
© NCSU Student Media
Students always wonder about the purpose of going to college. For some it might be to get a piece of paper that signals they have endured endless nights in the library — hopped up on caffeine and non-FDA approved substances — while jumping back and forth from Microsoft Word to Facebook. For others it might be about learning a trade, skill, con or trick to be able to moderately succeed in the soul-crushing wasteland that is the American Service Economy.
College is without a doubt embodied by all of these things and more. But what is most valuable about college is the experience of doubting everything. From politics to religion, from morality to science, from sexuality to culture, you should doubt it all. Even question your family, your friends and ultimately yourself.
My idea of doubting isn’t exactly the notion of experimenting in college, but as a mental exercise. This is the time to critically examine your deepest beliefs and values to see if they hold up under scrutiny.
Most people naturally resist doubt and skepticism. They prefer to find an easily digestible, rock bottom answer and move on the next nugget of truth to be absorbed. In reality, those nuggets are not as solid as they appear. Life is ambiguous, mysterious and daunting, but that is what makes it fun.
Doubting is not about switching sides, changing your mind or experimenting, but accepting that there may not be answers to some important questions. Even if there are answers, you may never find them. Now is the time to think outside the box and question everything. Itís much better to do that now when your responsibilities are less than they will be when you have a real job and possibly a family to support.
In primary school, teachers pumped information into you without much of a debate. In reality, the higher you are in your education, the shakier things become. While primary education is about obedience to authority, college is supposed to be about doubt, skepticism and deconstruction of the eternal truths learned in earlier education. But instead of something scary or destructive, doubt can be quite enlightening and invigorating. You may find a new way of looking at the world that wakes you up to the complexity of life. You may even find yourself liberated from chains that you never quite noticed were even there.
Throughout the course of this exercise of doubt and skepticism, you might discover that some of your cherished beliefs are pure buncombe, or your beliefs about yourself and the world are the way to go. But to gain anything, you first must ask some tough questions: Does God exist? Is there such a thing as good or bad? Why should I care how other people feel? Will the path I have chosen actually lead to happiness and fulfillment? To be or not to be? Of course, this is not a definitive list but just a few to get you started questioning everything.