Academia's Gates

On January 19th, classes for the 2010 Spring semester at Colorado State University began. For some, this generates enthusiasm as academic life wakes from its frosty four-week slumber. For others, while the temperatures are low and snow seems to grow, Winter Break has come to a close far too quickly and the beckoning of school can be likened to an everlasting annoyance that seems to never go away. For myself, a graduate student on the cusp of breaking free from the "institution" with my Masters in hand in May, there are neither feelings of excitement nor annoyance, yet there are both. The fact that my graduation looms in a mere three months and change seems almost unreal when considering my life has been lived mostly within the context of school. Yet, there is a very real feeling, an acknowledgement of the unrelenting, mostly repulsive, and raw world awaiting me outside of academia's gates. While the first step I take after being handed my degree will undoubtedley be filled with a nurtuting replenishment of strength, confidence, and relief, student loan collectors and a large unemployment pool will await me at my second step. While scholars such as Linda Brodkey and Donna LeCourt acknowledge the fact that class difference does exist and is created by those who are educated, and those who are not, it is important to remember the mantras of those who don't give a damn. The high school dropouts, homeless drunks, and drug dealers of the world still understand that education cannot protect anyone from bullets, corruption, and sickness...just some of the elements that lurk just outside of the sanctuary of school and knowledge. So while earning my Masters degree will mark an unprecedented and remarkable achievement in regard to my own life considering the things I've been through, it is important to keep such an accomplishment in an appropriate perspective. Will my degree transform me into Superman? Will it allow me to walk on water and part the Red Sea? No. My degree will be a perishable, paper representation documenting the journey of my previous three years. The knowledge represented by that paper is but a tool in which to navigate the mysterious, thick fog of life which awaits after graduation. So should I be excited? Or aprehensive? Perhaps both. I will undoubtedley celebrate my graduation with a party and a few friends. I will undoubtedley walk on a sunny May day with a great feeling of satisfaction and pride. But I will also undoubtedley acknowledge the upcoming events as just one of the many steps in a seemingly unending, yet inevitably ending, path of life. The sun will one day set on my life, but rise on yet another's who approaches the great gates of academia.