Knowledge

To me, knowledge is the most important thing in the world. I have loved reading and learning since I was very young, always excelled in school, and was always labeled the "smart kid," more or less. My dream is to go to a world-class university and get a doctorate from there. It would be the ultimate achievement.

I believe all knowledge is good knowledge. It is never bad or unnecessary to know or learn about a certain thing (although, of course, this does not excuse boring lessons or unprofessional teachers). However, sometimes I wonder what place being an academic and having most of one's skill focused on the intellectual actually has in the world. For someone like me, whose talents lie in schooling, it's fortunate that today's society values that sort of thing. But what would happen if, say, the zombies attacked, or a meteorite struck the earth? Nobody would care about linguistics or history or politics then. Those things would come later. Isn't it really more important to be able to survive in the wild, build houses, or know how to fight? And even today, aren't charity workers and doctors better, and more important, than book critics and anthropology professors?

On the one hand, I have to face the fact that pursuing this sort of future is selfish, not really helping anyone but myself. But on the other, there is nothing I would rather do.