Anyone who clicked this must be truly ready to sink their brain into some meat of a discussion. The title “I am dropping out of college!” is something you may be considering, once considered, or are glad you chose not to do.
My friend Ramon (19 years old) and former attendee of England’s ‘Nottingham University’ is here to today to tell 
you his reasons, motivations, and thoughts about choosing to go to college or instead creating your own life path, free of institution and curriculum.
His arguments are strong and reasonable, yet there is a fire in this man’s eyes for he knows what he wants; it is this determination that will bring him all of his life desires - COLLEGE FREE!
I met Ramon on my 6 month voyage through England and I also traveled the South of France with him via. 50cc moped. Ramon is a brilliant individual filled with grace and fury, talent and wisdom. Although I am graduating with a bachelors in Biological Sciences and continuing for another 4 years to become a Doctor Of Optometry, I completely understand Ramon’s point of view for leaving college and pursing life without the ball & chain, and without the straight jacket of exams.
Yet I do know Ramon and I will share a bright and successful future together.
2 Roads both arriving at the same point.
One is a path guided by the educational institutions & the other guided by pure creativity.
Enjoy Ramon’s short post on college life and his reasons for dropping out!
What was your mentality coming into college?
After I had finished sixth form education I thought school life for me was done. I was wrong. I breezed through a gap year year and naturally found myself to be back were I had started, in an institution. Nevertheless, my approach to university was different. I saw it as an opportunity to master a field, whilst maintaing a mellow a lifestyle, with the ultimate aim of finnishing my degree so that I could re-enter the world having checked all the proverbial boxes for prerequisites in life. Basically, I thought university was the easiest route to a well paid salary.
What was your mentality while in college?
On arrival at university, I soon realised the error of my decision. By soon I mean within the first day. Firstly, I was always torn between the choice of going to uni or leading an unscripted life and so my decision to enroll at Nottingham was made with reluctance and doubts. Secondly, during the course of my gap year I became accustomed to a lifestyle that can only be described as ‘balling’. I had spent my time in the Caribbean and so 
caught too many vibes out there to want to return to a classroom. However, I did choose a good course, philosophy, and it inspired me to try and become an erudite scholar along with the likes of Wittgenstein and Aristotle. This dream wore off as soon as the first essay deadline arrived. Coincidentally, thoughts of dropping out of university became prominent around the same time.
Why did you decide to drop out?
It is difficult to see the point in obtaining a degree if you see no uses for it in the future. My parents would always tell me that it would be a good backup at the very least and also that in this era competition in the world is too fierce to survive without it. But I am young and perhaps naive. My year at university gifted me with time to reflect on WHAT EXACTLY I WANT IN LIFE. Between the toss up of a sheltered life of climbing the career ladder and a boundless life of chasing aspirations, I chose the latter. I came to the conclusion that a life of living freely, chasing aspirations, and not necessarily succeeding, but living freely… did not seem like a bad life at all. None of my aspirations involve a university degree and I suppose I dropped out of university because I finally mustered the courage to lead a life which is outside of my comfort zone… and yes because I had failed most of my exams.
What is your mentality now that you have dropped out?
I am now finished with uni and the feeling is like the first day of the rest your life. It is easy to forget that the time I spend lazing around, floating through university life, is eating away at the total time I have in this world. I
have an urgency to live my life right now. That means today and not in three years time when I leave university. Life seems pointless, but it does not have to be mundane. I am glad that I have realized how free I am.
Do people need college to succeed in life?
I can’t diss university, it’s just not for me. From experiences of uni and campus life, I can definitely see the appeal. Where else are you surrounded 24/7 by people and girls your age, who you can just chill with and at the same time casually study a subject that interests you? Furthermore, university is a fastrack route a career and so if you know what you want to do in life, university will provide a course that suits your needs.
What are your passions?
Food related.
Why should people constantly strive to grow?
Growth is important. Like Aristotle says, if humans have a purpose it is too be a good human. For example, the function of a good knife is too cut well. Myself as a human, I have many functions or many skills and attributes that I can acquire. I am capable of being super fit, healthy, mentally sharp, a linguist, an artist etc. The options are endless. I understand growth as fulfilling my potential as a human being, getting a little taste of all the possiblities. Balance is the key. I find I am happiest when I strike a good balance in life. I can improve my diet, sporting skill, mental agility, artistic prowess etc. all in same day. I can grow in all these facets of my persona, and I am happiest when I do.
What do you want to do from this day forth in your life?
What I want with no compromise- It involves making money, eating well and seeing the world.
If you had to give advice to people unsure of their future, what would you tell them?
Mentally and physically prepare yourself for life and concentrate on what you have to do to get to where you want to go. I have never been in lifestyle threatening position and so cannot advise otherwise.
How would you define success?
Success is acheiving a goal.
What did you think? Are you going to drop out or remain in school? I wish Ramon the best of luck and I know he will succeed. For anyone wondering he is doing great as of right now, setting out on some fantastic business ventures and achieveing his desires!
We would love to here what you think so please comment!
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The world is full of people who drop out of college. Some go on to form companies like Microsoft and Apple. Many live meaningful and productive lives. And for sure there are plenty of people with college degrees who are wasting their formal education.
You can make your college experience as relevant or as pointless as you want. But to throw away a perfectly good chance to learn knowledge and skills that could help you for the rest of your life seems silly. My college education opened doors for me that I never would have dreamed possible.
@JohnSmith2008
Hey my friend! Thanks for your input. I agree with you in the sense that my college experience has provided me with countless opportunities to travel, meet great people, do great things and has brought me great intelligence. Yet people are all wired differently and this results in a different perception of reality. In Ramon’s case he realized that college and himself are like oil and vinegar.
By the way, your http://www.fax.com website! That is some really cool stuff!
-Matt
Mattys last blog post..I Am Dropping Out Of College!
The word “drop out” make it sounds like some sort of failure. He’s looking for a different path in life. Cool. But there is so much to learn, without the concentrated curriculum in college, it’s hard to gather all the knowledge we need. Also, a life of complete freedom and without boundaries has no directions. For a guy like me, I get lost and confused fairly quickly. College seems to be a place to kind of settle down and take sometimes to look around.
Life is what you make of it, nothing is bad or good, it all depends on your attitude.
Qs last blog post..Some Weird Stats in Worldpress.
The world is full of people who dropped out of Graduate School, like Bill Gates. But even had he dropped out of college, as a commentor said he had, and then gone on to found Microsoft anyway, he is a special case because (1) he’s a genius, and (2) he pursued the making of Microsoft like Scarface did his own success–exceptionally ruthless, unmatched in his relentlessness. These are personal qualities exceeding virtually all normal people’s natural temperaments. We’re ordinary people. Just because even 100,000,000 college drop outs “made it” in this world of 6 billion, the numbers and every thing I can think of are against you being happy and “making it” if you drop out. In our country of 300++ million, even, the people you think of as having made it are special people in their own way. But even still, many are not at all “happy” and some even commit suicide. The song Richard Cory (Simon and Garfunkel sing it–it’s originally a poem by ?????) recounts the ennui and hidden misery of the idle rich people. Your best chance at happiness comes with education, work and a family. These things all feed you, nurture your personality and mind like mother’s milk. Don’t forsake what you can have here in America. Your youth will fade, this is absolutely going to happen. You won’t have such an easy time of it with no college degree in your thirties.
Countries from all over the world send their richest, their best and brightest here to receive higher education and graduate education. We have the best colleges and universities in the world. And you’re in one of them and dropping out to pursue happiness? Or because it doesn’t agree with you?
Join the club. School is hard. Great rewards come from hard work–work and success ARE positively correlated. So why would you walk away? Whatever it is that is really making you leave, get over it! You’re not going to be Pablo Picasso, or Billy Joel or Albert Einstein (at least it is not worth risking everything on the possibility). You’ll be you, whomever you are. College is the time to start getting set up, graduate school, time to start work for pay and maybe marry, for real, for life, for a family, for your kids, then. Don’t throw away the lucky chance that you were born in this country and have entitlements like affordable, excellent higher education. God knows what else you’ll cast aside if you do this now. Re-enroll if you already dropped out. Otherwise, don’t drop out.
I know what I’m talking about. It’s like you’re running into a raging fire with no protective suit on. You’re going seriously burn, witout question, sans enough school.
FYI … by E. Robinson
Richard Corey
*************
WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed, 5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace: 10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, 15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.