What Are You Doing Here By Mark Edmundson

At this age all students are thinking about is what major should they study and what career will take them on the path they desire. Professor Mark Edmundson gives his own personal opinion on how you should choose an occupation in his essay: “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? A Word to the Incoming Class”. Some students would rather spend the rest of their lives walking into the same building doing the same dull job that can’t stand as long as they are making a lot of money. Others look past their yearly income and continue doing what they do because it’s what they love to do. According to Edmundson “To get it, you'll need to struggle and strive, be strong, and occasionally even piss off some admirable people” (Edmundson 406). His thesis states that you need to stick to your guns and stand up for yourself to get an education. What
In Edmundson’s essay he goes on and explains the different factors that could sway a career choice. He wants to encourage incoming freshman not to just comprehend everything they learn and absorb the knowledge, but to follow your passion and understand why it has any worth. Living in a world especially like todays, it’s just now beginning to be acceptable to express yourself. The author claims that students are formed by the others around them “they are made to be “fathers son or mothers daughter; colleges want them to be well rounded students, civic leaders, and people who know what the system demands, how to keep matters light […]” (Edmundson 409). He goes on to express this about this almost in a crucial way but continues on about how being morphed by others can sometimes be a good thing, according to Edmundson, “in the long run it is killing” (Edmundson 410).That’s why he encourages students to speak up and be “aggressive and assertive” when it comes to deciding what they want to