short pants romance

In the same vein as that old adage "youth is wasted on the young", I think school is wasted on students. As I get older, I really regret not taking school more seriously. I mean, I did okay, but I really never put much effort into studying in high school or college, which is probably why I wound up at Rutgers instead of Columbia or UPenn or Barnard or wherever else all the brainiacs in my high school went. Well, let's face it, even if I tried I probably wouldn't have been smart enough to get into any of those schools, but I can dream.

Still, part of me wants to go back to school because I think I'm mentally prepared to actually learn now. I've been listening to this podcast of a UC Berkeley philosophy course about The Brothers Karamazov, and it's actually pretty amazing to "take part" in a class where I've actually read the source material. For once I feel like I understand almost all of what the professor is talking about, which is totally novel for me. It makes me feel like school would've been a breeze if I actually did a bit more to prepare for any of my classes.

Of course, I say that, but I also have to remember that it's pretty easy to handle a college course when it's the only one you're taking. I mean, I've been reading this book for like a month now and I'm only on page 250, so I don't know how these kids read the whole thing in two weeks on top of all the other heavy shit you have to read for the class, like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, in addition to the other five classes you're taking simultaneously. I was always in awe of English majors in school, because at any given moment you're reading like four books that could double as doorstops AND you have to understand them AND write papers about them. No thanks! That's why I went the loser route with a degree in communication. Although I did pay my dues with a minor in art history, which was pretty reading-intensive in itself, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, I've had it in the back of my mind recently to go back to school for something, but I was thinking I might wait until I'm in my sixties and have made my fortune so I can do it Rodney Dangerfield style. Let's just hope I don't have some sort of curmudgeony dean that's determined to interfere with my plans for a raucous good time.