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I find the idea of "liminality" expressed by Michael Moffat and Rebekah Nathan appealing. When we come to college, we enter a land that seems so far removed from the real workings of society. No parents, no formal rules, and all kinds of natural, experiential learning. All of this happens on an even playing field with each of us reborn on a blank slate. We have the chance to meet people from all walks of life, take in life experiences, and internally grow without the judging eyes of society. It is this place, somewhere only we know, where we have the chance to be free and experience our liberated selves. We are all on the same pursuit to find our niche in the real world, but this goal only seems like background noise while we experience college life. It eventually comes, and we are not supposed to stress about it. By the time most of us do find our place, we are finally nearing the door to the real world and can acquire our rites of passage. However, are times changing? Is campus life as "liminal" as it once was? Do we
really have enough time to develop our true selves, find our true passions, and carry these transformations into the real world? Higher education has become so privatized that liminality may be diminishing. Tuition, debt, and the pressure to pick a major that will land you a well paying job are all increasing. Today, it is not a smart idea, financially speaking, to earn any degree in the liberal arts. The best bang for your buck exists within the STEM majors, which all drown students in thick textbooks, labs, and failing course averages. The majors that are most worth the debt, at the time being, are the ones that are most stressful and time consuming. With more debt, many students have to work while in school and allocate more time toward studies. As a result, there is less time to experience the liminal college life, where pressuring stress and norms are supposed to fade. Today, pressure to succeed is only increasing. What kind of effect will this have on our society? Will it cause students to retreat to robotic lifestyles? Is the privatization of college destroying human ingenuity and internal growth?
