Why am I in university ?

This is a simple question. Yet, I bet many of us don’t know why they are here. To get a degree ? To meet “your people” ? To learn new things ? To discover your self and passions ?

I would say that my personal answer is close to the latter. To discover myself and my passions. But I would like to go deeper into that. Why am I in university ? I am here to discover what triggers me. I am here to discover what keeps me up all night, what makes me forget about eating and going to the washroom. I am here to be more responsible and independent. I am here to learn skills, whether they be a new language, a software mastering or a new sport. I don’t care much about the theory as it is something I can learn about in my own time, by reading the textbook. I am just here to discover what I am passionate about, and some times, I wonder if being here and spending so much money on tuition really is worth it. Can’t I learn all of this outside of school ? Of course I can really… So why am I here ? I would say, to live the experience. To be surrounded by people from all over the world. I am here to be put under some pressure and do things I don’t necessarily like doing in the first place but by-the-bye discover that one part that I really like and that gives me all the energy in the world to accomplish. As many have said it before me, university is a place of discovery. Experts do create knowledge here. They do put up their research out their in the world for other experts to read and criticize. But this place is overall a place of discovery of the self. Each one of us has his/her own journey here. We might take the same courses, live in the same residence, in the same city, have the same profs, but we all live this differently because we are put under the pressure to try new things and get out of our comfort zone and meet crazy people, and we all discover a part of ourselves that we never knew existed. We discover one of those things that really gets our minds boiling and our eyes opened until the latest of hours.
I honestly don’t give a shit about the degree. I don’t care about that piece of paper that marks my accomplishments. I don’t care about the credits that I take and whether they meet the requirements. All I care about, is getting out of here with that or those thing(s) that make me go energy-crazy and that get my full attention.

I tend to forget my purpose here some times. With all the degree requirements and all the credits to take and all the money we spend, I get lost and only realize so when I don’t like where I am in my life. Too many times, we forget why we started doing something in the first place and we get lost and start falling in the rabbit’s hole.

So here is my question to you, fellow student.

Why are you in university ?