps so! Can I take random classes like classical mythology or non-european history for nothing besides my personal enjoyment? Okay I concede. Ideally, yes, but realistically, at least I will try.
Lesson to be learned: College is about you. We get caught up in the bad economy and the horror of unemployment, and we forget that this is our ONE chance at college. (well unless you flunk out, so you could always go that route!) If we don’t enjoy at least some of our classes, what is the point? We went through the SATs and all the high school classes where we had limited options to get to this opportunity. Take the darn class!
Encouragingly yours,
Adorkable

ps. i took the picture again which is why this post is delayed...it's hard to find time to take the picture i want to these days!
pps. new things! first off i'm adding what the post is about in the title because I'm forgetting everything I've already written about (I know so many posts like almost 20 haha) and please add comments about education for you. Disagree if you wish, I'm just trying to add this new thing called 'interactivity' (kind of a social media buzz word) so please comment away!