I was walking home one day when someone yelled \Hey homo, nice shirt."" At first, I was mad but then I realized that I could see myself saying the same thing'say, 10 years ago when I was 11. So, maybe the guy was not a complete jerk and homophobe, but just had some growing up to do. The kind of growing up most of us go through before high school, but hey, there are slow kids in every class. And then it hit me, in a few weeks he will be gone. Woo-hoo!
The end of the semester is in sight, and that means people are leaving. And I say it's about time. In the summer, Madison is a very different town. A much quieter, emptier town. I love Madison in the summer. It's not like I hate people, or anything. I just need a break from the ""college"" atmosphere that dominates nine months of the year. A nice long summer and I'm ready for another school year.
Not everyone who leaves comes back though. Most of my friends are graduating this year. Some are going to graduate school, and some have decided that they have had their fill of classrooms and No. 2 pencils.
Some have vague plans to sleep with the spouses of their parents' friends and get forced into wearing a scuba suit by pushy relatives, but for many of them the future is wide open.
Life after college seems so exotic and exciting. Notice how I said seems and not is, I am well aware that most jobs really aren't that exciting. Even so, my roommate is going to work for the National Arboretum in D.C. and my friend Carrie is going to librarian school. Yes, apparently there's some sort of graduate study required for that, but she told me that it consists of 15 minutes memorizing the Dewey Decimal System (although she knows a guy who got out in 10). A few more people I know are interning with Save Our Babies (From the Squirrels), an organization dedicated to exposing the many dangers that squirrels pose to human and, in particular, infant life.
Still, as excited as I am about my upcoming graduation, there are some advantages that I will lose. College is the best time to be a pretentious, whiny jerk. This is the one time in your life when everybody expects it.
I think that from now on, I will take advantage of this and self-righteously end every sentence with a question mark, exclamation point, then another question mark. Even statements?!? Especially statements?!? You can't do that after college. I mean, you can't do that after college?!?
A friend of mine once told me that writing a column was easy: Just go on for 500 words about something you hate. Well, I don't hate college anymore than I hate my colon. It's there, and it does it's job and while sometimes it can be a little annoying, I know it's all for the best.
So, appreciate these little breaks from classes and homework, but don't forget all the things that make college so fun in the first place.
Have a good summer everyone?!?
