When Matthew and I left Hawaii I had 12 credit hours left to officially graduate. After much deliberation, time off, and administrative oppression we are determined to get this stupid degree if it kills us! I have started back to school here in St. George at Dixie State which is where I received my Associates of Arts degree. I will still be graduating from BYU - Hawaii (the best BYU of the three) and will be graduating with a degree in International Cultural Studies -Communication (which is a fancy way of saying I talk to people that don't talk like me). My first day was last Wednesday. As a returning student I went through the usual bureaucratic run- around which college administrators impose so they can clear their schedules, sit in their comfy high-rise offices by their big windows and watch all the new kids run around campus in a furry, like a hill of ants that's just been flushed out by a kid with a garden hose and a magnifying glass.
After all the frenzy I went to class and met my teacher. Her name is Dr. Hunt, or Kathy as she likes to be called. I left her class all a flutter with a burning in my bosom and a twinkle in my eye! She really is a great teacher and I know I'm really going to enjoy her class. While introducing the class and herself it took everything in me to sit calm and act cool and not embarrass myself here at Dixie High High. I knew if I started relating to the teacher this early in the game I'd be labeled teachers pet, someone would give me a wedgie after class, and the cool girls wouldn't sit by me at lunch. So I sat there as she explained that she is an organizational consultant for the country of Bali and her philosophy is to not study the problem but to study our strengths and talents and then apply them to the problem to create even greater solutions. I was in a frenzy. But I sat there in my new school outfit with my way cool Chuck Norris folder and played the cool girl till I got home and could explode all over Matthew! It really was great to find such a teacher! I'm excited for what the future holds in Org Comm 3850-02 room 125.
I left the class bubbling with excitement and told Matthew that I had to go and buy my book so I could do my homework. I went online to see about how much the book would cost so we could add it into our budget. When I saw $88 dollars on eBay I was a bit surprised but not shocked even though the book is only like 200 pages. So I went to the bookstore to buy it with my $88 dollars in hand and when the total came to $115 dollars, I swallowed my tongue. Now I've been in college for a while, not as long as Matthew, but still a while. I've had to pay some pretty astronomical prices for text books. I had a biology book that was over 1,000 pages that came with a CD that I paid $175, but I think this one takes the proverbial cake! I bought the book and left the bookstore recalculating in my mind how much Ramen noodles are and slimming down my plans for sister Saturday to a weenie roast in St. George where all you have to do is hold it out the window to cook. I got to the door and turned back to look at the bookstore where I found this inspiring quote above the stairs: " A deal is only good if it is fare to all."
I couldn't help but laugh as I stumbled out the door! I pray I'm not the only one who sees the humor and dichotomy in that statement. I thought of all the poor college student across the world having to buy their books and pay for college while being out on their own for the first time and the passion of afferdity blazed within me! no more "robbing the poor to feed the rich" (that shout out goes to Kyle!) It was time to stick it to the man! I was ready! I was ready to fight for my right to party! (again, Kyle, that ones for you!) I took the book back to the book store and begged for them to take it back without making me dropping my class and then I marched out the door, money in hand, and firmly declared to Matthew over the cell phone, "I'll show them!"
To which I did! Kyle (the bosom friend of my bosom friend) and I got online and found it on Google books for FREE! so now I can just read it online and show those bourgeous, aristocratic, puffed up peacocks that Generation X has been liberated by the mass flow of information at cyber-optic speeds at a price that even the oppressed people can obtain through the globalization of mass media! And as I write this commentary where I lash out irrationally at the proverbial powers that be, I find that I play into their hands once again as i unwillingly become, the very thing I fear the most...blast the irony of it all!
