Are you a societal slave?

Unfortunately the social norms of the society in which we exist today

are quite bland I believe. There are so many people unhappy due to

these norms because they are stuck (or at least believe they are

stuck) in lifestyles they are not content with that lead to

depression, anxiety, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and all and all

an unhappy regretful life. Don't get me wrong, not everyone is unhappy

with these norms, but the majority they are whether they know it or

not.

When I graduated high school I had no idea where I wanted to go to

college or for what. What I really wanted to do was travel the world,

write poems, make art, explore cultures, and meet people of different

beliefs. This idea was completely out of societal norms, I was told if

I did this I would never go to college, I would never do anything

important with my life, my life would be a waste. So I went to

boarding school for a year to try and figure out where I wanted to go

to college and for what. After that year I still had no idea but I

came to college anyways because that was the acceptable social norm.

So here I am today, a senior in the health science major, my dad

having spent about $200,000 in education, and I still have no idea

what I want to do! I do know I want to write poems, travel the world,

meet new people, explore the mountains, learn about different

religions, make art, philosophy about life with strangers. Here I am

four years later with the same dreams I had five years ago and I am

finally on the brink of exploring them, almost free from this "college

norm." What did I get from it all, that's what I look too. I got a lot

of professors lecturing to me off a power point I had already read

through, a lot of expensive text books telling me things I already

knew or could have found out through self and world exploration. I GOT

A DEGREE! One I will never use, but people don't like to talk about

that.

I must say I go against societal norms a lot. I don't own a

television, I don't vote, and I am not afraid to express what I

believe. I will transcend the norm like the beat generation did, like

the Dharma Bums. I don't need politics and all their money and glory.

I don't need celebrities, or diamonds that people loose arms for. In

May I am getting out of here, cross country road tripping in search

for what I don't know, art, music, poetry, life, birds, trees,

silence, noise. I am looking for it all in a search for self,

something college couldn't give me. Something the college format essay

writing standards never gave me with all its bland simplicity. So here

my assignment is, whether it fills the fulfillment or just clear cuts

the norms take from it what you will.

Thank you college for letting me finally grasp the realization I had

years ago, that our society it plagued and I will not fall sick. I

will transcend the societal norms and do it with glory ignoring

judgments passed by those stuck in their bore. Set free at last and

okay with what I want and not what society wants of me. I will not be

another societal slave!