5. Kant

What are you studying?

It’s kinda same but maybe a better question than what do you do for work? A college student might not love school, but they don’t see it as work, it’s not adulting. It’s temporary, a transition before the real world. Ask about their major, and suddenly, you’re talking about dreams, ideas, and ambitions, things they actually want to discuss.

Philosophy.

He said it with purpose. My passenger was a junior at Cornell University, and for a second, I logically assumed he had a practical career path in mind. Philosophy is one of those majors that gets mocked in the “real world.” People study it before going to law school, or before realizing no one really pays you to be a philosopher.

Because I want to learn about Kant.

I paused. He wasn’t joking. He said wasn’t planning to be a lawyer. He wasn’t studying for a job at all. He just wanted to understand reason and moral law, how those ideas shaped the world, and how he could apply them to his own life.

That blew my mind.

Here was a kid attending an Ivy League university, not for career ambitions, but just to learn. It struck me as a completely foreign concept. Most of us don’t study because we’re curious, we study because we have to. There’s a syllabus. A degree to earn. A paycheck waiting at the end of the tunnel.

But this? This was different. And I was jealous. 

I went to school to get a job. When I was in college, I didn’t study meaningful things. I studied business, accounting and economics. My electives—English Literature, Modern Art—were just obstacles, things in the way of my real goal: making money and being an adult. But looking back, I realize now that you can learn accounting anywhere. In fact, most of what I know, I learned on the job.

But philosophy? Deep thinking? Conversations about reason, ethics, and morality?

There aren’t many places for that. Sure, I could read a book, watch a YouTube video, maybe stumble into a discussion group at the library. But college? College is built for this. It’s ivy-covered walls and professors who’ve dedicated their lives to thinking. It’s a place where you can explore ideas, not just trades.

And I had missed that opportunity early in life.

But this kid, my Uber passenger, he hadn’t. He had chosen to learn for the sake of learning.

And I envied him for it.