Why do we go to college? Some Academic-types would tell you that they go to study – don’t believe them! For me, the sole purpose of going to college is to have fun. I define fun as participating in extra-curricular activities, playing sports and meeting new people.
Albert Einstein had some interesting thoughts on education and i quote, “Never memorise something that you can look up.” “[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. …The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
just education?
The purpose of education is not memorizing facts, giving examinations, getting top marks or passing out with a certificate in hand. The motive of education is the overall personality development of an individual. And this is the difference between an educated and a literate person.
I have mentioned Ad nauseam that i hate the long travelling that i have to go through to reach my college. This coupled with the boredom that my college offers with no extra-curricular activities and low overall attendance of students means that I am never eager to go there. I often think about why I take so much pain to reach there when there’s nothing to look forward to.
The second half of this month has been very eventful for me. Eventful because the number of days that I went to my college was 5, so it left a lot of spare time for me. Going to college had become so dull that I had to take a break from it (and am still waiting for the consequences). My Plan : Attend every event that’s going on in the city, don’t stay quiet until you find something to do. First of all, I decided to do a public-speaking course and started searching for some institutes that offer it. I squared on one such place and went for its seminar on a sunday evening with my friend.
Public Speaking
We reached there and they began their seminar. The mentor displayed us some skills such as making an impromptu speech – the topics for which we gave, making a formal speech, raising a toast, dealing with different kinds of audiences, memorising about 20 words in in ascending or descending order in 3 mins (which they said, they did with the help of a special formulae that only their institute knows) etc-etc. And they were damn impressive!!! In short, they tried to lure us into taking their course. But soon came the tricky part, they gave a jaw-dropping number, which we later came to know was the fees. They added that they would give us a 10,000 bucks discount if we were to pay the fees within two days. We were out of the hotel in ten minutes. I forgot public speaking faster than light. Who wants a public speaking course!!!
After public speaking I barged into my long-forgotten fantasy of learning a foreign language, SPANISH. I searched for some institutes nearby. Am still in the process of finalising one.
I was not going to rest until I found something to feed on, for the rest of the year. I rummaged the nook and corner of Facebook and my quest ended on a page. The page was created by a not-for-profit organisation which claims, is aimed at youth leadership by encouraging volunteerism and social action among them.
Stumbled Upon
They organize many programmes and thereby motivate students to take part in development activities . The latest from them in the offing was Developmental Journalism. They will be creating a group of students who would be reporting on issues excluding politics, entertainment and sports! To know exactly what’s left in the field of journalism outside these, I went for the meeting that they organised (again with the same friend, he accompanies me in such events so that I don’t feel alone).
They explained to us how journalism, today relies more on sensationalism and less on issues which affects the common people of our country. Steve Jobs’ retirement, upheaval in Tripoli, Hurricane in some part of the world, celeb A dating celeb B, Tendulkar waiting to hit his 1ooth test-century or Usain Bolt creating a world record; does not bother us. This group aims to create awareness on the issues which affect us and the information of which might help in the future. Developmental journalism is just about that (maybe more. But, now that’s all I know). They at least wanted to take an initiative in this regard. So, they were calling for volunteers who would be passionate to be the torch-bearers and representatives of this change. Obviously, I stepped forward!!!
Making a change
My first work would be this thursday, when I would be given a topic/news to write on. I would be informed about it at 11 in the morning and by 8pm I will have to mail them the news-story. And if its good enough, they would be publishing it in their website the next day. This way each week we’ll have to write a news-story and from the next week onwards we’ll have to work on a feature story too. They’ll be giving the guidelines for it later this week. I am really excited about this and am eager to see how these things work. I would be giving you the updates as it comes.
But one thing is for sure, bunking college helps!!! 
