University is Wasted on University Students

... or, to be exact, it was wasted on this university student.

I've decided that, at some point in my life, I'm going to go back to school and get a second degree. It's going to be a degree in General Arts and Science. Perhaps I will major in something a little more specific, but I promise that it will be the least useful subject that I can possibly think of.

Looking back, I realize that I spent most of the academic portion of my university career wishing that I was somewhere else, doing anything but what I was doing. That's the drawback in deciding, midway through, that you have no intention of every applying the vast majority of your coursework to anything practical.

There's a few ways that you can react when you reach this kind of decision. You can change course and go for a different degree, reexamine your field of study until you find something that you are passionate about, or muddle your way the rest of the way through with the minimum amount of work that you need to get by.

Sad to say, I picked door number three.

This isn't to say that there weren't exceptions to this rule. I really shone during my Intro to Rational Choice and Decision Making course, totally 0wnz0r3d Artificial Intelligence and Programming Paradigms, and did a pretty damned good job with my thesis project, the Adaptive Review Agent. On the dark side of that coin lie the Intro to Brain and Behaviour, and the Psychology of Reading.

Don't get me wrong, I know that almost every university student comes across courses that they didn't particularly like or do well at. I just can't help but shake the feeling that I could've done more. I want to go back and learn things because I'm genuinely interested in the subject matter, and not because I'm angling for a better job somewhere along the line. That's not what university is supposed to be about, but we put a premium on practicality in Canadian society. Sometimes, that emphasis can draw focus away from the noble pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake.

I don't regret the way I went through university. To be honest, I think that life is too short to carry any kind of serious regret. But if the opportunity presents itself, I'd like to go back and really soak up the benefits of being at a quality institution of higher learning. Talk to the professors. Spend some time in the Art department, or the English department. Broaden my horizons. I think I got a lot out of my first go 'round, and there's no denying that when the time came, I was ready to leave.

I'm interested to see how the second time around will go, but probably not for another three or four decades.