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Grew up in a medium sized mostly working-class town in Northern England. My whole childhood I felt like an outsider, nobody cared about the things I cared abou

Grew up in a medium sized mostly working-class town in Northern England. My whole childhood I felt like an outsider, nobody cared about the things I cared about, whenever I spoke it was met with complete silence or indifference. I thought there was something wrong with me at a fundamental level, perhaps autism. First day at uni (19 yo) I stayed in my room most of the night, terrified. Finally summoned up the courage and socialised. Week later I stepped out of my room into the communal kitchen. A conversation was going on and someone asked my opinion. It suddenly occurred to me that that had never happened to me before entire life. I wasn’t some weirdo everyone was scared of or didn’t understand. Normal person, normal interests; just different to the tiny society I gre up in. Now married 35 living in Boston at junior faculty at Harvard Medical School, that tiny moment in the dorm kitchen shaped my whole life for the better, and university is the reason.

dingaling 8y ago
> and university is the reason. But not the sole mechanism by which you could have gained that experience. Prior to uni I spent time drifting around youth hostels in western Europe. That was affordable even for someone from a Belfast council estate. I bunked with people from literally all around the World and learned more about humanity than I had done in 18/years prior. Within weeks of starting a job I was sent to Illinois for three months and again had an eye-opening in blue-collar American culture. The Simpsons suddenly made sense. In contrast for me uni was boring, partisan and segregated. It even had an International Students' Centre where they could congregate away from the locals, because their parents were paying huge fees whilst we were there on meagre Giro grant cheques. I suppose I learned about capitalism there. I'm keener for my kids to do six years in the military before even thinking of uni.

dingaling 8y ago

> and university is the reason. But not the sole mechanism by which you could have gained that experience. Prior to uni I spent time drifting around youth hostels in western Europe. That was affordable even for someone from a Belfast council estate. I bunked with people from literally all around the World and learned more about humanity than I had done in 18/years prior. Within weeks of starting a job I was sent to Illinois for three months and again had an eye-opening in blue-collar American culture. The Simpsons suddenly made sense. In contrast for me uni was boring, partisan and segregated. It even had an International Students' Centre where they could congregate away from the locals, because their parents were paying huge fees whilst we were there on meagre Giro grant cheques. I suppose I learned about capitalism there. I'm keener for my kids to do six years in the military before even thinking of uni.