I get on the bus, listening to music through my AirPods as usual.  Probably listening to some Destroy Lonely or Lucki . I get my favorite seat on the back of the bus in the corner. I usually get bored on the bus so I start to play Clash Royale as I’m listening to music. All of a sudden I hear a familiar voice in my AirPods. I just knew it was some guy from one of Kanyes skits (School Spirit Skit 2) from his earlier albums, and I usually skip skits but I was in a very intense game and I didn’t want to lose, so I decided to let the skit play. The match finishes but I keep listening. The skit starts with this guy talking about getting his degrees in a boastful tone. This dude went as far as talking about dying with nothing other than his degrees. It’s like his life goal is to go to school, get his degrees, and nothing else. So I finished listening to the skit and I began to think.

This changed my view of education in various ways. One of those ways was that society sometimes puts too much importance on education. Education is important, however some children can be easily manipulated into thinking that it is the only way to be successful, or that it’s simply the most important thing in our lives.  When this happens it can lead students into feeling like a complete failure if they do bad on a test or or isn’t the top of their class. In the skit the speaker  says that while everyone is making money ill be in school and ill have my degrees, and this makes me think about how some kids don’t always live their youth to the fullest because they are worried about how they will be perceived based on their educational status. This skit made me realize that education is important but its not more important than actually living life in the present, and that worrying too much about how successful I’ll be in the future according to my education is simply a waste of energy.

Today education is so pushed and emphasized because more educated people, leads to innovation and economic growth. While this is true if students are taught that higher education is the only way to make a living for themselves, it can make some students feel lost or discouraged. Take for example Steve Jobs; most famously known for Apple, only went to college for one semester before dropping out. Kanye West, one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time dropped out of college after one year. Both of these successful men were creators and might not have achieved what they did if they stayed in college. When society or even our parents are always telling us to get higher education its easy to forget what we can do outside of the classroom. Being “successful” can be different to everyone, and if that’s the case not everyone will need college or need to make education the forefront of their lives.

It was the middle of my junior year. The AP tests were coming up and I was in AP English Composition. I was nervous to take the test but I was still confident in my skills. Since COVID-19 was still around, everyone was taking their tests online. I started the test and was feeling pretty confident…then I got to the essays. I remember typing as fast as I could and taking a lot of educated guesses. I barely finished my second essay and barely got to start my third. My keyboard stopped working and I realized the test had ended. At this point I also realized that I probably failed, but in the back of my head I had a delusion that it was still possible that I just barely passed. Eventually, I got my results and I wasn’t too surprised but I was disappointed.

When I think about this event and think about this skit I think to myself, “life goes on”. This skit helped  me realize that if I were to beat myself up every time I ran into a academic obstacle I would be on the floor with just some of my academic achievements and nothing else. Just like the  speaker in the skit who would be happy with dying with just his degrees and nothing else. His only worry in life seemed to be reaching academic goals and nothing else. If I didn’t come to realize that life goes on even after academic failures I would’ve kept the mindset that academic goals are the most important goals in life just like the speaker in the skit.

Now imagine an event like this but on a bigger scale, for example failing a college class. Now failing a college course is a big deal but what happens after that? Life simply goes on, but failing in education does not mean that you won’t be successful or that you yourself are a failure. However, when students are taught that failing in education is simply the end of it all it is hard for them to think “life goes on”, and this can be detrimental to ones mental health. Instead students should taking failing as a wake up call, and this can mean many different things. It can mean studying harder, making more effort in the classroom, or even it just isn’t for them and they have something else that they are more passionate about.

Again, this isn’t to say that education isn’t important whatsoever, nor is it to get students to drop out of school. It is to help students realize that there is a lot more to life than the classroom and paper work. A successful student does not always equal a successful life, and a struggling student does not always equal a struggling life. The misconception that education should always be the number one priority in a persons life can cause more damage than teachers and parents realize sometimes. Education is important but it doesn’t always have to be the most important in everyones life.