Monday, September 10, 2012

Did you get a BA with all that knowledge?

Well friends. I stand upon a precipice, gazing into the Abyss as it gazes right back.

It is my last semester of my undergraduate career. In slightly less than four months, I will be the honorary recipient of two BA degrees - one in English and one in German Studies.

My scholarly career has heretofore been uplifting and enlightening. I've started my journey, you know? I haven't read everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I have learned how to read critically. I don't speak fluent German, but I've unlocked something that feels like a very distinctly German approach to thought. I've written [collectively] more than 200 pages of papers. I've dabbled in philosophy and criticism. I've gone through more identity shifts than I can even recount.

And now? Now I am being supremely indulgent. I am paying $2500 of tuition to take classes that I want to take for no purpose beyond my own sincere belief that they will be mentally and emotionally stimulating in immensely important ways.

What about post-graduation? No clue. Some really mindless and helpful work sounds remarkably cathartic. I could live the Buddhist-Mormonism to which I give so much lip-service.

Right now, though, I am streaming Grizzly Bear's newest album [which I might, in a moment of hipster elitism, describe as transcendentally post-modern], reading film blogs, writing a paper about the meaning of contemporary art, and eating a fresh tomato and basil sandwich. Like a boss. Because 4 years of college gives you that.


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