Occupation: Student

It is customary for people to deeply identify with their current occupation. When a person is asked of their occupation, they may respond, “I am a doctor,” or “I am a lawyer.” Rarely will the response be, “I practice medicine,” or “I work in law.”
Many people in the early part of their life, including myself, identify themselves as students. I am a student.

With this in mind, it seems particularly important to figure out what exactly it means to be a student?

STUDENT
: a person who is studying at a school or college.
 
STUDY
: learn intensively about something, especially in preparation for a test of knowledge.

Then I am a person at a school, who periodically does intense preparations for my tests of knowledge. Sounds terrible right?

At least going through this Sisyphean cycle of preparation and testing boosts employment opportunities for later on. Once I stop being a student, I can become something better, something that has a bit more of a ring to it. Maybe a doctor, or a lawyer.

Sadly this is the conception of student shared by many of my peers, and admittedly, also myself, at least until recently. Please, let us reject this idea of what it means to be a student, even as it continues to gain prevalence with the rise of standardized testing and GPA based opportunity gate-keeping. We intuitively know that students are important to society in some way above studying for tests; being a student should carry a bit of meaning and purpose. Surely we can construct a more accurate and appetizing self image.

Here are some more encouraging definitions.

STUDY
: application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge
: a state of contemplation
: a careful examination or analysis of a phenomenon

I already feel more excited to go to class on Monday!

The entomology of ‘student’ also presents a noble picture. The word originated in Latin from the verb studere meaning ‘applying oneself to,’ it is also related to studium - ‘painstaking application.’

This is a conception of student that I am willing to take to heart. If you are a student like me, you need not submit to the idea of being a mindless drone who undergoes a four year college program in order to get a job. No, we students are the unrelenting learners of society, we are the contemplators and the examiners. Doctors heal and lawyers exercise the law; students fulfill an equally vital role. We wholeheartedly apply our energy towards the goal of gaining knowledge, as a means of improving both ourselves and our society.

Thank you students everywhere, for learning!