Contemplating College

I just had a thought. In the middle of reading A Tempest by Aime Cesaire, (I don't know why it was during this book, maybe a phrase or the idea of freedom hinted something) I realized that the reason I am going to school is to learn.  Well, obviously that's what education is for but I seemed to have lost my understanding of school and it's importance.  All my life, at least that I know of, I have studied to get good grades.  The sole purpose for expanding my knowledge was to gather enough information in order to help me pass the High School Placement Test, SAT's, the AP's, or the next final.  In middle school, I had to get good grades in order to be accepted into high school.  In high school, I had to get good grades to get accepted into college.  In college, I have to get good grades to graduate, get credentials, and then get a job.  But what happens after that? There's no more point to earn an A because who is going to give it to you? It does not matter that you get the right mark on your transcript.  Ultimately, it matters what you learn.  It matters that you can take the material given to you, provided for you, and learn it, understand it, appreciate it.  So what if you get a B on the midterm! Did you learn something new, something valuable?  That's what's really important.
The point of college is to find out something you enjoy learning and wrap your head around it exploring all the possibilities out there and all the things that relate to what you love.  Your passions, your joys, your convictions, your values.  Take it all and absorb it into your brain.  Use every fiber of your being to understand and take it in, to create and imagine, to comprehend and share.  That is why I am in college, to learn. To take what I learn and share it with those around me.  To learn to do what I love and love what I do.
Amidst the transition from high school to college, I got caught up in trying to settle in and fit in with the world around me but I forgot about the purpose for being here in the first place.  Not to say that this is me taking away any fun, it's just a reevaluation of perspective.  This way, I can see all the work I do as a way to improve myself, mind, body, heart, and spirit.