Holding On

Throughout a person's life it is conceivable that he may or may not ever learn to think completely for himself. When this does not happen, a person usually gives up his sovereignty in life. Throughout the past two years I personally have come to a realization that will last a lifetime. During high school I was taught to read my textbook and answer the questions according to the book. The parents were the "wise ones" during this age. College, however, opened my mind a great deal. A certain class allowed a realization about what I had believed in the past. Then yet another class allowed me to see something about the class before that I had completely missed. A person should investigate and determine his thoughts for himself without the input of too many "reliable" sources.

As before mentioned, high school was a time to learn only by textbook. Personally I was not very in tune with what was going on in the world other than what the television news reports said. Politics were a rather foreign issue to me being so young and naive. Also I do not come from the type of family that would "talk politics" at the dinner table. Therefore, my main source of intelligence about the world and politics was what my parents chose to tell me and what the television chose to tell me. But the truth is that parents' ideas and thoughts about the world are not necessarily the same as your own. Also, certain television news reports and newspapers are not the cleverest source of reliable information, which I was soon to learn in college.

In college I decided to enroll in a political science class in order to fulfill a general education requirement. Before taking this class I had absolutely no interests in politics. However, through this class my teacher helped me to see that the television newscasts that many Americans rely on as their number one news source are in fact not as reliable as they should be. Bigger corporations that oversee what will and will not air own most news stations. Therefore the media is often very filtered. Also, certain regions may have a more liberal or conservative bias that does not allow a person to see both sides of a story to decide for himself. The class also made me realize that politics are not as simple as the constitution states. In real politics there are scams and illegal operations involving money. Therefore, this class opened my mind to the world, making me see that I can choose and study my own path in life.

Yet another college class allowed me to come to one more new realization. The first day of my economics class my professor told the class not to ever ask him what he thinks because he will never say. He said it would affect the ability for the class to think on its own. My teacher allowed the class to keep its authority on the subject by doing so. The insight that came after this was that perhaps I had not been thinking on my own at all in my political science class because my teacher was constantly telling the class her opinion. I then would take this as an "expert" opinion just as I took television newscasts as experts when I was in high school. Through this I have come to see that while a person may think for himself he may not be ahead of the game after all.