Okay, so I haven’t posted anything in awhile, probably because I don’t feel like I’ve had an idea worth sharing. Not to say I haven’t had ideas, they’re just not the kind I’d share. They’re boring, time-consuming ideas, like “going to grad school,” or “getting a new job.” Basically, they’re sensible ideas, which are always the least interesting. I’d like to tell you about how I spent all of my money taking the “How to Start Your Own Bath And Body Products Line” class at the Learning Annex, or maybe that I accepted a job as a private investigator in Wheeling, WV, but nothing like that has happened lately. Maybe the opportunities just haven’t been there, or maybe it’s something else. Maybe my hare-brained schemes just aren’t what they used to be.
It’s a little sad to think that the days of spontaneously jumping into a car and taking a week-long roadtrip might be over. I may never again get that rush of energy that comes from riding my Lambretta through Times Square, foolishly darting in and out of traffic as if it were some kind of video game. And I’ll probably never again move far away from home with so little preparation as when I moved to New York when I was 24. That’s not to say I won’t take roadtrips, ride scooters, or move somewhere new, but it won’t be the same. It won’t be so… reckless. A lot of people might count that as a good thing, but there’s a certain excitement that comes with poor planning that I kind of miss.
It’s possible that this realization was among the things that have driven me to graduate school. It’s said that a lot of people go back to school because they’re avoiding the so-called real world, and I suppose there’s something to that. After all, my disdain for cubicles and office speak is no secret. But it’s not all about perennial youth, either. It’s about having the freedom to think, to have ideas and realize them. It’s not the kind of freedom that comes from being independently wealthy, but that’s okay; scholars have determined that the fabulously rich aren’t any happier, anyway. For someone about to voluntarily reenter the world of the impecunious graduate student, that’s an important fact to remember.
Maybe my days of following through on hare-brained schemes aren’t over quite yet.
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