Brick Walls

It is interesting how quickly a lifetime of premier education can fade into the shadows when the subscription cycle finally gets the axe. By that I mean I have graduated from college. I shant be returning to a four year institute ever again. Three cheers.

Not only have I graduated, but I initiated and completed the single greatest adventure of my young life. And now, here I sit, fresh from the four corners, head overflowing with experiences, stories, and living images of all manner of people and and places, and my dilemma is not how best to elaborate on this glut of writerly goods, but rather, I am facing a brick wall of whether or not I can do anything with this stuff.

Not because it wasn't a worthwhile trip. Oh no. It was practically a reenactment of the classic college comedy "Road Trip," with maybe five fewer hijinks per day. So without going into extensive detail, right there, goldmine. No, its something else.

You may notice this post has taken on a certain rambling quality. That is precisely what I am talking about. In the past week, I have forgotten nearly everything I have ever learned-- ever. Not shit like the theorems and statutes of geometry. I'd be a liar if I said I ever knew that stuff to begin with. No, far more troubling is my loss of the simple. For example, contractions are completely over my head. Contractions, right? The same ones that children are taught as early as first grade.1 Yes, those. Contractions. For some reason, they have become like landmines in sentences. God help me if the contraction has a negative spin to it like, can't or don't. If you hand me a written instruction that specifically commands me to avoid something, like "Don't use the swimming pool. It is filled with ants," I will undeniably be spotted tenderly pawing at my itchy welts through oven mitts in under an hour.

Edit: This is clearly an incomplete thought. Finish it later. -Dad

1. testified by many foreigners as the most difficult concept in the English language