"When I sit down and think about it, the feeling that I get, that’s what this whole thing is all about. And it’s nice to know I’m not alone" Photo: Mickey McCarthy.
A college degree was supposed to be my golden ticket. Instead, all it has gotten me is several years of debt, and a sense of depression over having wasted the same amount of time in a school where I have no business being.
“Do your homework,” “Pay attention,” “Go to class.” I did all that: primary school, high school, and now college, but what was it all for? My classrooms are so packed that I feel like we are all slipping through the cracks. No child left behind? Sometimes I feel like it’s the other way around.
School is not for everyone, but being uneducated is also not a serious option. So how to avoid one while getting the other. Ideally education could be provided by a society where we were raised and educated by the people around us. A society where we could seek out the knowledge we truly wanted, needed, through travel and life experience.
That sounds hippyish, and mostly unfeasible, but I have found something close to it in surfing.
The potential to be involved in a community that is so accepting and positive is what has always driven me to be involved with wave riding in and out of the water. People debate whether Surfing is a Sport, or an art, or a lifestyle; to me Surfing is a community. Though Surfing has had its dark moments, Surfers stay united. They care for, or at least about each other and their environment and often times set the standard for socio-environmental change in there local areas.
It’s a phenomenon I was awestruck by as a youth tagging along with my uncle to the beach. Surfers were always so friendly, whether you knew them or not. They have an understanding and passion for similar things, and it radiates off of them like a glow that says “Hey, we are already friends!”
So it is no surprise that surfers have consciously set themselves apart from society since the 1960’s. They opted for pleasant company and community based values over nine-to-five workdays and screw-your-neighbor competition. This has often meant sacrificing material goods and moneyfor a life on the road with friends and endless waves.
As a child it seemed unreal to me that people lived this way, both magical and impractical. Yet as my high school counselors made sure I was given “every opportunity,” that particular opportunity was never one of them. No one ever said to me, “Ya know, if you’d like we will teach you how to live off the land and live an honest working life.” Which is odd, because I grew up in a nation that prides itself on a hard day’s work. It took me years to realize that these were opportunities I would have to seek outside the lines of my militantly institutionalized upbringing.
I’m not complaining about having a supportive family or having the opportunity to get an an education in wonderful institutions in hopes that tried to mold me into a good little product and perpetuator of the system. But what I’ve been trying to say for so many years now is: “I’m not the right guy for this!”
On the verge of my 22nd anniversary of life, I find that the straight-foward path is lost to me; I’m no closer to a degree, much less a fulfilling career and i see no escape from the Hell that is the classroom. I imagine and scheme every day in the water of ways to make a living without any more school, without a 9-to-5, without someone telling me how to do my job.
One more bad semester could lead to a drop off the grid, and with the lack of jobs available, I’m not quite sure that is a bad thing . The “Great” Steve Jobs talks in several interviews about the tremendous growth he experienced upon dropping out of college. Being able to attend classes he wanted, dictating what he learned, creating his own curriculum.
I may not create my own curriculum, but the lifestyle offered by surfing definitely offers a more free form life of learning that is unparalleled in its beauty and rewards for those who are dedicated enough to put in the time. It is one of the rare activities that get more complicated and intriguing the better you get.
