nostalgia
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.