[xevenofhearts]

This is awesome. I've always thought about this. I won't spend a penny to get into college unless I get a scholarship, honestly. I completely agree with most of what you've said here. When you are genuinely interested in it, it's only a natural response to spend tons of time learning about it and thinking about it, therefore you've learned more than simply learning enough to finish the assignment your professor has assigned you.

One thing I've also been thinking about is that the people who simply learn only ever turn out average. Hear me out... Isaac Newton didn't have all of the physics textbooks, 3 laws of physics, and calculus, he thought of them himself (well not sure about the calculus but hopefully you're still with me here) and therefore is obviously praised immensely for being so great at what he did. If he was just taught it, was he really that amazing? When we let ourselves just think instead of learn, we can become much more than just average. It's like a magic trick; if the magician shows you how it's done, you've learned how to perform that trick. When you sat down and thought about how you could achieve that, you've benefited yourself much more.