I used to want to be rich. I used to want to be famous. I had visions of making it to the big screen or of rocking a mic. I wanted to drive the best cars, live in the plushest pads and wear the finest clothes. I strove to be the center of attention. My only thought was that if I didn’t get to the top if I didn’t get to live my life my way then it wasn’t worth it.

Then something happened. I went to college.

Writer Kevin Powell recently said while he was visiting SIUC, If you go into a college environment one way and you come out the same way after four or five our six or seven years, what is the point of it all? That statement alone sums up the intention of a college career.

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I don’t mean to bring this issue back up after it was just discussed by Salim Kenyatta (Guest Column, Nov. 7), but it is a topic in dire need of attention. College, as an institution, was not set up to develop a career, it was established as a place of learning a place that can help a person learn how to think. Sure, a career is the end result but that isn’t the driving force behind any established institution of higher learning.

When I first entered SIUC 1 1/2 years ago, I had the same goal that 99.5 percent of today’s new students have. I wanted to choose a major, grab a degree and find a high-paying job. But after I wandered the halls for six months, I started to notice something. I started to see how things connected. I caught glimpses of a side of the real world that I have never seen before and it wasn’t pretty. It was full of people who only cared for No. 1. It was full of people looking for the easiest way to get an A and be on their way. While I was finding my classes interesting, engaging mind-opening experiences, I found myself (and still unfortunately do) surrounded by people who don’t care people who found those same classes uninteresting and unimportant.

After seeing and engaging with these people I made a decision. I decided I wasn’t going to be compared to the people I like to call the walking deads. I decided that my main concern wasn’t going to be where I was going to get drunk tonight, but how I can contribute to this world. I decided that I wasn’t going to waste my time, money or emotion on an education that most will forget six months after taking a course, or six months after graduating.

I decided to educate myself to the fullest extent.

It cannot be debated that we, as a generation, are facing dark days. We are the burden bearers of the mistakes of previous generations. We are the end result. Regardless of what anyone may choose to think, we all have a responsibility as to how our world or society will turn out. So I want to make a proposition to anyone who is listening. Why don’t you put down the bottle, sober up and educate yourself? Make a personal commitment to yourself to use this time in college as an ultimate learning experience. Learn everything you can about yourself, develop your own beliefs and thoughts, and prepare yourself for the brutal world we are destined to inherit. Learn. Its as simple as that. Learn.

I want to give a couple of shout-outs to those who have decided to walk the road of responsibility and self-enlightenment those who have decided to raise strong families and strong communities. I want to say Peace to the members of the Million Man and Woman Marches, Peace to the Promise Keepers, Peace to Salim and Enoch Muhammad and Peace to any other independent students who have decided to plow a new road.

I can’t expect everyone to make this commitment, I can just hope to plant a seed or two. I’ll do this alone if I have to but I don’t want it to be that way.

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Namaste’ (The God in me loves and Honors the God in you).