Mike pointed out that our friends Scott and Margaret and their children William and Elizabeth are featured in a back-to-school photo essay in today's Edmonton Journal. It was a reminder - as if I needed another - of how much I miss school. Were I independently wealthy, I could have been quite happy to keep earning degree after degree...well, you know, that's not true; let's peel away the distorted lens of my own self reflection. The truth is by fourth year I was ready to move on. I've never admitted this before, but by that final year the shine had started to come off the university experience; I was lonely, sad and eager to try something new.
I think part of my self-imposed delusion comes from my three unsatisfying years driving a parts truck around the city, all the while thinking I had the talent to do something more fulfilling. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't; now I look back and chide my younger self for feeling so entitled. Maybe those years were good for me.
I hope the Friel children have better experiences with school and their careers than I started out with. They look very excited and happy in the photos, which I'll admit warms my curmudgeonly heart a little.
I think part of my self-imposed delusion comes from my three unsatisfying years driving a parts truck around the city, all the while thinking I had the talent to do something more fulfilling. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't; now I look back and chide my younger self for feeling so entitled. Maybe those years were good for me.
I hope the Friel children have better experiences with school and their careers than I started out with. They look very excited and happy in the photos, which I'll admit warms my curmudgeonly heart a little.
Here in BC, school hasn't begun thanks to labour dispute. This is the twelfth consecutive year of disputes. That means there is a generation of children that from 1-12 have never had a normal school year. I believe there are orthodox Arabs and Jews that are more cordial than the BC Gov't and the BCTF.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, being able to go to school is a blessing these days. There's a BC girl who is fighting the dispute on the grounds that the UN Charter of Human Rights stipulates that education is a fundamental prerogative. But she's just one girl, and she seems happy just to get her 15 seconds of Internet fame rather than to press her point, which would be costly.