"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."
Oscar Wilde, 1980.
Oscar Wilde, 1980.
Day 1: As we prepare to labourously finish those few pesky credit hours that stand as the only obstacle between ourselves and that long-awaited day of graduation, this year's senior class of Florida State University are likely to find ourselves caught in a spinning, unexpected ball of emotions.
First and foremost, I'm positive the majority (of our kind) is pondering the inescapable question of the graduating curse...what the hell are we doing next?
Home to live with parents
rich
successful
worthy
look good
First and foremost, I'm positive the majority (of our kind) is pondering the inescapable question of the graduating curse...what the hell are we doing next?
Why does "next" even matter?
What about now?
The spectacular now.
Is the future so important that we must forego the sheer wonder that is the present?
But what is the present but a preparation for the future?
Live for the now.
There is such an emphasis and societal pressure to live each day to the "fullest."
But what is "full?"
Is living life to the fullest a sugar-wrapped metaphor for going to work in a 9-5 job, to make money you spend to survive, on a new house, cute kids, new ride?
How many people
At the end of their time
Can truly smile and say
I lived it just fine
Graduation. Then what?
Graduate school
(Or)
Workplace
(Or)
That's
What's
EXPECTED
of
us...
But what do I want to do?
What will make me
Happy?
To explain to my readers the abstract reasoning behind my post, I will attempt to detail the methods behind my madness. The conceptualization of this blog posting has much to do with my impending graduation from FSU (I know, what a surprise). When faced with this assignment and the broad requirements, I started off being at a loss for what to write. However, I put pen to paper and out it flowed; isn't the ultimate goal of everyone to be happy? But when you ask older people if they are happy, when ever is the answer a simple "yes?" How do we achieve happiness? Or is the ultimate goal of nirvana un achievable in this life?
ReplyDeleteMore theorizing but that's a basic outline of my abstract conceptualization.
The layout I kept simple to outline my conceptializing and not take away from the effect of the words. The pictures I used highlighted my thought process, and referenced to my favorite poem of all time, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure if this was exactly what the assignment was looking for, but in my defense, it seemed to be hitting all the points and in the range of relatability.
Enjoy!
I love that the writer is expressing their doubts over graduation and life after undergraduate education in this entry. It’s something that everyone that goes through university life can relate to (I know I completely understand these worries).
ReplyDeleteThe writing begins as more typical paragraph format writing and slowly as the writer begins to make his/her point about life after school. The writing becomes more poetic as it connects to the image with a quote from Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. The images used in this entry are not particularly personal to a sense of place physically but focus more on the mental place that all students experience before they graduate. The way words are crossed off and scattered emulates one’s thoughts and possibly a student crossing off the words in a list that don’t match their notes.
I think the assignment was more focused on a physical sense of place, which isn’t offered in this entry, but I believe that the sense of place becoming a mental state of mind is just as effective. The theme of achieving happiness and the possibly frivolity of a monotonous life is creative but I would include some sense of location into the piece. The photos used are quite generic and, while this allows a mass of students to view the images and relate, give no sense of self to the voice in this entry. This sense of a split road in the second image could have been a road intersection, or someplace with location or personality for the voice.
The blog is quite serene for such an inquisitive and, probably, stressed message in the first entry. This balance functions well because if the background and color palate were competing with the message of the entry, there would be too much stimulus for the reader to manage appropriately.