What’s the value of education?

There is no one who appreciates education more than the educated. The person who has worked hard to earn a diploma understands what that education does for the inner self. I have heard many people say that education is not important. It is the experience that makes a person better understand roles and how to do a job.

It is true that education alone is not enough to make a person the best candidate for any position. Nor is it what makes a person perform the best among others. However, getting an education is one of the many outward signs that indicates a person can take on responsibility and will carry a goal to the finish line.

When I graduated from high school, many of my classmates had applied and were accepted to various colleges and universities. I, too, had been accepted to a college that was about 200 miles away from home. College seemed naturally to be the next step toward an independent life and adulthood. In my family, education was encouraged, and so I figured I would do the college thing. My sister, who is two years older, was attending a university in a different city than the college where I would attend.

So, off to college I went. I had been assigned a roommate in a dormitory, and we had already been communicating with each other before arriving at the dorm. We unpacked our things and began making the room our little home. We met others in our hall and very soon became like sisters. There were only 14 girls on our hall, so it was easy for us to become close.

I loved living in the dorm. We had such fun! It was like a party all the time. Of course, this was before co-ed dorms, so there were never boys or men in the building. It was just us girls. Since I had never been away from home, even for summer camp, it was a new and exciting experience for me.

The problem with my living this wonderful life, was that it sort of replaced my academic life. Even though “my sisters” were attending classes and studying, my focus was not on studies. It was on social skills and relationships. My dad said I was majoring in “Dorm Life.”

This time at Georgia Southern College lasted less than two years, and my dad pulled the plug on this social dorm life. He just didn’t understand how important it was to me.

Many years later, after I was married and living in California, I decided to get serious about an education, and I enrolled in Fresno City College. I wasn’t sure at this time what direction I wanted to take, or what I wanted as a major. Dorm Life wasn’t offered, so I just started taking classes that interested me. To make a long story shorter, I paused my education a couple of times until I got really serious and earned an associate degree in accounting, then enrolled in Fresno State to earn a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an Accountancy option. By that time, I said I was done. It had been a hard road for me, working full time and going to school full time.

Then, at graduation, I saw the MBA graduates in the front row. I thought, “I can do that.” Three more years I spent getting my MBA with an emphasis on Finance. The hardest of all, was taking the CPA examination and earning my license.

I didn’t need all that education. I didn’t care about being wealthy, or rising to the upper echelon. I just wanted to know I could do it, and I worked hard to get my education, burning the candle at both ends for many years. I budgeted earnings from my job in order to pay for it myself.

Anyone who says education is not important does not understand the hard work that goes into it. I appreciate every hour I spent working toward my education, and there is no one who will take that experience away from me.

For the young ones out there, I will tell you, get your education, and get it while you are young. (It is much harder as you get older.) It is worth it.

— My love to all,

Nancy

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“Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge.”

— Proverbs 18:15