"The other part is that I didn't really get the chance to go to college last time, whether I wanted to or not, and I kind of feel like I want to make up for lost chances."

"Makes sense."

"College is a lot more fun than high school, I'll say that much."

"I'm not sure we have the same educational structure..."

"Oh?"

"I mean, I'm getting some kind of translation, but it would be a major coincidence if it was all alike, so what do you mean when you say college?"

"College is an institution of higher education that you go to, if you do, usually starting when you're about eighteen and generally for four or more years depending on what kind of degree you're after."

"More academic or more job skills sort of thing?"

"Definitely academic."

"Okay, we have that but you usually start it a little later unless you're in an accelerated program of some kind, and most people don't do it."

"It's pretty much the default unless you have some other job lined up that doesn't require it, for us."

"I mean, are we talking, you learn about literature and art history and astronomy for no obvious reason, kind of academics...? This is default? Even if you don't need it or have particular interest in those things?"

"You don't learn all those things even if you have no interest. I think most colleges make you take a few classes unrelated to your major, but that's, like, one class in one of a handful of things per."

"Ah. One can do a survey degree, which basically means 'I am smart and directionless' and presages a career as a librarian, writer, or nonspecialized schoolteacher. It's more typical to pick two things and study them in parallel or, if at all possible, their intersection. Bending theory and medicine, or architecture and history, or engineering and materials science, or astronomy and astrophysics."

"We definitely have special programs to educate librarians."

"I don't actually know what cert process librarians go through once they settle on being librarians in particular. It's just the sort of thing that might happen post-survey-degree."

"Fair enough. I don't know all that much about what kind of degree you need to get before going to school for Library Science."

"Anyway, I hope you enjoy whatever education you avail yourself of."

"I hope so too."

"...Bar, is there some kind of weird back-and-forth going on?"

"You're the fourth person we've met in here so far. Number three looked like number one and you look like an older version of number two."