May 2, 2004

• Being on the road so much, away from friends, family, and everything I grew up with, it’s sometimes good to go through some old photos, to remind me of how I got here.  I wish I had pictures from way back when, because it’d be interesting to mix pictures around from different ages, and times.  It’s strange how it’s all your life, but the mixing seems so unlikely.  St. Louis, South Africa, college, Outward Bound, the woods, drinking, best friends, locals.

  
  

  Plus, photo collages look way more cooler than keeping photos locked up in albums.  Seeing photos side-by side, out of order, out of place, i think i like it.  Apologize for those whose computers won’t access the pics, don’t know why that is.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  THE GREAT DIVIDE OF EDUCATION AND LIFE: THE CASE FOR COLLEGE EDUCATION REFORM

  
  

  I am drunk and stoned
  But I haven’t ingested a thing
  My life and my work are one
  But things were not always this way

  
  

  School was different
  School was not life
  School tried to drag me away from life
  It tried to keep me in class and libraries
  It made me study for tests
  It made me strain over obscure topics

  
  

  Man, how college was so obscure

  
  

  Sometimes I found freedom
  I was free with my friends
  And I was free when I wrote

  
  

  But that freedom caused me great pain

  
  

  I tried to escape my final 2 classes in college
  I tried to free myself by writing in class
  I tried to free myself by handing in someone elses work
  I wrote for myself, not for school

  
  

  But I was found guilty for my actions
  I tried desparately to appease the parole officers
  I even re-wrote that obscure paper
  
  But it was too late
  I was sentenced to summer school

  
  

  And you have no idea how this killed me

  
  

  I went to graduation
  Everyone else was free
  They had served their time
  “Let me free”
  “Just let me go!” I screamed
  But there was no response

  
  

  And you ask me, “Why didn’t you just leave”
  This is just school, not a prison

  
  

  And I’ll tell you it was that diploma
  It was that piece of paper, and not the education that I needed
  I was led to believe my future depended on that piece of paper
  
  And so I paid by sacraficing a part of ME for 4 years
  School was not ME
  Not me the way my friends were
  Not me the way writing is me
  And so for 4 years I was not whole

  
  

  Realizing this was alarming
  I tried to tell others in my writing
  I tried to show others through my actions
  
  But I alone was a martyr
  That 0.0GPA stands not as a black mark in my life
  No
  That final semester of failure and no credit will become my legacy
  Now that I am free
  Now that my work and life have become one

  
  

  But I am unique

  
  

  Despite my cryptic writing
  I AM HAPPY!!!
  (not a hippy)
  It is a happiness that began the moment I finished collage
  A happiness that has remained constant
  And it is this happiness that eluded me in college
  And it is this happiness that I believe eludes most in college
  
  And the result?
  Students enter the real world not knowing how to make life and work the same
  Students enter the real world not knowing that life and work CAN be the same
  
  The structure of collage is set-up to affect peole for life in an unhealthy way
  Depression is up
  So is therapy
  We’re lost
  Disillusioned
  Jaded
  Cynical
  Apathetic
  
  College has caused this
  College CAN change it too

  
  

  
   

  • 7:44 am
  • 1 Comment