Recent philosophy graduate Ruben Gomez says that, as with many of his decisions, he chose to attend college thanks to the good example set by his older brother.
Gomez formed a strong bond with his siblings during his childhood. Though they didn’t have a television, he and his siblings connected by reading books, visiting the library, and playing outside. Following in his older brother’s footsteps, Gomez decided to join the Marine Corps after he graduated from high school. After returning from the Marine Corps, where he served as a helicopter crew chief, Gomez said he felt lost.
“I tried on a variety of hats looking for something that fit, bouncing from job to job, looking for a possible long-term profession, but nothing ever really landed,” Gomez said. “At least, not until my older brother — yet again the great example he has always been — graduated from the University of Utah. This man has never led me astray, so away to college I went.”
Gomez started at UVU as an art and design major, intending to eventually transfer to another university. “After my first couple weeks at UVU,” Gomez said, “I knew that I was at the right school for me. UVU wasn’t like any other campus that I had visited in Utah. At UVU, there was a strong sense of diversity. The professors actually took the time to engage with their students and worked with each person to meet their needs.”
After taking an ethics and values course, he was inspired to dive deeper into philosophy. He took two upper-division classes that semester and knew that he’d found his passion. “I loved that my major forced me to constantly challenge my own views,” Gomez said. “Just when I thought I had a somewhat stable sense of the world and who I was, and the relation between the two, I would be challenged by the views of a new philosophy or philosophical concept that I hadn’t heard before. I had to learn to let go of how I thought things were and who I thought I was. Even though it was a difficult experience from start to finish, it was the greatest experience of my life.”
Now that he’s graduated, Gomez plans to pursue a graduate degree — though the COVID-19 pandemic has put many of his plans on hold. “I have a few ideas about what I’d like to do, but with the state of the world today, the future isn’t too clear. My hope is to pursue either a master’s in social work from UVU or a law degree at the University of Utah. For the time being, I’ve moved my efforts into the public service field and have dedicated most of my free time to volunteering. I’ve never been so involved in my local community until now, and that’s all thanks to the guidance of the philosophy and humanities faculty at UVU.”
To students considering majoring in philosophy, Gomez says DO IT. “Philosophy gets a lot of flak, but I believe it is one of the strongest degrees offered at UVU,” he said. “I felt like I was taking a huge risk when I decided to jump into philosophy, especially because I was already a junior in the art program. But it was definitely the best decision of my life — even if it did extend my stay at UVU for another year. Philosophy doesn’t just teach you how to do a job, it teaches you how to live the best life possible.”
