The Roof Guys

College Ate My Friends

I want to apologize for not finishing what I started in my post, "Should College Be Our Default." I initially thought I would take a swing at that topic for the following two reasons...

1. I started feeling like the "imperishable beauty" guy. The posts on imperishable beauty and physical beauty were spreading and being quoted on a lot of different blogs. That was great, but it was time for a change.

2. College is something that I think is overrated and overemphasized in our culture today.

After that initial post, I realized that due to my lack of college experience, I am not qualified to speak authoritatively about the subject. I also realize that I harbor some level of animosity toward college. For this I don't completely apologize. Why the bitterness? Hear me out...
College ate my friends.

No, it's true. The American undergraduate system came and devoured.  Left and right, guys and girls I had grown up with were uprooted and swallowed. I am not sure exactly what happened to them. I do know this, they are gone.

I am learning that college hasn't completely consumed them. Rather, college merely grasps them and gnaws on them for a few years, and than spews them out. The problem? They don't always land back home. Sometimes they do come back, but oftentimes they are misplaced to different states or even countries.

I am not sure why I got passed by. Perhaps I looked to be a little academically lean. Perhaps college looked upon me, and for once had a wave of pity. Whatever the reason, I was left behind. For this I am grateful.

College isn't a complete tyrant. No, for a couple times a year, i.e. summer break and holidays, he bends down and opens his mouth. When he does, I look in and behold my friends. Brief reunion. They look horrible. They use terms that I am not familiar with like "all-nighters", "finals", and "energy drinks". They say, "We should get together!" And we do! How sweet these times are. Oh, but they are only for a brief season, as college once again closes his mighty jaws, and they are gone.

So here is my admission. College ate my friends, and I am forever biased. To serve you better, I will not be waging war against college on this blog.

Instead, let me simply give a word of encouragement. When coming "of age", our first questions ought not to be, "What college should I go to?" or, "What degree should I pursue?" Instead, we ought to consider these questions...

"What gifts has God given me?"

"How can I cultivate these gifts to best edify the church, and further the renown of Christ?"

The answer won't be the same for all of us. Further education can certainly be a wise stewardship of God's gifts for some of us. However, we ought not assume that college is automatically the best place to be equipped to serve the church. Don't fall into the trap of equating your value and meaning in life with whether or not you pursue the "American dream" of formal education. These have been the richest years of my life in terms of my sanctification and learning. I wouldn't trade the opportunities I have had through this season for a PhD.

Done.      

How 'bout this idea?

    I am visionary. Not a very effective visionary, but one just the same. My ideas almost always lack proper motivation or patience. The enjoyable part for me is coming up with ideas and discussing them, not necessarily following through on them. I love being around visionary people. Idea people. Especially entrepreneurs. You know who I am talking about! The guy that always has a great invention. He is always looking around and thinking of ways to do things better. 

Idea people. Give 'em a cup of coffee, a revolutionary idea, and watch their eyes sparkle. We are always being criticized for not following through. Oh, but that is not true. Visionary people always follow through, we just hit road blocks. A big one being lack of time or money. Usually money.

I am a visionary thinker. My friend and fellow roofer, Tim, is a visionary "do-er". I probably call him twice a week with new ideas for roofing, or totally unrelated stuff. Our conversations always end the same way... I am out of breath from excitement, pacing the room and resting my arms from all the waving and charismatic activity. And then he says.." That is awesome! What are we going to do about it?"  He wants to put wheels on ideas.  He loves to research. He calls professionals and talks over ideas with them. He knows how to take an idea from thought to fruition.

We have come up with about fifteen different "inventions" that we think will sell. I have forgotten them all. Tim, on the other hand, has a notebook where he has them all written down. He has phone numbers of companies he has talked to. He has friends in the patent office. He is always researching, always thinking. Tim is pure, undefiled inspiration.

We have seen a couple of our  business ideas take off, and we both make our living doing them today. That is incredible and a lot of fun.  No inventions yet.  Maybe someday...

Every Christmas, my friend David from San Diego and his wife come to town. We can't get together and talk for five minutes without coming up with a business idea. Every year we have a great idea, and every year is the year that we are really going pursue it! This Christmas is no exception, and right now we are pursuing another business fling. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail I got from David this morning...

"Daniel: I had a great time chat’n and maintaining our friendship. Please keep in touch! Give me a call soon!  I think our ideas can take off if we don’t procrastinate!"

He enclosed a document that showed me that he is taking this seriously, and has already begun investing time. Wow! I am getting goose-bumps.

Here is some advice on interacting with idea people:

1. Hug them. We get discouraged easily.

2. Finance them, (kidding.)

3. Never say, "You never follow through with your ideas!!"

4, Ask them if they have been getting enough sleep.

5. Monitor their coffee intake.

6. Listen to their ideas, show excitement, and don't tell a soul.

7. Don't tell a soul their idea's.

8. Don't tell anyone the idea that your visionary friend told you.

9. If a visionary friend tells you one of their ideas, don't tell anyone the idea.

10. Try thinking of an idea. Take your friend to Starbucks, buy them a cup of coffee, and tell them your idea. Just watch. It'll be fun.

11. Buy them a notebook for Christmas. They will use it.

Should college be our default?

Sitting in traffic, I stare once again at the bumper in front of me. I looked at it for sometime, and although I had read the bumper sticker in a relatively short amount of time, someone watching me may have thought, by the duration of my stare, and the glazed look on my face, that what the bumper sticker said was indeed referring to me. It read...

"YOU THINK EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE?! TRY IGNORANCE."

Where do people find these stickers? I have never had one offered to me. Perhaps I am in the wrong social company. I have never walked into a luncheon, meeting, or conference, and at the door was given this bumper sticker as a free gift.

I am not sure exactly what they are trying to say here. "You think a college credential is expensive? Try NOT having a college credential!"?  The term 'education' can not simply be referring to 'the getting of knowledge," because knowledge takes time, not money. If you get a library card, and have enough time, you can accumulate a lot of knowledge. Cheap.

Now, I don't want to criticize people who put these stickers on their cars. I want to challenge the mindset in our culture that equates college credential as the alternative to ignorance, or that assumes that a college education is the door to the greatest opportunity and cultural success.

About 1 1/2 years ago, I was installing a roof on a mansion. This house made your knees tremble when you stood next to it. The owners were a very successful young couple. They had just had a baby, and I had gotten to know them a little, and enjoyed chatting with them when they came to watch me work. One day, I was talking with the mother, and jokingly said "Now, if you encourage your son, and invest in him, and teach him to work hard at his education, he too could one day be a roofer!" Her response was made in all seriousness, and it shocked me. "I would much rather see my son pursue blue-collar work, than for him to pursue college the way I did." When I asked why, she told me that for both her and her husband, and most of her friends, college was a complete waste of time. Their current occupations in no way related to their college degrees, nor was a college degree a prerequisite.

Our culture is in "default" mode, when it comes to college. It is assumed that if you are smart and ambitious for success in life, you will go to college. What do kids do after high school? They go to college! Have we ever stopped and evaluated this assumption, that college is almost universally the best way?

Now. I write firmly convinced that God's best for many of you is college. God may be calling you to a field of service that requires a credential, and so you will pursue that degree out of obedience to God. The Lord will bless that!

However, so many young people get to be 18-20 years old, and really have no clue what they want to do with their lives. They 'assume' that they are going to go to college, but they don't really know what they want to major in, nor do they know exactly how they are going to apply the knowledge they acquire in real life work and ministry. Please understand, I am not in any way saying that all college-aged students are in this predicament, or even most. However, I do think that there are enough young people at this place that it warrants the discussion.

Now, I grew up through hiigh school assuming that I was going to go to college. But several things gradually changed that for me.

1. I looked around at all of the adults I knew who had college degrees, and realized that for most of them, the job they carried was not related to their degrees.

2. I knew a lot of adults, including my father, whose job was related to their college degree, but they longed to change occupations to something different.

3. The most financially successful people I knew,(and this is still the case), did not go to college.

Now, a clarification about that last point. I do not think that we should make our decisions based on what will make us financially or culturally successful. Christ's definition of success is far removed from the world's definition of success. However, I do believe that young people go into college default mode because they believe that it will bring them success according to cultural terms. A good job, a nice house, security for the future.

A man once told me "If you want to work for someone else, go to college. If you want to work for yourself, don't." Again, this is certainly not a universal truth. However, this was a man that had gone to college, so I was listening. I also looked around our church and realized that most of the self-employed men hadn't gone to college, while most of those who had gone to college were employed.

There is nothing wrong at all with being employed! I see a lot of benefits to being employed. A lot of times, it is easier for employed men and women to leave their work at work, while the self-employed are tempted to bring working whereever they are.

I do want to spend a little bit of time on this blog challenging mindsets that:

a. Merely equate credentials with academic success.

b. Equate a lack of credentials with ignorance.

c. Assume that college is the most efficient way to grow in knowledge.

d. Assume college is the most efficient way to "move ahead" in life.

e. Assume that a college degree is a means of future security.

So, let the discussion begin!