Sex and the 'Ville
Lauren Miller
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: TruLife
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught," Oscar Wilde said.
My formal education will come to a close in less than two weeks. I have filled my head with French pronouns, Enlightenment philosophies, AP style rules, rhetorical criticisms and random mathematical equations.
However, my informal education never will come to a close.
During the past four years, I learned far more important, interesting and valuable things about life, love and happiness outside of the classroom. These experiences and observations have nothing to do with developing my critical or analytical thinking but everything to do with developing my "joie de vivre."
I plan to dispense a tiny bit of this knowledge here in this last column. It probably won't apply to everyone. Some of it comes from personal experiences. Some of it comes from professors, famous authors or movies. Some of it comes from the random people I have met along the way.
I guarantee you none of it will be groundbreaking, but I think it's at least worth sharing.
The best experiences sometimes only appear after the fact. I spent five months in France intensely homesick. I did not master the language. I did not wear skinny jeans. I did not love French food.
In October I ran, or more apropos, jogged, the Chicago Marathon. I did not love every mile. I don't know if I even loved half of the miles. I did hate, with a burning passion, the last eight miles.
I learned more about myself during those five months and 26.2 miles than during any other point in my college career, meaning that hindsight is everything. Things might not always go as wonderfully as you plan or hope or expect, but make the most of it. I muddled through the language barriers. It wasn't until the next semester's French classes that I realized how much my French improved. I muddled, and walked a bit, through the last eight miles of Chicago. It wasn't until my next run two weeks later that I realized how short 10 miles now seemed.
My formal education will come to a close in less than two weeks. I have filled my head with French pronouns, Enlightenment philosophies, AP style rules, rhetorical criticisms and random mathematical equations.
However, my informal education never will come to a close.
During the past four years, I learned far more important, interesting and valuable things about life, love and happiness outside of the classroom. These experiences and observations have nothing to do with developing my critical or analytical thinking but everything to do with developing my "joie de vivre."
I plan to dispense a tiny bit of this knowledge here in this last column. It probably won't apply to everyone. Some of it comes from personal experiences. Some of it comes from professors, famous authors or movies. Some of it comes from the random people I have met along the way.
I guarantee you none of it will be groundbreaking, but I think it's at least worth sharing.
The best experiences sometimes only appear after the fact. I spent five months in France intensely homesick. I did not master the language. I did not wear skinny jeans. I did not love French food.
In October I ran, or more apropos, jogged, the Chicago Marathon. I did not love every mile. I don't know if I even loved half of the miles. I did hate, with a burning passion, the last eight miles.
I learned more about myself during those five months and 26.2 miles than during any other point in my college career, meaning that hindsight is everything. Things might not always go as wonderfully as you plan or hope or expect, but make the most of it. I muddled through the language barriers. It wasn't until the next semester's French classes that I realized how much my French improved. I muddled, and walked a bit, through the last eight miles of Chicago. It wasn't until my next run two weeks later that I realized how short 10 miles now seemed.
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