I’m shocked at how much college has changed since I last
when to it. Of course, 1994 was 20 years
ago, but still, I never thought it would change so much. Part of me wonders if I just didn’t notice the
things I love about school now because I was so blinded by trying to survive,
but after talking to my friends, I don’t think that is the case….
It seems a million years ago when I stepped on the Austin
campus of the University of Texas. A
million years and a day. I had no idea
what I wanted to do with my life, but I was giving some things a shot, and it
just didn’t work out. I was naïve. I picked something and just decided to go
with it, truly the wrong decision. To
this day I do not regret my decision to walk away from college, in fact it was
one of the best decisions I have ever made.
That being said, I wish I could have finished. My life would have been so much different in
so many ways, but I wouldn’t be who I am if I wouldn’t have chased after the
dreams I chased. I found myself
somewhere out there, in the mountains of North Carolina, I found my soul, I
found my true calling.
If living my life to the fullest is a calling….
Art, passion, drive, inspiration. They all sprang up within me, and for the
first time I felt truly alive. But
something was always missing. Education.
So here I am, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah
Oklahoma. What a journey it has been,
and as I’ve said, so much has changed.
Some things haven’t, though.
College students are still college students, even if I’m
twenty years older than a high percentage of the population. Dreamers, they are an inspiration, even when
they have no clue what they are doing besides learning. It’s funny to see how they are so full of
hope because they haven’t met with the crushing defeat that life wants to deal
everyone.
But what has changed is the most amazing change I have
ever seen. Involvement. There are over 80 student organizations here,
so many ways to get involved with something.
From things to completely nerd out over, to ways to get involved in the community,
to things that will look freakin’ awesome on a resume.
Every day we drive in, I’m excited for what the day holds
every time. Whether it’s just relearning
things I have done before, to learning new things that I have always wondered
about, to even getting involved in something I never thought I’d ever be able
to be involved in.
Tonight, as I write this, I’m sitting in the library,
killing time before the first Underground Graphics Society meeting of the
year. It’s a small group, but they are
dedicated to graphics art in all its formats, and help their members get into a
yearly competition in Dallas. Its
rekindling my interest in Photoshop, even as I’m just sitting here typing away
on Word. I’m stoked, I’m amazed, I’m a
thirty-eight year old college student having an absolute blast.
The days Lisa and I aren’t here, we are looking at the calendar
seeing the things we are missing out on by living so far away. Going into this adventure, I thought it was
just going to be another chore for the future.
I knew going in with Lisa would make it so much more fun, so much
easier, but taking part in events, getting involved in organizations is a facet
of college that is completely unexplainable.
Even though making good friends has been a chore, (we have met several
interesting people that we’re not really getting close to), we feel more social
than we have since we got married.
Life is an amazing series of events of learning and
growing. And now here I am, in a college
library, typing a blog post. What a
life. What an amazing life. The next step? Post this and go get artistically creative!
