Fulfilling summer reading lists and part-taking in library book clubs have been the tasks of the parents of grade school children since the efficacy of Flintstones Vitamins reaped only a 90 percent on that last spelling test.
When the school-year ends, naturally, students tend to veer away from the book case and head straight toward the fashion district to purchase a new and shiny pair of over-sized glasses frames, with or without prescription.
The parents feel Punk’d as their children, now armed with slightly stylish smart-wear, still do not venture out to the library.
I was beginning to feel like that parent.
I am unmarried and childless
Still, after college I searched for books via my New York City borough library database. I searched for contemporary historical-novels based in south and central Asia. I also searched for non-fiction war commentaries, bound in poetic prose.
I needed to read, lest academia escape from my pores.
However, now well into the fourth month of the summer vacation that breaks up the academic year, I don’t feel like a complete dummy.
No doubt, I can definitely read more often and continue to sharpen my brain with drill exercises. However, I feel in the know, without any drill exercises save for writing I suppose.
Truth is, I had discovered that I feel in the know… yesterday, August 24, 2012.
The past four years in college I did not watch any news streams nor did I bother to pick up a paper that wasn’t published on campus. Making the NY Times website my homepage was a death sentence; headlines would catch my eye and one click would entail a series of more clicks due to the ingenious lower-right hand pop-ups entitled more articles [that might be of interest to you]. I did not have time. I needed to read my single-spaced, size 10 font, course packs, online uploads, and paperbacks.
Now, however, now I am in the know.
I am effortlessly following the 2012 campaign from the sidelines and am cheering for Fareed Zakaria’s reinstatement while simultaneously shaking my head in disagreement for Lance Armstrong’s impeachment.
Though I will not be walking the stony paths of campus next week, I also will not never again experience back-to-school shopping. Well, that was one awkward sentence; two negatives in a sentence! But, I wanted to make a parallelism.
I am a dummy! Oh no!
What I mean to say is that despite those catchy Target back-to-school commercials not applying to myself this upcoming year, that is not to say that they won’t ever apply.
I will be going back to school in the near future.
Truth is, I cannot wait to continue my formal education again, in a lecture hall, on a campus, preferably in the vicinity of my beautiful NYC.
College was a bubble.
I used to think the aforementioned statement was derogatory. Here’s to self-improvement; must be less cynical.
Indeed, college was a bubble- an ever-expanding bubble that housed knowledge, awkward acquaintances that may or may not make for future Facebook friends, potential beginnings of bad credit scores disguised among two-hundred dollar books, and the opportunity to mature an outdated childhood dream.
Post-grad life is another bubble. Rather, (and this applies more universally), life outside of the school year, even if it is just summer vacation, is another bubble.
In this bubble, we are subjected to vulnerability. If we forget our cell phone at home, we are made vulnerable because a blue-light emergency pole is not located every several feet.
Furthermore, in this bubble, outside of school, wearing your new Michael Kors, Anthropologie, and Sperry ensemble is seen, more times than not, as impractical rather than fashionable. In other words, appeased pairs of eyes will be lacking.
So be it; it’s time for those peeps to answer the Dial-America calls and subscribe to Marie Claire.
In this same bubble, wearing those “2012” university sweatpants aren’t seen as chic. Regular viewers of What Not to Wear are scrutinizing you and analyzing the sweatpants as some unfashionable way of you trying to deny stress.
So be it; it’s time for those peeps to recognize that you are not an adolescent and that your are not an experienced adult, but a twenty-something-year-old, impatient, degree-holding citizen who wants to change the world for the better.
I feel like a polymath more than I had while surrounded by ivy for the past four years. I am no longer compartmentalized into Health & Society and Political Science.
I too can read literature and gain what you had Miss/Mr. English major.
I too can understand the excitement behind every new Apple product thanks to Time Magazine’s most recent issue on how cell phones are changing the world, OK Miss/Mr. Engineer!
I too can understand why Samsung owes Apple $1.05 billion in that patent court case, alright Miss/Mr. Pre-Law?
I am in the know and am trying my best to not get out of it.