What's Really Behind the Corner rant

Full disclosure: I'm not sure if I'm posting to the right thread, as this is my second post ever on Reddit.

I'm a 22 typical American college student and I feel as though my entire life up to this point has been a colossal lie.

What do I mean? Well I think most people can relate to this. Ever have one notion of how things 'are' only to do some research or turn some figurative corner and find out that is not the case at all?

In school we're taught how to write papers and read long boring text books. We're also led to believe that all of this work, from elementary school to college, is to "prepare ourselves for the real world".

And yet as I reach the end of my schooling...

I have never felt so unprepared in my entire life.

Not unprepared for my future job as some computer lackey at some businesses. But as a person living in society.

I feel like I'm just waking up and the first thing I'm seeing is the look on my parents face of uncertainty. Like when I ask them why the house is so cold or why the lights won't turn on.

It finally hit me, today as I stress out about two papers I have due this week. This whole time I've been so naive and thought everything was ok.

Have I really been this dumb? This whole time? Or have I been lied to?

Every time I asked my parents something like:

"Hey how come there's no food in the refrigerator?" Or "How come the power is off?"

My parents were always so quick to say:

"We haven't had time to go grocery shopping"

"The town is without power" even though all my neighbors lights were on

I always sorta 'knew' the reason why is because we simply couldn't afford it. But I never really put it all together. Most importantly, I never saw it from their perspective because I'm a kid. Or, rather, was.

And now I'm starting to the full, shitty, picture. That's going to be me, very soon.

Always wondering if I can afford groceries, electricity, and all these other things.

Sure, these problems are trivial compared to what people in other countries deal with. But those problems have always seemed like something that was "over there".

How did I learn to think like this?

Without little regard about what is really going on?

Where did this sense of nativity come from? Why has it taken so long for me to 'snap out of it'.

To somewhat answer my own question, if go back to my previous point about school. We're taught to work hard and at the end it will all work out, but in reality it's more akin to "keep working, and when you're done, work some more".

And I hate to sound cynical but, is there really a "light at the end of the tunnel"? Or is that just something made up to inspire people to work hard?

Submitted November 21, 2016 at 04:35AM by ryro94 http://ift.tt/2eUTZoQ rant