Exercise 7.1: Thinking Deeply About Why You are in College

Christopher Boon

I am not sure what my real motivation is in going to post secondary. It seemed like a natural progression from high school to go to the University of Alberta (U of A), get a degree, and then move toward the “real world.” However, I wonder if I truly am comfortable with the transition of moving toward the “real world.” I have always felt that I have to uphold the image of being steady, and being in post secondary seemed to be a part of that. It has shifted somewhat when I left the U of A to be at NAIT.

My fundamental purpose in going to college is in all honesty, deep down, to pass the time. I am committed to getting good grades and being open to new concepts, but am unsure of what the future holds. I am not particularly ambitious or have a deep desire to do extraordinarily well. Thus, this does lead to me going through the motions. So far I am a career student. However, I don’t see the light at the end of that tunnel and I think that I am afraid to run with any ideas because I may end up failing to live up to it, and I don’t mean academically. I know I can perform academically, but in more application type situations, I am a lot less sure of myself. I’m not sure if I am making things harder for myself.

Again, I am not sure what my motivation is. I cannot pinpoint a deep internal desire that pushes me. The one thing that pushes me to do decent in academics is the possibility of being below average. Otherwise, I don’t have a future in mind. Perhaps I’m not even willing to put the extra effort in to find out. I’m not sure exactly where I can or should start, and it seems more difficult without some sort of beginning point.

This led to a recent decision to get a part time job. I decided to start a part time job at Sears. I’m finding that I don’t have enough work experience as is, and so I need to get back out there. The hope is that I will gain experience and perhaps insight to what I want. Maybe I’ll find that I enjoy working with customers directly, or that I hate it and would rather work behind the scenes. Will I like situations with pressure, or not? It is here that I hope I will gain valuable experiences and perhaps more insight into what I want. My position is a Sales Associate, so I will be responsible for directly interacting with customers. As well, I hope to be able to apply or at least see the concepts that are being taught in NAIT business being utilized. I already think that my marketing class will help in terms of narrowing down typical demographics for my department and such.

Why Sears? Well, I thought they represented a typical large Canadian company and I can start to see what is being taught in business school happening in real business. Sears isn’t a specialty retailer in one item, and the position of Sales Associate I feel will give me a better experience than being at a till. I’m hoping this non scholastic experience will kickstart me into figuring out what I want to accomplish in my academics.