Reflection

As a number of my classmates have already reported, Ambassador Quaintain was probably our most interesting speaker yet; his unique experience was fascinating and even inspiring to listen to. Yet as a a growing number of my classmates also pointed out, the ambassador's story shared fundamental similarities with speakers like Ms. Humphreys; the course that Ambassador Quaintain ended up on was not what he elected, nor even suspected. The most common theme throughout the various presentations has been how our speakers' lives were shaped mostly by forces outside their control; this utterly contrasts one of the most common pieces of advice we routinely receive: learn now what you want to do and push yourself as far as you can go in that field.

As Joe describes it, specialization is a part of adaptation and survival; species that don't find a niche die out, companies that cannot specialize their service collapse. It seems natural that for individual careers to be successful, we too must place our chips in one area of specialization.

In past blogs, I have argued in favor of a very different mode of education, a comprehensive "cultural literacy" seems to be the most effective education system for elementary and high school students. However, college in of itself isn't a continuation of the education one received in high school; a college education inherently forces a student to select the area of greatest interest to them and pursue that area above all else.

A college education centers around the pursuit of a career, or graduate school. That is its specialization. Judging from the speakers, however, it was not specifically the college education itself which prepared them for real life; it was more the traits such as hard work and independence, which they would have garnered from college despite any one major. The ambassador answered in class that he believed the Foreign Service has changed, that it would be near impossible for someone to replicate his story and have such a comprehensive career. Perhaps careers have shifted over the years, but I do not think that life itself has become any more predictable. So while I know what area I want to study, I think that I will continue to branch out, a little, and ruminate over these questions as luxuriously as only a college freshman can.