Honours Degree? Anti-Climax.
I’d always imagined the completion of my degree would be marked with an American Pie esque celebration of booze, drugs, tits, uncomprehensible screaming, and general shithousery. Instead, i sat entirely alone, on a dreary Tuesday afternoon and hesitantly submitted a decidedly average dissertation to the sound of internal screams.
Introduction
Throughout your formative years, higher education is chronicled as the logical next step. After high school, university/college is a must. It’s not a want or a choice, but an absolute essential, like water without the thirst-quenching abilities. The supposed choice of higher education is institutionally forced upon teenagers by a myriad of well-meaning, but ultimately deluded, adults.
I’m sure we all remember your guidance counselor covering every aspect of applying to university/college but only briefly (if at all) describing the lucrative opportunities offered by modern apprenticeships, trades, and other such career routes.
College is the way to go, so do it.
This embellishes a warped view of the world for young adults where higher education is pursued as the pinnacle of achievement. This is the starting point, the a priori notion, where teenagers wrap their identity around academia. This is the point where the line between self-identity/character is blurred with academic achievement.
I could write for eons about the advantages and disadvantages of higher education. I do believe that both are present equally and i’ll undoubtedly cover this topic further in the future. Instead, i’d rather write about how higher education is presented, why this alters self-identity and how future generations can sidestep this pothole on the road to identity formation.
Presentation of Higher Education
I remember being unbelievably smug as i received my offer to study at the University of Strathclyde. Being a member of a somewhat prestigious institution confirmed my intellectual ability; i was better than others because of academic accreditations. I specifically remember internally lording over my less academically inclined peers, touting my own intellectual and moral superiority.
Moral superiority indeed. Getting into an incrementally better university somehow made me a better human. My membership in this university made me better than you. How deluded.
The rankings of different universities create an aura of exclusivity amongst the individual institutions, but more important is the divide it creates between the academic community and others. You’re either a student or you’re not. You either went to university or you didn’t. You’re in or you’re out. This is an intentional move by the educational system itself. Exclusivity created demand. The educational system preys on this, uses this, survives on this notion.
Once you’re part of this university, that’s your identity. Here you go, a free hoodie with our colors on it. A student card with your name and face on it :D. Stick it on yer CV. Plaster it on social media. You’re us. And this is exactly what happens, we start to measure ourselves by our associations and achievements within our academic institutions.
Think about it. Someone asks:
What are you?
I’m a student.
You fill out a housing application form, current occupation?
I’m a student.
You want some discount codes, tell them:
I’m a student
Persistently reinforced is the idea that you’re a student. That’s what you are now. No more and no less. You’re simply a student.
Self-Identity
At this point, where everyone around you is telling you that you’re a student, you really start to believe it, you measure yourself with a yardstick that reads from A-F. It becomes more and more of your identity.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to begin with, you feel part of a community, you share commonalities with those around you. You join societies, attend university balls, bond in the collective grief of exam season. It’s good when it’s good and laughable when it’s bad.
The problem arises when one identifies too much with their specific vocation. When the title of student is ingrained for so long, you forget that there’s more. More to you, more to life. You start to lose that grounded sense of self when your identity is formed around gruelling library sessions and grades. We’re the sum of our values and actions, not just our titles.
We’re the Dylans who philosophise, the Gemmas who stand up for their beliefs, the Bens who care deeply about those around them.
These are the qualities that make us who we are, not what we happen to be doing at a specific point in time. Our values, our characteristics, and our beliefs should be the only things that form our self-identity because they’re the only things that can ever be truly constant.
You can finish uni today, lose your job tomorrow, and be cut from the athletics team next week. These are all impermanent and thus your identity should never be comprised of things that change.
Michael Jordan is known for basketball but those around him will tell you it’s his always do better attitude that makes him who he is. Cristiano Ronaldo is known for scoring goals but it’s his drive to be the best in the world that allows him to do that. Gordon Ramsay only took up a career in cooking after failing to succeed in football at a professional level. What these individuals have in common is that they’re not defined by their occupations, rather by their drives, values, and goals.
Swerve that Pothole
When I submitted my dissertation on that dreary Tuesday afternoon, I realized something. I’d spent the last 4 years so entirely immersed in the idea of being a student that I was at a complete loss of what to do now. Somewhere along the way, I’d forgot about who I was.
It was anti-climactic. I was just done and that was it. I’m no longer a student.
It’s taken a second to come to terms with that reality and ultimately, i believe this weird limbo i’m experiencing is positively influential. It’s forced me to be introspective, to challenge my beliefs about myself, to restructure my self-identity around foundational factors.
For those still in university, i have one simple piece of advice. Imagine your life on two levels with Level 1 being the things that constitute your character and Level 2 being your identities/roles. Treasure Level 1 the most by developing your character through consistent action that exemplifies your values. Although Level 2 is important, do not let it define you, it can change at any moment.
Perhaps the best piece of advice regarding this topic can be found in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where the author suggests the idea of an internal mission statement that drives all actions in your life.
Next time someone asks you, what are you? Avoid telling them you’re just a student because you’re much more than that.
As Always,
Yours Honestly,
Liam Lawson.
