Why is college getting so expensive, you asked?
I’ve been asking myself the same thing. And if you are outraged, trust me, you are not alone.
I have been working on a video package that discusses the rising cost of college education based on an economic perspective for my Advanced Videojournalism class where Michael Robinson, the Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College shares his opinions regarding the issue. Check it out.
Note: I don’t usually write here, but I just feel so good today and I haven’t been feeling like that for a while. So I just want to document this, bear with me ;)
Tentatively, I should graduate this May, but I extended my graduation date to next Spring - that’s a year from now.
Some of my friends here in UMass questioned me why did I do that - and to be honest, it has nothing to do with getting more credits, or fulfilling requirements, or other ‘rational’ issues. I did that simply because I wanted to learn more and take more courses. Just - staying in college for one more extra year to absorb the knowledge around me - is the main reason. Some, after I told them this, frowned, and say - “I don’t get you.” Of course, jokingly.
But after halfway of this semester, I started questioning myself about this decision. Did I make the right choice?. Thoughts of the people around me started to influence me, and I started getting bored with classes and readings - which, believe it or not, something that had never occur before.
I, for one main reason, chose to be a journalism major because of the spark that I’d get everyday - chasing people, listening to stories, learning something new, getting stood up for interviews, getting cursed and cursing back, and feeling intrigued about my world, every. single. day.
But I kind of lost that fun. I don’t know why - but I haven’t been active digging out what’s happening around me, going to random open mics, taking photos of strangers, and I feel I did not see as much new people as I used to. I was still doing what I love, documenting stories that I like, but, I just couldn’t see the finishing line of whatever that I was doing. So at one point I got scared because I thought I started getting bored with journalism, something that I want to do for the rest of my life, and what was more disturbing is I haven’t even graduated yet. Yet I was already bored.
But starting last week I somehow had gotten that lost spark again. I just got this video assignment to investigate why is college getting more expensive. Ha - the topic that I have least interest in, because I’ve been funded since my first year, I never bothered understanding the issue. Bad attitude, I know.
So doing this topic that I have no personal connection to forced me to learn more about it (although my heart was screaming, feeling tortured for doing what I don’t like), and it took me a WEEK to set up an interview with an economic professor. I literally contacted everybody in the Econs department and in the Isenberg. LITERALLY. I contacted EVERYBODY in Smith College Econs department. I contacted EVERYBODY in Amherst College. (I’ll pass Hampshire I don’t usually count it as a college, heh). Everybody was busy. I was already at that height of dropping this class because I suddenly felt that the world is so unfair - well, I am a bit dramatic like that - not only I’m doing a topic that I’m not interested in, no one wanted to talk to me about it!
Last night, finally a Mount Holyoke professor responded. And he even gave me a short explanation about Baumol’s cost disease theory at 2 a.m. in his email, which I greatly appreciated. At 2.30 a.m., I was learning about a topic that I was so sure I won’t be able to grasp for my entire life. Last night, for the first time, I pushed my limit - I was intrigued by an ecocomic issue that I hated so much before, and I pushed my limit of annoyance (as what I called it), and I became interested in this topic. Something that I have never thought I am capable of.
I think this experience is so refreshing, it made me realize that I’m here to learn, and I cannot be too selective in determining what I want to learn. Everything is worth knowing. I cannot continuously rely only on issues that I have an emotional connection with. And after forcing myself learning about this issue, I remember why I chose journalism, and even why I came to the States. I could have just stayed in Kuala Lumpur digging stories from my crazy activist and hippie friends, constantly feeling outraged about inequalities - and feeling as if I’ve known 99% stories of the world. No. The world is bigger than that.
Today I feel like I learned so much - not just because I finally understand this issue, but because I’ve learned so much for myself. I miss this. I miss the feeling of well-roundedness - feeling knowledgable and appreciated (because somebody WANTS to talk about it with me), and it is so fulfilling. And after a while I got back the enthusiasm that influenced me to stay for another year in the first place.
I think I’m heading to right direction. Well. I hope so.
Umaru Barrie, a UMass Amherst international student from Sierra Leone.
DuBois Library, March 27th 2012.
and… some portrait photos!
I was at the Western Mass. Labor Action membership meeting in Pittsfield and I met these lovely hispanic family.
March 22nd, 2012
View Larger Rohan Mittal, 19. March 19, 2012.
I met Rohan at Pittsburgh Greyhound Bus Terminal during a bus transit, on my way back to Northampton (I was on a 20-hour bus ride from Columbus). He was sitting on the same bench I was sitting on, and I braved myself to start a conversation with him when I saw his child-like (more like high-schoolish, I think) sketch on his notepad with words like ‘love sucks’ and ‘life is hard’.
When I offered to email him his photo that I just took, he was excited, saying “it’d be interesting to see how I look like after three days without shower, and not shaved.” He laughed. I asked why and has he been on the bus that long, and he said he was coming all the way from Colorado Springs and he was heading to New York City. “I was in college for sometime, and I didn’t like it.” He was doing Psychology.
Rohan wants to do music in New York, though when asked more about his plan, he was not so sure himself. He was carrying a small bag of clothes and a guitar. He does not know anybody in New York, and he had only been there once last year for a week on his school trip. “I fell in love with the city.” I said, everybody falls in love with the city.
I asked him how to pronounce his name and he told me it is an Indian name. He had this glow of optimism on his face that prompted me to ask him his age, because I remember having that glow disappeared from my face by the time I turned 21. “I’m 19,” he said. I told him he is so young. In him I saw my idealistic old self, and the optimism I had about the world. I was that kid who thought she could do everything. Growing up in one of the busiest cities in Southeast Asia, I saw people building up their hopes and seeing them shattered the second they thought they had everything figured out.
I wanted to tell him beware of the city, because it is not always nice, but I think that’s just unfair to his young soul. I was careful when I first felt New York’s unbearable vibe, because it reminded me of all the uncertainties a city could offer. It reminded me of KL and the people who adore it, but barely stand its harshness. Rohan told me he wants to stay in New York “forever”, and I wished him all the best.
We split ways once we arrived in New York the following morning. Rohan seemed so happy, happier than eight hours before when he was still doodling on his notebook, and feeling content despite having been on the road for four days.
View Larger Ahmed Siddig (right) with his wife, Isra, at UMass.
I featured Ahmed’s story about his financial struggle in UMass, having to cope up with the high living standard in the United States, in my Intro to Multimedia Journalism class’ blog. Ahmed came from Darfur, Sudan, last fall with his wife on a $1300 monthly allowance from his scholarship. Every month he is struggling to pay his $800 rent and trying to survive on $500 with his wife - and on top of that, he’s expecting a baby in April.
More about the story here.
