| #ffffff;" /> | | | | attention on excelling in all of the fun community |
| With graduation season just around the corner it is | | | | classes I could get into. To my surprise I ran out of fun |
| time for the students in our lives to reflect on their | | | | classes in a very short time. When this happened I |
| accomplishments and look forward to the next | | | | stopped attending school and started looking for a real |
| chapter of their lives. This year I will be attending | | | | job. |
| several graduation ceremonies to be held on high | | | | For me there were many real jobs. I found |
| school football fields and in college auditoriums. As I sit | | | | employment at insurance companies, doctor’s |
| in those collapsible chairs or on bleacher seats trying to | | | | offices and even at a few video production |
| avoid the inevitable bouncing beach ball that always | | | | companies but I was always at the bottom of the |
| seems to find its way to me, I will also reflect on my | | | | food chain, answering the phone and performing menial |
| own scholastic journey. Yes, once upon a time, I too | | | | administration tasks that were far from rewarding. I felt |
| was a hopeful high school graduate who believed that | | | | unmotivated, worthless and frankly, kind of stupid. One |
| the world was my oyster. I couldn’t wait to get | | | | smart thing I did do was to marry the world’s |
| away from the dreary institutional constraints of | | | | most perfect man. He knew higher education was a |
| uninspired teachers, pointless essays and unrealistic | | | | sore spot with me but over the years he gently |
| deadlines. That first summer after graduation was | | | | encouraged me to go back to school and get a |
| simply joyful. I anticipated the liberation of attending | | | | degree-any degree. So off I went, back to another |
| college where people passionately discussed important | | | | university, this time well into my thirties and feeling like |
| and interesting topics and I dreamt about the contacts I | | | | an old fish out of water. |
| would make that would surely lead me to an | | | | To my surprise I took to college like a fish to water. |
| abundance of job opportunities. I felt as if I could do | | | | This time around, the subject matter was not so |
| anything. | | | | tedious and after being in the workplace for so many |
| The reality of college hit me mid semester as I sat | | | | years I was used to jumping through hoops to meet |
| listening to a monotone geology professor drone on | | | | deadlines and had perfected the fine art of listening to |
| about granite, obsidian or some other form of igneous | | | | boring people pontificate for hours on end. In a blink of |
| rock. I was bored out of my gourd and was asking | | | | an eye I was in my junior year (when you are over |
| myself: Really? Rocks? Is this something I need to | | | | thirty they should no longer call you a junior) and was |
| know to further my career as a famous film editor for | | | | maintaining a 3.89 grade point average. I was back on |
| TV and movies? So in an attempt to expedite my | | | | top and feeling smarter than ever before. In fact it was |
| creative career I signed up for a Television and Radio | | | | kind of fun to walk into a classroom on the first day of |
| class at a local community college the next semester. I | | | | class and linger a bit in the doorway. My fellow |
| was energetic and smart. There was no need to be | | | | teenage and twenty year old class mates would |
| concerned about taking on too heavy of a work load. I | | | | immediately sit up straight and quiet down, thinking I |
| could handle attending two campuses and carrying a | | | | was the professor until I took my seat with the rest of |
| part time schedule in addition to my current full time | | | | them. |
| schedule. I did not consider that it would be necessary | | | | Shortly after graduation I received a call from a |
| to increase my hours at work to be able to pay for | | | | production company in Hollywood. I had interviewed |
| my additional tuition. You see I put myself through | | | | with them many years prior and for some reason they |
| school, no well off parents or scholarships were | | | | kept my resume. They decided to look me up |
| available for me to tap into. | | | | because a post-production supervisor position was |
| Immediately, I fell in love with my community college | | | | available and I was qualified. It was an exciting moment |
| classes. We were writing, directing and editing radio | | | | because I always wanted to work with this group but |
| spots and mock TV shows. I spent every weekend | | | | it was also a little disappointing because they normally |
| and many late nights in the audio/visual lab working on | | | | did not require a college degree. Had I invested all of |
| projects. However my university classes continued to | | | | the extra time for nothing? Then it happened, the voice |
| be a snore fest and one by one I started missing class | | | | on the other end of the line said “Oh and I |
| and assignments. By the end of my first year I was | | | | don’t see any reference to the university you |
| the star TV production student at community college | | | | attended… can you just send me an updated |
| and on academic probation at the university. It was not | | | | resume?” Elation, pure unadulterated elation |
| a hard decision to make when the university counselor | | | | was mine! Needless to say I am now happily |
| asked me if I wanted to continue my education on that | | | | employed bossing people around and being creative |
| campus. I cheerfully dropped out and focused all of my | | | | most of the day. |