By Moncio Robert Kpadeh (Sage)
It is good to go to school and acquire formal education.
It is good to aspire for higher education and acquire higher and/or terminal degrees like Master, PhD, and other top professional certificates.
It is good to aspire to become a scientist, an astronaut, a pilot, an egineer, a medical doctor, a lawyer, a diplomate, an economist, a journalist, and any other profession you may desire in life.
You may even endeavor with hard work, courage, and determination to become the best in your profession or career. All knowledge is good and glorious.
However, the age of time have shown that the greatest knowledge in life is KNOWING HOW TO SURVIVE.
You may be the brightest, the most erudite academic, the most characteristic intellectual, and the best selling author, however, notwithstanding, all of these accolades would be meaningless if you don’t master the ART Of SURVIVING.
We have seen PhD holders miserably failed and end up being nobody. We have seen master degree holders end up being nitwits and utter disdain to society.
Earning higher education doesn’t automatically guarantee success in life, as we have seen thousands of educated people become vagabond in life. Even as I pen down this lesson, there are people with higher and sound education begging for breadcrumbs. It is sad, disgusting, condescending, despicable, and disgraceful. It is painfully unfathomable and inconsolable the grief of becoming a peasant after earning higher education, but truthfully, there are countless instances out there.
Experiences have revealed overtime, that it is wise to blend formal education with the art of surviving. The two must perfectly intertwine in order for you to succeed and live a meaningful life.
So, the one dollar question is; what is the Art of Surviving? The art of surviving is what I also refer to as “Social Expediency or Social Agency.”
It’s potentially about how you live in society, thus lingering the following instructive questions; Do you build bridges or burn down bridges? Do you make friends or make enemies? Do you forge alliances or cause disunity? Do you seek peace or sow seeds of discord, or division? Do you promote others or you tear down people down? Do you embrace diversity or you thrive in social class and stratification? Do you honor humanity or you honor a select few? Do you have friends with ideological and political leanings different from yours or you are extreme? Are you selfless or selfish? Do you make contribution to society or you bother not? What are you known for in your community, fraternity, church, mosque, and amongst friends? What are your connections? These are ethos, priciples, and values that master and PhD degrees not give you. You have to learn them from home and the larger society. And when you learn them, you must live them.
The art of surviving is your ability to peacefully live with people of diverse backgrounds and yet endear yourself to them.The art of surviving is also your ability to juggle fate or the vessissitudes of life through multiple methods? Degrees do not help you in tackling difficult and complex life situations or problems. Some problems you face in life would require wisdom and experience you do not have. You will need to knock on the doors of people higher or far more experienced than you to help you find doable solutions.
Overtime, I have come to realize that connections can take you to great heights that degrees cannot not take you. Don’t get me wrong. This piece is no way meant to discourage the acquisition of formal education and higher degrees. Without any modicum of boast, I, too, have earned higher degrees from some of the best schools in the world. I am a structured academic and a former University Lecturer of several years of teaching experience under my blelt. I love written a few books, thematic articles, and powerful poems. I love education and I love teaching, and would still find time despite my very busy schedule as an International Diplomat, to teach through my poetry and philosophical writings. So, I encourage and support academic education at the highest level. However, it is a fact that the knowledge of surviving is incredibly important to succeeding in life, hence, I implore you to take it seriously.
Truth be told, friendship can lend you to the tables of kings and queens, but degrees may not take you there. Friends can take you to great leaps that degrees can not take you. So, why not make good friends? Why not make families everywhere? Why not sorround yourself with good people? Why not associate yourself with people you can learn from and people that can help push you to where you desire to go in life? This is what I call the ART OF SURVIVING!
How do you live and coexist with people ? How do you live in your community? How do you address or tackle real-life circumstances? That’s essentially the art of surviving. You can acquire all the PhDs from all the Ivy League universities, but if you don’t live well with people, respect people, humble yourself, be kind to others, make friends and families out of your comfort zones and make allies across the broad spectrum of society, life would be difficult if not impossible for you.
If you are lucky, your education may take you to the top, but only character and relationships will keep you at the top. After education, you need opportunities to apply your education. Those opportunities are ultimately provided by people in important places, your PhD doesn’t guarantee anything. The painful truth is that society is never fair. Even life is never fair, and nothing is promised.
The world over, people thrive on connections, not necessarily on academic merit. The best and brightest in schools do not end up being the CEOs and Presidents of the Fortune Five Hundred Companies or top International Corporations. No! They’re people with friends and connections in high places who net the top jobs and rule over the PhD and master degree holders. It is unfair, but it is what it is.
So, no matter how many degrees you have and how superior your credentials maybe, I admonish you to build bridges, make friends, join noble fraternity, be a part of pious causes, live well with people in your community and your work places, be kind to people, improve your inter-personal skills, be a team player, be concerned about people’s plight, support people in their darkest hours, identify with people in dire need, when given an opportunity to serve, serve to the best of your ability, be a peaceful person, make friends everywhere including in uncharted territory, and try as much as possible to maintain a record of credibility or a good name? Society is watching you!
In ending, I entreat you master the art of surviving and blend it with your formal education in order to succeed in life. Life is all about survival, hence, you must master the art of surviving, something you cannot read in a book or learn in the classroom. You must learn through experience or by looking at the lives of suscessful people.
And may I say more?
