College is not preparation for real life.

It is frightening to think that many students here at Iowa State have no concept of the world into which they will be rudely thrust upon graduation.

You see, school is no longer about preparing for life in the real world.

By no means is the university at fault. Iowa State still has the same mission and the improvements in academic excellence remain a constant. Opportunities for growth and learning are greater now than they ever have been.

Sadly, students come to party, make friends and have a good time, rather than dive head-first into this sea of opportunity.

The skills learned at the bottom of a beer bottle are as empty and useless as the container so quickly drained.

Drained also are the wallets of students’ parents. The baby boom and post-baby boom generations worked hard in the past two decades, opening tremendous avenues of possibilities for us, their children.

It is somewhat unsettling to think that the children of an incredibly productive and active generation are living well — as a result of their parent’s diligence, yet not learning the things that will allow them to bestow upon their children the same chances.

Let us look briefly at Iowa State University. This is one of the nation’s top engineering and agricultural schools, offering top-quality education at a very affordable price.

Concurrently, Iowa State is on the cutting edge of technology and offers an incredible variety of career services.

A friend currently interning with an engineering firm in Illinois has learned first-hand the importance of a real education.

His job is technically challenging, and for him, terribly rewarding. In his six months in Illinois, he has learned that his previous semester of computer games, late night movies and basketball was a terrible waste of time and money leading to the auditing of half his credits.

A swift kick and an almost steroid-like shot of motivation has been given to him by his work in the real world, where nothing is handed to him on a silver platter.

Thankfully, this experience has given him the serious dedication needed to make the most of his time at Iowa State.

If only more students here took the time to intern and learn just how important their educations will be.

Unfortunately, however, students seem to think little about their futures, nor do they care a great deal about the excellence of this university.

Instead, the focus is on the next great keg party and wistful wondering about the future of Veishea.

Interestingly, Veishea is perhaps the strongest indication of how far students have strayed from the original purpose of college education.

In its conception, Veishea was a showcase of the academic wealth of this institution.

It served as a fantastic student-driven recruiting tool, helping to draw the brightest minds in the Midwest to the nation’s oldest land-grant school.

After all, who are the strongest recruiters: parents and professors, or fellow students and peers?

Veishea remains a powerful recruiting tool; only now it reflects the changing attitude toward higher education.

Veishea draws students to Iowa State for today’s real purpose of college — the party.

We have been called Generation X, the MTV generation, and other odious terms.

Scream and shout if you want, deny it until the cows come home, but we are one of the least goal-driven, and least politically aware generations in recent memory.

Listen to the stories our parents tell of political protest in the ’60s and ’70s.

Listen to the memories of a monumental struggle for equality and peace.

Pictures come to mind from our parents’ generations of hippies, love, and peace. These pictures are NOT, however, pictures of an apathetic generation bent on partying.

Rather, the idyllic images are by-products of an active generation that moved mountains with their voices, while still earning top-quality educations.

Now, the students of the ’60s and ’70s comprise one of the most productive work forces the world has ever seen. They give us, their children, the opportunities, freedom and education for which they fought so hard.

What pictures will our children look at with envy and respect? Truly, we envy the students of the ’60s and ’70s.

We envy their activism, envy their cultural and social mobility, and envy their achievements.

Will our children see us the same way? Probably not. We don’t have the causes our parents had.

There are still plenty of causes worthy of a good fight. America and other industrialized nations continue to rape the environment on a daily basis.

There is oppression throughout the world that is largely ignored. Political corruption and ineffectiveness continue to shackle our government.

But to our generation, such causes do not seem immediately pressing and we lack the motivation and dedication to honestly address them.

What we have is apathy, and a sad desire to live utterly in the moment — eyes turned toward the bottom of the beer glass rather than the pinnacle of our futures.

America may well be on the verge of very difficult times. The excessive, albeit necessary, spending of the Cold War is about to catch up with our economy.

When this time comes, our generation will be the one moving into positions of local, state, and national leadership.

Will our years in college have prepared the strong, educated, and charismatic leaders needed for such difficult times? A frightening question, isn’t it?

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Michael T. Gardner is a senior in history from Annapolis, Maryland.