Re: The Walking Lonliness of the Nearly Departed

[Patte Rosebank]

I have a very high I.Q., but I haven’t been able to do much with it, because my E.Q. (how I use my smarts) is relatively low.

“Book smarts” vs. “life smarts” is why there are so many people whose parents force them to go to university instead of vocational college, because the parents are convinced that a degree is the only way to guarantee career success. This has led to overcrowded universities and huge numbers of people with degrees, wondering what to do with their lives.

A couple of years ago, the colleges had a big advertising campaign, trying to change this perception. I’m not sure how successful it was.

What I do know is that I always felt like a fish out of water when I was at university. My parents insisted I go to university instead of to a college, because a degree was a guarantee of success. They also insisted that I study English, since I was good at it—at least, I was until I got to university. As for the “guarantee of success”, there’s a reason why there’s a song called “What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?”. If I’d been allowed to study theatre (tech. or performance) or broadcasting, I’d have been much better off, emotionally and financially, than I am now, because I would have been trained in exactly what I needed to do these jobs. Instead of just having a piece of paper that says I can spell, use proper grammar, and read & analyze literature.

And I wouldn’t be having recurring nightmares that the university has just called me to say they made a mistake, and I actually still need one more credit to get that degree.

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