I Was Young and Foolish Then
Another thought that’s been running through my head, in part based on the idea that I heard in last night’s presentations and elsewhere that these days twenty-somethings are more likely to spend some time after college in an extended period of gathering their thoughts and figuring out where they want to go – possibly returning home to live with parents or taking some time before beginning their careers. In an odd coincidence of timing, I had just been talking to one of my officemates at St. Joe’s about how many of my future options and choices were shaped by the decision I made to major in philosophy as an undergrad: a decision I made at the age of 18 in large part because as a college freshman I had a history class I hated and a philosophy class I loved, and I couldn’t drop the former without dropping the latter. I never took another history course as an undergrad. So when I decided to pursue a graduate degree, philosophy seemed the most logical course. And when I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in secondary education, all of a sudden I found myself in a graduate degree program that did not match up particularly well with my overall career goals. So now here I am finishing up a second graduate degree. How different might all of that have been if I had loved the history course and disliked the philosophy class?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that once I started down the philosophical path, forever did it dominate my destiny. I could have changed majors or double-majored. I might have gotten into a graduate program to study intellectual history or political science instead of philosophy, which might have made different career and education choices seem like better bets. I could have discontinued my Ph.D. studies and tried to get certified much sooner. And for what it’s worth, the only real regret I have about the last ten years is the amount of student debt I’ve racked up – I think that all of the pieces I’ve pulled together make me a better thinker and a better teacher.
But I can’t shake the feeling that the decision I made at 18 played a significant role in influencing the subsequent choices, and part of the reason was that I was hell-bent and determined to keep moving on to the next stage of my life. I looked at what my best options were right now for paying rent and keeping myself going, and those options were constrained by my recent choices. I wonder sometimes if I would have made different choices if I had felt myself under less pressure to be a fully functional adult from the moment I graduated – pressure that I placed on myself. Maybe I could have recalibrated my goals sooner and found a more efficient way to get there.
Now, again, I don’t regret the choices I’ve made. They’ve brought me to a point where I’ve found a profession I love and that suits my skills, where I have a perspective on my responsibilities as a citizen that can inspire me to work to improve my society, where I have a wonderful wife and an amazing daughter to come home to every night. But I think it’s good to remind myself how consequential those late-teen and early-twenties decisions can be; how they come at a time when we’re still discovering and defining ourselves; and how it might not be such a bad thing if some people slow down those decisions until they have more insight into themselves.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.