i got a fantastic email from a young friend the other day. she is in her first year at university, and from all reports, enjoying herself tremendously.
when i was talking to her mother, she wistfully said, "well, these will be the best years of her life."
looking back on my existence, i disagree. like frank sinatra, just about every year has been a very good year since university, and PARTICULARLY the last dozen. better than university, even.
my young friend was quick to mention the FREEDOM that university affords her. and her parents aren’t jailers, i might add. but i remember what she means. the freedom to linger, the freedom to eat paratha eight nights in a row at island experience because the guy who worked behind the counter was cute, the freedom to make the right decisions and feel good that you were doing them not because you had to, but because you wanted to. the freedom to make bad decisions and know you had the right to make them.
listening to debates in one end of a hall, while a struggling band played at the other. in the days before you could register online, standing in a queue trying to land tuesday thursday wednesday classes, that would leave you monday and fridays free. getting involved in a cause. either because you thought the fellow running it was cute, or because you were really interested in it. i remember back in 1989 i helped get a fellow my age get elected the student body president. we upset the current president and she was fuming. truth is, we ran a better, slicker campaign and we made it fun. his name was sandeep dhir. our poly sci teacher gave us tips, and was enchanted when we made it happen. now take it further, he said. and i think we have.
friend’s mother, if i had to live university or high school over again, i gamble and take high school. (thank you pithy boulder). and hope i do a better job. i know college was pretty good (except 1996), but despite the craziness, the causes, the cuteness…i would grab a can of final net and head back to high school, and see if i could trust myself more to say what i really believed. and if i didn;t, i know that i eventually wised up and the story has a happy ending.
after i received my young friend’s email, written to me from the crest of happiness, i decided to share the good news and responded,
"the good news is, that life keeps getting better."
sure, "real life" steps in, jobs & taxes aren’t fun and those little crepey folds of skin under my arms are no laughing matter either. but we’ve all lived enough to know someone who has died. it was someone from your english class, a loved relative, a friend. they would have paid their taxes happily if that chemo had worked…if that plane hadn’t crashed….if that car had not hit them.
reality sometimes isn’t fun, but overall, life is. and it is also good.
class over. go enjoy yourselves.
