Lately I've been thinking about the past year and the things that have changed or remain the same.
I was trying to remember the feelings I had attending
BU versus
the isolation I feel today. I don't want to believe that I'm more cynical or jaded today than I
was last year, but I certainly do have a different perspective now. Whenever I see or hear high
school students, especially seniors, I always notice their confidence and idealism. And lately
I've been wondering if most of that blind confidence washes away as we grow older. The other day,
I read a newsletter about
CCHS's class of 2002
graduation. One of the students who spoke at the graduation said something to the effect, "I came
to Central as a boy; now I leave as a man." I think I laughed out loud. There were also some
profiles of the star students of the class of 2002, and I wondered (rather cynically) just how
many of those students who wanted to be lawyers or astronauts would end up as blue collar
workers.
Now, I'm not going to exaggerate and say that I'm struggling to make ends meet, but I remember
that "carefree" attitude that I had at BU -- where all I had to do was go to class and do the
homework (which proved to be a big obstacle). And maybe I'd go even further and say that BU
probably has a higher percentage of carefree students than many other schools since most of the
folks who attend are generally pretty wealthy. I noticed that many of my fellow classmates there
never really thought about
why they were going to school -- they just did it because it was
something to do or because their parents said so. Perhaps my big problem was that I asked those
questions and was frightened when I could find no answers.