This writing is spectacular, better than even mine, she said humbly.It is written by Masha Gessen . about the shattered myth of college in the USA.
“The promise of college in America is the promise of a clear path to the future, of a reward for all the sleep deprivation and soul-deadening competition of high school, and, most of all, of instant adulthood. This is a stunningly resilient myth. It survived the financial crisis of 2007-08. It persisted even as more and more young people moved home after graduation and never left, because they couldn’t afford to. It has continued to beckon teen-agers even as student debt came to dominate the lives of their older siblings and parents. Every year, more people have competed for spots in colleges and universities, waiting for letters that promised a steady route: arrival at a Disney-Gothic castle; eight semesters, one of them abroad; two or three summer internships; a festive launch of a lucrative, or at least secure, career. They waited, too, for the elaborate succession of celebratory events that precedes college: senior prank, senior skip day, prom, yearbook, graduation, and more. As of April, 2020, none of that is happening: not the celebrations; not, for many, the college; and, most important, not the adulthood—at least not as they imagined it.”
The article is brilliant but so depressing as she cites the fate of students whose life has not only been interrupted but ruined actually. She summarizes the situation in the following manner”
“This, in turn, may force a conversation about what the colleges are actually selling. Although the service they provide is education, the product for which they charge is the college degree—the piece of paper that promises a student will earn eighty-four per cent more in their lifetime than if they had only a high-school diploma. This and similar statistics are what allow so many college students to think of their loans not as astronomical debts but as investments in their future. Now that future is changing in ways none of us can really apprehend.” Here is the link to the article: https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-shattered-the-myth-of-college-in-america?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker,
I do admit that this made me very happy that I was born in 1943. went to the University of Alberta when the tuition was something like a $100 a year, borrowed money to live and pay tuition but then after getting my first job at the YWCA in Edmonton, paid off the student loan within a year and a half. I did not have children, so do not have those worries, nor grandchildren at this point, who face a precarious existence. Now, several adolescents call me Granny Alexis but they do not have the financial problems that face the students in Gessan’s well written story.
They are members of the Royal Family of Dubai.
Remembering this forces me into a position of having to apologize and admit I was wrong to the Sultan (aka Fazza, aka The Crown Prince of Dubai). I, rather publicly denounced him saying that I did not think he wrote the poetry that was attributed to him. But then, on YouTube, the following appeared: https://youtu.be/n86Ry4mntR0. It is the Sultan reciting poetry about the pandemic. He clearly wrote it, and is is reciting the poetry. Now I do not understand a word he is saying he is speaking in his native tongue, which is not my native tongue. I do earnestly wish there was a translation, but I guess one does not get everything, particularly in these troubled times.
Me: I apologize Your Royal Highness for doubting you. It was most unfair of me and I had no evidence to do so. I am convinced now that you do write your own poetry
He: (No direct response, which is rather typical)
We do have the strangest of ‘relationships’ – if one can call it that. We communicate in public – me with my blog and he with his Network. There were times that we did communicate privately, through texts and a very few telephone calls and perhaps on PinInterest. But no longer. It is working, well for me anyway.
These are such difficult times but I am beginning to be able to live in the present, which is a gift given to me by my near death experience in London on September 13, 2014. There is no reason to live in the past, which can sometimes be painful and, in these troubled times, imagining one’s future is difficult, if not impossible as pointed out in Geason’s well written New Yorker article. More research revealed that the pandemic quarantine in San Francisco is not as dire as first reported. June 15 will bring much relief and the reentry is very well planned and considered. More about that in tomorrow’s blog. Also, very encouraging research showing that this virus is not as deadly as originally thought. But will life return in its ‘normal’ manner and state? Not for me, I can see.
The photograph attacked to this blog is my passport photo which somehow showed up in my bed today.As you can see it is most glamours and it is a passport photo. I was going over some papers from Vancouver and I guess it must have dropped out of that. It is now 1900 hours and I am still in my night clothes but I am keeping myself safe as I have not left my humble abode all day,
