The University youth of today grow old in wait for tomorrow. Yes, contrary to our perpetual stereotype as "Generation X" with its emphasis on instant gratification, our culture, the University culture, waits. We are obsessed with our individual tomorrow's so much that we subject ourselves to an unlimited number of tortures — all endured for the sake of our own "future".

This unhealthy obsession with tomorrow takes root during childhood. We are taught to wait — to delay happiness and fulfillment in our lives. Many can remember parents' chastisements for choosing play over schoolwork. Play, recreation and anything really that isn't "work" is almost always second rate — something to be waited for. It is thus not surprising that for the lives of many, a day-to-day and year-to-year waiting process has been the perpetual activity.

Indeed, so much emphasis has been placed upon what culture labels as "education" that it is nearly impossible to resist the brainwashing notion that formal education is necessary to achieve success and happiness.

However unfortunate for the University culture, even formal education isn't "enough." How can we dream of receiving an education from the community college? To be truly "educated" and deemed worthy of "success," we must attend a University. Only it doesn't end there.

Soon occupation and place of employment come into the picture, and when we find ourselves still unfulfilled we focus on yet another future event and convince ourselves it was the one we must truly have been waiting for.

To gain a better understanding of this fixation with "education" we must understand the culture's focus on "success." I criticize the notion that success, intelligence, and a University education go hand in hand. With these standards, it is no wonder that the University culture waits. For surely the only way to achieve happiness is to earn the "dream job" by proving one's worth and IQ to their employer and peers with a prestigious University degree.

There is a created illusion of worth, acceptance and importance as counterparts to the so-called intelligence demonstrated in the University education system. While I am in no way trying to denounce the usefulness of intelligence itself, I am trying to disavow the notion of formalized education as a means for judging that intelligence. Formal education is lacking as a factor for judging the usefulness of others as well as oneself. It is when we allow our University educations and "futures" to have a larger influence on our lives than appropriate that we become a culture of waiting. When will we realize that waiting is the only end we face if we dedicate our lives to it?

I call us, the University culture, back to the present. I call us back to the now; it is only when we take in the present that the future has any meaning. I call us back to a well-balanced perspective, and I call us back to the true direction of what we all seek. Success cannot be found waiting for happiness. Success is the achievement of happiness.

• The culture of waiting