Cruising Micronesia

While blanking out in statistics class today, it hit me: school is a mere disillusion for what is ahead in life; come it think of it, its a game. That's the conclusion I came to today. School is a measure for how well you can play the game. I experienced this awakening in the midst of my contemplations of the purpose of school. Omar, a brilliant friend of mine, mentioned this to me during one of my reading sessions in the Mudhouse Cafe. He and I exchanged some thoughts on life, which he remarked was "a bright change from what we're used to...just about everyday here." I concur, but I reflected upon our discussion based on snippets of Omar's words that circulated in my mind. I realized that school has less to do with broadening our imagination and horizon and more with instructing us how to work within certain constraints of this conformist, industrialist society.

In an ideal world, I would drop out right now to implement the changes I see fit by my own freewill and not having some professor tell me how I ought to live my life. There is a famous rebel saying that goes something like this: "Do your own thing, wherever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on to beauty, love, honesty, fun."

Its sad to see how school drives us to do everything for a grade and not for the sake of learning. Its simply a precursor for how to live our lives. They're basically feeding us with advice to do everything for money and not for the passion of hard work and loving what you do in life. Unfortunately is almost impossible for us to break away from this system after over a decade's worth of a rigid, dictatorial schooling, where we are told how to think and what to think. Any deviance or creativity is discouraged. Its depressing how we've become mindless sheep, unable to think for themselves. Its crazy how university could be such a bubble that leads you not to question your existence or purpose once in the whole four years. You never question how you could improve your world. You never even think of your fellow man who may be starving in some distant, disease-burdened land. Isn't that what university is for, to make us better citizens of world? Instead of exposing us to the world, university seems to keeps us in capsules, too stressed out to contemplate "out side of the box".

At times, I feel that we cannot accomplish any this unless we break out of this bubble. I like to think of it as the bamboo tree analogy. A bamboo tree does not grow whatsoever four years that your nurture it. After graduation, which would be the fourth year of the bamboo tree, do we truly begin to grow and so does the tree. It is these days after our we are free from being told what to do do we begin to see life face to face. We become free.

Unfortunately, for many, after college is over, they have become to entangled in the system's institutionalized framework that they are blinded from realized how to live on their own terms. It is for this reason that we must act now. Whether it is a Motorcycle Diaries excursion through South America or diving into the real knowledge that books have to offer, we must breakaway from the status quo. It is for this reason that if I find that reading the works of the Goethe, Rousseau, and Voltaire to be more insightful and fruitful, I will prefer to do so over doing mere busy-work for a grade.

At this point, you must be asking: What does any of this have to do with sailing Micronesia? Well, during my contemplations, I realized that simply breaking away will not suffice in the real world. Unfortunately, there is a trade-off between learning for the sake of living and learning for the sake of money. Thus, to strike the balance, one must play the game, and play the game well for that matter... I have to admit that I learned the rules of this game from a truly insightful essay Omar referred me to on Reddit. The essay calls the game stupid, as in really really stupid. The game turns life into a vicious cycle where you strive to survive in a Darwin's theory of Survival of the Fittest with no end in sight. The game gradually takes a hold of you, slowly crushing you, until you become a slave to the system. The catch is that you can play the game by the rules laid out by the system, or you can play the game by your own rules. In order to do the latter, it is essential to that you spend your time doing something that is both lucrative and fun. Work=Fun? This must sound like blasphemy, but if you search hard enough, you're destined to find something that fits the formula. Its a risky experiment, but its worth the gamble. The challenge is to find something that you find fun, educational, and lucrative... If you fail at finding something that fits the formula, then its time to resort to plan B, which is you must work hard, smart, and quickly in order to make as much money as you can in the shortest time possible so you can do less of that that you don't enjoy and maximize doing things that you enjoy! Thus, your objective should be to minimumWorkTime=maximumLeisureTime.

Having said this, I have chosen the theme of this entry to be the analogy of cruising Micronesia, because that is the highest form of breaking away from the system. The essay gives the example of people who would bust their tails for two years straight, and sail Micronesia for five years.

The point of all this, is that no matter what degree the system confines you, it is essential to follow what makes you blissful, drives you, motivates you, and inspires you.

Although sailing Micronesia might be a bit far-fetched for me right now, I know that I can start by biking to the Downtown with Goethe's Faust for another exhilarating Friday reading session. Au revoir for now!