Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508230101
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: WS_54 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: WAYNE LOCKWOOD KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No, it's not that I'm married and looking for an affair. I'm starting to feel the push to get the hell out of college.
It used to be a funny joke. You know, John Belushi in Animal House: ``Damn. SEVEN years of college down the drain.'' But today, the ``non-traditional'' student is becoming more of a norm. It's not unusual for students to go five, six, even ... ahem... seven years to finish a bachelor's degree. Some universities have gone as far as to drop some requirements to cut down on elapsed time.
Still, I get down on myself sometimes. I've been in college longer than I spent in elementary school. I got better grades back then, too. Of course, back then, all I drank was Kool-Aid, and the only thing I had inhaled was Mom's second-hand smoke.
I remember being a wide-eyed college freshman, looking at a friend who was entering his umpteenth year of college, and thinking ``What a slacker. I'll never end up like that.''
I ended up like that.
I didn't understand back then how easy it is to get stuck on the Habitrail of life. Start with the Catch-22 of the business world: You have to have experience to get experience. Hold it, you say you went to a very prestigious college? Good for you. That's one door that will open for you. Just one. The rest of us get to break them down with battering rams.
Usually, this means we've worked at some office as an unpaid intern, or a low-paid part-timer, struggling to work long hours doing something we absolutely love (or at least used to love before we got started), at the same time we go to school.
As passion has a way of doing, it takes over. Sinks into all the tissues, floods the brain, and short-circuits it. Believe me, I know. You want do some meaningful work as soon as you can, since you can't understand how your college work is going to benefit you anywhere down the road. So, you devote more and more time to your low-paying, time consuming passion. And less time to your studies. Before long, more and more responsibilities get piled on you, as you begin to transform from grunt into ``valued employee.''
Surprise. You've got a career before you've got a degree. It's a pretty bass-ackwards way to live, but that's the way life goes.
Still, for me, there's a void lurking out there. A black hole that threatens to suck me in. Maybe it hasn't done it yet, but it will. I know enough about foreshadowing not to take it lightly.
So, I'm back in class. Scratching my itch. And life in the hallowed halls now is very strange for me. If there's supposed to be some kind of connected generation out here, why do I feel so far removed from many students, especially freshmen? They're cute and wide-eyed, and sometimes fun to watch, but that's about it. I can't talk to them about my battle experience. They can't relate. Yet.
It makes me feel - dare I say it - old. Ancient at 24. Grizzled and wrinkled, and ready to go sit on top of some mountain to dole out wisdom to rock climbers.
College didn't give me much wisdom. Although, college did give me a chance to discover who I was. I did that by skipping almost my entire freshman year and spending it in the library, reading reams of books on eastern religion and Beatnik poetry. Of course, in order to find myself, I had to drop a load of money. At least I didn't use it to call the Psychic Friends Network.
In another semester, barring more career tragedy, I'll become the first member of my family to finish college. But, no doubt, I won't be the last one to continuously struggle in the work force. Piece of paper or no piece of paper.
Wayne Lockwood is a staff writer for The News in Boca Raton, Fla., who also writes this column for The News' Generation X section.
by CNB