Before the Fall of 2006 (Visions of Michigan, draft one)

(Taste what I’ll be working on for the next month or so, along with all the travel I’ll be doing)

And all that ability didn’t go without getting noticed. One of my professors that admired what he thought to be an above average study habit said that I should go onto some higher post grad work, and he thought, well he said, that if I wanted to get into an Ivy League caliber university that he could make some calls. Berkeley? University of Chicago? Where Henry he said. Huh?was my response. 

Didn’t that sound dandy. He could just call an old friend for me and move me up within the ranks of society, just like that, and so standing in his neat little office with stacks of books with book marks hanging out of so many pages I became distracted by the many font styles that were all over the place, and um, yeah, I just looked all around and out the window, and man oh man there were some pretty girls out now, because soon it would be summer, and thank god for the skirts I smiled, because the hibernation of the sexes was over.

What are you thinking about he said, and I sat down, because out of nowhere I felt dizzy, I was thinking of Sophie.

He said, so what do you say Henry? I could only think about my future, and I wanted nothing, and for as long as I could remember people have always told me what I could have, who I should become.

I don’t know I said, I’m kinda sick of being around these people, but I’ll think about it. Henry, he said, you have one semester left, and then what? I’ll get a job. He closed the book that was about the Chicago school of social research, he turned his chair towards me, crossed his leg and shook his head and started to lecture me, reminding me of my principle back when I went to catholic high-school, when he was threatening me, and absurdly enough, by telling me that if I didn’t stop falling asleep in religion class, I would be expelled and forced to go to public schools. 

The american economic system is about to break down for the next ten to twenty, and this was back in 2006 when he said all of these words to me. There wont be any jobs for people like you. What does that mean I said. Nothing, Just think about graduate school. More paperwork I laughed. Well you could just stay here he said. I’ll get you admitted into the graduate school of sociology without you even having to apply. But well. But what, you don’t have to do anything, just come work for me. I’m supposed to get married this summer I said. Married? he grinned. Yeah. What for? I laughed. To grow up or something. Henry, just think about it he said. I have debt, student loans, and Sophie. Your lady he said. Ha, yeah, my lady I said. She said that we can’t afford any more debt. I’m already thirty-three thousand in the hole. Debt he said, debt is the new gold, and your generation will be judged by the amount of debt in correspondence with your prestige, and you know how you level that out? how I said. You gain more prestige? Huh and how do I do that I said? By education, by masters and doctorates degrees. I’ll think about it. You should he said. It’s your only chance. Ok, just ok, and yeah, this is the last word that I said in my final mentoring meeting with an old man, a teacher that is now dead, and whose memory remains in a recommendation letter that he gave to me, a recommendation that now that he’s dead, nobody will even accept.