The real world has already begun

Caps and gowns have been purchased, the Class of 2007 has been pelted with expired condiments and dead fish, Mom and Dad are soon coming to town, and we seniors will soon be sent on our way to the real world.

What real world?

My dad likes to say that, in the real world, "you have to earn your own money and pay your own bills, which you haven't been doing."

This is true, but there is no hard, fast divide between Penn and the real world: The two are one and the same. Our experiences are just as real as the ones purchased by those who do earn their own money and do pay their own bills.

Supposedly, college life exists in a bubble, the bubble of living on the security-guard-filled Penn campus. The bubble of going to frat parties and drinking free beer. The bubble of care packages from grandma. And the bubble of nagging phone calls from Mom on Sunday morning reminding you to go to church, at which point you go back to bed and wake up at 5 p.m. for "breakfast."

On the contrary, everything in the real world -- from beer to breakfast and beyond -- will have a more genuine flavor because we will have paid for it ourselves, with our own hard-earned money. I agree, since we always appreciate things that we buy with our own money rather than things others buy for us.

But while this may be true for some things -- such as clothes or a new laptop -- it is not so for education. Most of us -- except a lucky few, such as College senior Ari Paul, who paid for his room and board using his poker winnings -- can't say that we've bankrolled our own education. Nonetheless, we appreciate it every bit as much as if we had financed it ourselves because we make the Penn experience our own through the classes we take and the people we meet.

This all sounds very real to me.

To begin with, our education has exposed us to the world in a very meaningful, hands-on way. At Penn, we can take classes in which we are asked to work with and consult for actual businesses -- as opposed to just reading about them. We can research cures for diseases -- as opposed to listening to someone else's. And we can learn about a foreign country by traveling there and living there -- as opposed to watching a documentary about it.

And by being exposed to such a real-world learning environment, we are better prepared for success in our professional and personal lives after graduation.

Over the past few weeks, as I've chatted with my classmates about their plans for the future, I've realized just how lucky I am to be part of such a successful cohort. At Penn, I've gotten to know future entrepreneurs, academics, philosophers, musicians and -- let us not forget -- hundreds of future doctors and lawyers.

We wouldn't be so poised for success if we were somehow sheltered from the real world by our education. But success is not all about the Benjamins.

In the next few weeks -- scary as it may sound -- we'll all be collectively responsible for a small chunk of the gross national product. And with the average starting salary for Engineering graduates at $54,988, $52,000 for Nursing graduates, $40,073 for College graduates and $55,000 for Wharton graduates, it's safe to say we'll more than repay the debt to our parents in due time.

Will life really feel that much different simply because we're raking in the big bucks and paying our own bills? Will having deadlines at work really be that much more stressful and "real" than rushing to Logan Hall to hand in your classics research paper before professor Jeremy McInerny closes the door to his office at 5 p.m. sharp? Will paying your rent bill be any more stressful than dealing with the slumlords at University City Housing? Will the classic fare of cold pizza on a stressful day not taste just as good?

On the contrary, in this regard, college seems much more stressful than the real world. We've all stayed up 72 hours straight during finals or skipped three meals in a row to finish a paper. And we've all learned the tradeoff between work and a social life.

Again, this all strikes me as very real indeed. So it doesn't matter if, throughout our time here, we don't pay our own bills or earn our own money -- our experiences are nevertheless just as real as those of the working man.

And in the end, that's by far the greatest lesson I've learned at Penn: The things money can't buy -- our friends, our memories, our ambitions and our dreams -- are what matter most in life. And it is this, more than the all-mighty dollar, that paves the reality in which we live.

And it's also why saying goodbye to Penn, and to each other, is so difficult.

Hence, like many other seniors, after I put on my cap and gown, I'll take it off and come back to savor the reality of college life yet again, as I'll be taking an extra semester to finish my degrees.

For all seniors, thanks for making our college experience so real. And get ready, real world, because here we come -- even if we're just coming back.

Cezary Podkul is a junior philosophy major from Franklin Park, Ill. Return of the Salad appears on Tuesdays.

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