The race for Diplomas
by Sandra Salame
In my part of the world, and I guess in yours too, we are brought up with the weight of our future profession weighing heavily on our backs. From the moment we are conceived, our parents start eagerly drawing the life of whom and what we shall be. They picture us in important positions, surrounded by heaps of cash, to the extent that some of us are even born with a set predestination to be lawyers, engineers, or doctors… a heritage that must be conserved no matter what. If we were condemned to become doctors, we grow up surrounded by medical books and surgery toy games, oriented since the age of four to proudly answer when asked: “what do you want to become when you grow up?”, “a dotor” not knowing what the word even means. The hammering persists until the end of high school when we finally decide our field of study.
At that particular moment, we become divided into two groups: the first group comprises the passive followers whose lives have been molded quite well with the parental and social pressures so they reluctantly choose the profession selected at the moment of birth, and the second group are those that rebel in silence and have the courage and stamina to actually select the major of their liking barely calculating the needs of the market and disregarding the long drawn aspirations of their parents. Both groups have one thing in common though: the race for diplomas.
A long and tedious race, that starts with the early years of college and never stops. The bachelor is no longer enough to be a distinguished job applicant due to the competitive pressures and economic hard times. We stand in line when applying for a job and eye one another wearily wishing we went to the best schools or got the highest grades, or that there were enough opportunities for all of us. The laws of the jungle prevail and we start racing for our Masters degree hoping that our salary will increase, that we will form a much smaller group of distinguished applicants, or that we will gain vital knowledge to the companies in the marketplace. From the masters, we then move to specialized certifications within our field of study, obsessively looking behind our shoulder everyday if our number as specialized individuals is increasing, and counterattack by collecting certifications incessantly. We join the race for diplomas as early as possible with a preset goal: stay ahead of the herd. It would be a great achievement and a social phenomena if we manage to have a BE at 20 years of age, and a masters at 22, then a specialization at 23, then a second masters at 24, a PHD at 28 and the list goes on.
Is this race innate as we human beings naturally compete over everything? Is it merely a way to reach academic achievement fed by our innocent craving for knowledge? Is it a new social trend, a mark of differentiating ourselves from others? Is it a natural result due to the imbalance of offer and demand in the market? Is it going to increase in the midst of the current hard economical times, characterized by a reduction of job openings, an increase in unemployment, and a painful need to survive?
In an ideal world you would say, this phenomenon would not exist as we would all have an equal chance of practicing our skills and proving our competencies. Unfortunately, it is not an ideal world; unfortunately again, it is becoming a more difficult and challenging world. The sure thing is that we are all, or most of us to say the least, participants and ultimately victims of the race for diplomas. The last question I would like to ask you and ask myself is, amidst the daily struggle, do we have time to live? Do we really believe that we will one day reach the finish line?
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