After this post getting so much buzz, I thought it would be interesting to know M’s opinion on it – even though I feel like I wrote a bit for him. You know my take on the matter (I finished high school, went to college, did a Bachelor’s degree, followed by a Master’s degree and am contemplating starting a PhD eventually). On the other hand, my husband hasn’t taken that traditional of a path and I think that, most people nowadays are starting to divert from it. Here’s M’s perspective about going or not to university.
Knowledge is the most powerful thing a human being can have! With the possibility of knowledge, you can be more aware of what’s happening around you, prepare in advance and analise different approaches to every situation. I believe that studying is a very important tool in achieving your own goals, along with life experience and job specific experience. Every person is different, some want to become football players, some want to be doctors, some want to be lawyers and some want to be artists. But all of them need to learn and develop a set of skills (besides the innate ones).
There is no doubt that someone who wants to become a lawyer needs to study very hard, and needs to get into a good university. On the other hand, if you want to become an artist you don’t necessarily need to go to university. You need to improve specific skills, practice and gain experience, but talent is always going to be the key to success.
I used to play tennis professionally, and since a young age, I knew that a traditional academic life would not be in my future. To become a professional sports athlete, you don’t necessarily need to go to college. You develop your physical and technical skills with coaches, trainers and other players. Being in class, listening to a teacher for long periods of time was very painful and stressful for me. My body always felt the need to move, and I definitely learn better when I’m actively moving – which I realize might sound a bit weird.
In my teens, my life was fully dedicated to tennis. I had long daily practices and a lot of traveling and tournaments, some of which were close to home and some far. One of my parents priorities was to always make me understand how important it was, and still is, to finish high school and secure a spot in a university. Professional athletes are prone to get injured and, getting into a college would be my safety net.
It seemed like they were predicting something because I actually attended, for six short months, the best business university in Portugal, while I working on some small injuries. And, even though I worked really hard to be a professional tennis player, more often than not, it does not happen. For whatever circumstances, my plan C was to become a tennis coach.
And that’s exactly what I did. Now I’m a tennis coach, without a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and the truth is, I don’t necessarily need those labels to be a great coach. Some specific degrees can, for sure, complement my development and increase my knowledge, but they are not essential. Particularly in the United States, there are a lot of accessible subject-oriented workshops and courses that give me the knowledge I need to improve as a coach – most of them online. In Portugal, that’s not an option still, and unfortunately, access to courses of the sort are still dealt with and seen in a very traditional way.
In conclusion, I think that going to a university is not the path for everyone, but it can be fairly important to people who need very specific knowledge to achieve their goals (e.g. doctors or lawyers). While I still consider, in a few years time, doing a bachelor’s or master’s degree, as of now, I feel like all the courses I continuously do, and the experience I have from working as a coach for the past 5 years, is more than enough.