I recently came across a professional student, he is 25 years old, has been going to University since he was 17 right - out of high school. Now his story is a little different because he had a professor for a dad, so he got to go to school for FREE. First he went for English Literature, and after four years realized he didn't like it. Then he decided to take German, Latin, and Italian courses and see how the languages were. After a few years of that he decided that Ancient Greek was his calling, so therefore he liked it so much he was going to continue after he was 25 and could no longer go to school for free. Now after being at school for almost 8 years I would be pretty exhausted, and ready to be done. I mean this guy could have gotten two degrees by now and been well on his way to starting a career, but instead he only had one degree plus a bunch of random courses, and didn't want to just stop there. When I asked him what he wanted to do with his life, he said go to school. Being quite defensive on the subject, he didn't see anything wrong with going to school for the rest of his life. I however think once he has to start paying he might think differently, but I could be wrong. 

If you feel yourself loving school and wondering what it might be like to try out a 101 courses and want to try them all then you could be falling in love with a permanent career as a student in the education system. Now while its a personal choice to continue your education forever, at some point people usually like to begin their lives, and it becomes a little hard to buy a house, car, go on vacations and such when you are still in school full time. If you find yourself falling in love with school, it may be time to figure out what you want from life. Are you wanting to go to school forever because you don't want to grow up? I hate to break it to you, but growing up is inevitable, at some point we all have to do it. The bills start piling up, regardless if you are ready for them. So once you have a degree, unless you need more schooling to get into your desired profession, then maybe its time to move on from school. 

Are you on a date with someone who has been in school for 3+ years and all they can talk about is school, and not in the good way of bitching about how much they hate it, but they are talking about how much they LOVE school. Are they telling you about all the courses they want to take, and when asked what career they want from it a glazed look comes over their face like they are so confused by the question that they just go back to talking about school? My advice is to RUN. They might be a great person, but if they don't have to plan on what to do with their life, and they aren't in school for ten years to be a doctor, lawyer, or something that requires all that schooling then they may just be looking for someone to support them for the next ten years while they "find their perfect career" and pursue five degrees. When I say support I mean financially, meaning you go to work every day to pay for them to live the dream of school forever, so that's why I say RUN - as fast as you can towards someone with real goals in life. 

Be warned, the professional students are among us, lurking in the back corner of classrooms across the world.