11. (Vivat) Academia.

I recently realized I've turned into the sort of pretentious wanker who sits at the theatre and discusses Blake's Songs of Innocense and Songs of Experience mirroring each other while waiting for Shakespeare and chats about the jazz rhythms of Gwendolyn Brooks's poetry over hot chocolate. Futhermore, I just completed my Basic Studies in the fifth subject - which is not what is meant by cost-effective and contributing-to-society studies. The thing is, I love university and student life, and will defend the right of mine and others' to them nail and teeth.

I was reading a literary journal the other day, and it suddenly struck me what is meant by 'sophistication'. To someone studying subjects with few to no practical applications, the term tends to become a cliché and a joke. However, as I was reading articles about things I did not know I should care about, I was stunned by the sheer amount of intelligence and knowledge that shone through in the writing. In a society where advertisers do not bother to translate ads or film trailers, these people were using language that was accurate, colourful, and fluent - qualities that most newspaper journalists sadly lack these days. On most days, I feel a strong urge to hide behind a foreign language, but those articles gave me hope and pride that Finnish is capable of communicating everything any other language could, and more. It is often said that sophistication is something you only notice when someone does not have it, but these writers proved that sophistication shows - and that it is not synonymous with but rather the opposite of snobbery.

I am afraid I might have digressed. My point is, the chance to (free!) university education is something to be cherished. It is not cost-efficient, it is not sexy, but I fear to think of a world without it. In this era of productiveness and efficiency calculations, universities produce people who are on average less discriminatory, more willing to pay taxes towards healthcare and other services, less likely to die or be indapacitated at an early age by heart disease, and more active in resisting ideas they feel threaten them and those around them. If nothing else, universities make a lot of people feel happy and fulfilled.

I am so very grateful for the opportunity to develop myself with the support of society and to share space with people with interests similar and different, but with whom I can always find common ground based on our love of trying to understand what goes on around us in this world.

For those who would claim I am a lazy leech sucking out the juices of the community, I would like to point out in advance that I have at times worked two full-time jobs while still completing double the amount of credits required at uni. And yes, I pay my taxes happily and contentedly.