This set the tone for the years to come. In Junior High, adults who never went to college said that high school would span the best years of my life. In high school, adults said that college is a place to blossom, insisting that it would span the best years of my life. During college, slightly older people who tried like hell to appear as if they knew what was going on told me to enjoy it while it lasted. College isn't a place to grow or explore, because you've always got someone telling you how and why.
College is just a place that is no more immune to bureaucracy than any other.
Regardless of the money I pay and real desire I have to learn, the people I pay to teach insist on imparting things they know I will not use. This is not to say that useless knowledge isn't valuable, but if it's useless, it should at least be interesting. In the end, college is merely a conglomerate social setting. I found the people I like, the professors I like, and I will take them with me wherever I go. Not unless I should also thank the state of Illinois for happening to be the place where I am.