The future looks bright...or does it?
Josefine Ulbrich
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Opinions
Bam. The lights turn on, the crowd goes berserk, I enter the stage and howl into the microphone in a way that goes beyond Janis Joplin's wildest dreams. Wait. I can't sing. Bummer.
Okay, another scenario. Now I stand in a laboratory, wearing a white coat, and accidentally find a cure for the severe illness of growing hair on your big toe. So far so good, but with no idea of chemistry whatsoever, this prospect doesn't seem too likely either.
One last try. In this daydream I'm sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of my beautiful cottage in the Scottish Highlands, having scones and a cup of Twinings tea with my significant other and our English sheepdog. Without entirely rejecting the idea as a whole, for me to retire at the age of 32 seems a tad early. And I should probably try and find that guy right now, before the rings under my eyes grow chronic and crow's feet make their unwelcome appearance.
To imagine my future 10 years from now seems almost impossible. If there's one thing I have learned in my two years of college education, it is that there are millions of doors to be opened. But holding a set of innumerable keys, I feel like Alice in Wonderland, sometimes sprouting up with irrational aspirations and at other times shrinking to flea-size due to devastating self-doubts. While the question about "what one does as an American Studies major" sends shivers down my liberal-arts-educated spine, the only genuine answer I can give is that I don't know either.
This doesn't mean that I don't have any ideas about what I want my future to be like. I just haven't found the right mushroom yet. It's in these instances that I curse my scientific ineptitude. I bet if I were a physics major, people wouldn't raise their eyebrows when inquiring about my future employment opportunities as often. Probably because they'd be frightened of me hitting them with the electromagnetic coil I'd always carry around in my pants pocket. But in the realm of the humanities, all you're left with are words. And often the right ones are those you can't come up with when you need them the most.
Okay, another scenario. Now I stand in a laboratory, wearing a white coat, and accidentally find a cure for the severe illness of growing hair on your big toe. So far so good, but with no idea of chemistry whatsoever, this prospect doesn't seem too likely either.
One last try. In this daydream I'm sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of my beautiful cottage in the Scottish Highlands, having scones and a cup of Twinings tea with my significant other and our English sheepdog. Without entirely rejecting the idea as a whole, for me to retire at the age of 32 seems a tad early. And I should probably try and find that guy right now, before the rings under my eyes grow chronic and crow's feet make their unwelcome appearance.
To imagine my future 10 years from now seems almost impossible. If there's one thing I have learned in my two years of college education, it is that there are millions of doors to be opened. But holding a set of innumerable keys, I feel like Alice in Wonderland, sometimes sprouting up with irrational aspirations and at other times shrinking to flea-size due to devastating self-doubts. While the question about "what one does as an American Studies major" sends shivers down my liberal-arts-educated spine, the only genuine answer I can give is that I don't know either.
This doesn't mean that I don't have any ideas about what I want my future to be like. I just haven't found the right mushroom yet. It's in these instances that I curse my scientific ineptitude. I bet if I were a physics major, people wouldn't raise their eyebrows when inquiring about my future employment opportunities as often. Probably because they'd be frightened of me hitting them with the electromagnetic coil I'd always carry around in my pants pocket. But in the realm of the humanities, all you're left with are words. And often the right ones are those you can't come up with when you need them the most.
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samueljaxon
Student Papers
posted 2/04/10 @ 4:58 AM EST
Thanks for great opinion stuff.
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