Why

Got that essay back yesterday evening. B. But only because I did not engage enough of the class readings. Despite the fact that the prompt was an exposition of "your personal quest for knowledge," and the whole purpose of my essay - literally the theme - was the useless nature of institutionalized education to my pursuit of knowledge. Somehow I managed to make a perfectly good point, support it with my 'own' evidence, and do it with, and I quote from the comments "beautiful language and spectacular imagery." but it is not really that good?
Luckily, it was still a B, because I really didn't mention any of the readings at all. And call me stubborn, but I didn't want to. Maybe its time for me to get off my fucking high horse and screw principle, and just give'r. With the straight objective of pleasing those other people. As much as I want to do my own thing, there seems to be a point, where, if you really want to go somewhere, you have to make compromises. Thats not really me though. I don't like to compromise. I think I'll stick with my principles, and fuck how your subjective judgement ranks my thoughts. Thats not what I'm here for.

From the student fellow, a co-teacher of sorts of the seminar which this essay was for, I received a lengthy review of my paper. Something that focused on the following situation.
"Sam,
...in many ways, it seems as though you'd rather choose to pack up and go live in the woods. Sam, I encourage you to follow your passions. University education is something special, no doubt. But, as you've illustrated in your paper, there are a million other ways to learn. Although these alternatives may not be deemed "worthy" by society, (or our parents) if that is where your knowledge lies, go chase it. University will always be there, but youth is diminishing everyday. Think about it."

Powerful words. It really does beg the question, what are you here for? I suppose its because I want to learn. Sometimes you have to sort through a lot of shit to find the gold. I guess thats what's going on for me. I'm sifting, you could say, through one grand stinking pile of shit. There's got to be something in here though. Something interesting, something I care about. Thats what I'm after. That and a good bit of skiing.