Reasons for Attending College

      There are a large number of college and university in Japan, and more people than we count go there. What are the reasons or purposes that people attend college or university? At these educational establishments we can not only learn high-level education, special knowledge or expert technique but also have lots of free time and chances to do what we want to. Moreover, they are the places filled with encounters. We all want to make our own life precious, and people go to college or university to prepare the steady ground for their going out into world as a member of community. I would like to discuss this question in three points.

      One of the reasons, first of all, is studying something that people really want to do. Of course, most people go to college in order to learn expert skills, get licenses or study subject that they like or need and want to study deeper. If they do their best to do these things and successfully graduate from the college, this must be not only their confidence but also trust or reliance from others when they get a job. People, as well, must feel joy for being able to study what they want to because college is different from high school or junior high school which people force to study overall subjects. In fact, it is hard and difficult for me to study English, but I think it’s worth doing and feel a sense of satisfaction.

      Another reason is gaining variety of experience. It is often said that people learn things by experience. At university, we are able to have a lot of free time and chances to try anything besides studying. For me, for example, to live by myself, part-time jobs and the summer program for studying English in America were especially wonderful experience. It was not until I experience them that I learn not only to become independent but also to know what the community is or more about myself. I’m sure this experience will be treasure in my life. I believe people may discover their new abilities that they have never been aware, and then, they can find what they really want to do in the future through their experience even if some of them entered university with vague decision.

      And the other reason is communicate with many people and make lifetime friends. There are many people from all over the country in college and university. As I hardly had had friends who are from different prefectures until I entered my university, it is so exciting to be able to make friends with people from various prefectures and hear a lot about their hometown. I feel I'm expanding the range of my own knowledge and thoughts. People learn to look at things from many different points of views owing to communicate with them. Additionally, it is a kind of miracle that one person meets another person in the world and makes friends with each other. My father said that he could make lifetime friends at university and so could I. They are dear existence to make one’s life more fun and precious. Therefore, communicating with many people can be one of the reasons why people go to college or university.

      As I mentioned above, people attend college or university: learn something, study something, gain lots of experience, and communicate with many people in order to prepare the steady ground for going out of the world as a good member of community and to make their future more precious.

Experience or Books

      "Seeing is believing," the proverb says, that is, experience one thing is worth reading thousands of words. Actually, both experience and books have some good points and bad points. Experience something, we can understand things in an instant and we can make it a part of us, but it can be one-side knowledge. Similarly, books give us a lot of knowledge of ancient times or foreign countries that is difficult for us to experience, but it takes too much time to read them. Anyway, in my opinion, experience is more important than books if I put emphasis on the practical use after we gained knowledge.

      First, please think about a fire. We can know that a fire is dangerous by experiencing it. Likewise, we can know that by reading books. But, even if we read about a happening of a fire, we may not be able to feel it familiar to us and we cannot know exactly that how it is scary. On the other hand, if we are caught in a fire, there is some possibility of getting burned or even putting ourselves in death. In other words, we can know how dangerous and fearful a fire is by experiencing it with our own body.

      Next, please think about cooking. We can gain precious knowledge and skills by putting a cooking into practice. I like to cook but sometimes there are some points that I cannot imagine though I read a cooking book carefully. Then, I just try to cook them and in most cases I can clear what the book means. In another case, though I think I get how to cook the dish and start cooking, actually I only find that it dose not go well. People improve their cooking skills by failing many times and add to their experience. The knowledge that we gained by failures can be sources that we develop and device for the next time. For example, the differences how long each vegetable takes to be boiled, how hard to whip up cream without whipping machine, which way of cutting vegetables is better to heat up them quickly and so on. Then people learn to cook in various ways according to the kind of materials or the situation and the needs even without a cooking book.

      Therefore, the more effective source is experience when we compare experience with books in point of practical use, that is, whether we can use the knowledge that we gained effectively or not. As we experience something, we cannot only gain knowledge but also we can develop it and make the best use of the knowledge in our own life. In fact, both experience and books are precious sources for us to gain new knowledge, but I believe that experiencing something is more important than reading books if we want the knowledge that we gained to make sure and be fixed.

Change in Your School

      Why is there no pool in my university? This problem has been strange for me since I entered this university. My favorite sport is swimming and as you know, it is good for our health. Therefore, if I could make one big change in our school, I would make a pool in the site of my university.

      It seems to me that university students have a lot of assignments and they are under pressure of studying. Some people may say it is natural for them to study hard because they chose to attend university to study what they want to do or for their future. No matter how lucky it may seem, however, the stress because of the pressure can take their motivation away. It is obvious that students need to get rid of stress and I want to say that swimming is the best. Not only swimming is good for our health because we use our whole body, but also floating in the water has an effect to make people feel relaxed and refreshed. Actually, I am a swimming instructor and have given lessons for children as a part time job so I can guarantee the effect.

      Of course, there are some swimming schools around my university but it takes pretty much time to get there and we need to pay a lot to use it. Then, I would like to suggest a pool that we can use without paying to get in but all we have to do is show our own student identification cards. Moreover, it should be an indoor pool and the water needs to be warm so that students can swim anytime, any season or in any weather. In addition, I have a good idea about the location. Behind the inner garden we have an old cafeteria that is no longer used. The place would probably be large enough to make a pool.

      In summary, swimming is effective to refresh students or get rid of their stress and motivate them to study again. For this reason, I strongly hope that we can have an amenity for swimming in our university so that everyone can spend a pleasant school life.