March 14, 2002
11:08 AM

Creativity is not a crime


In nursery school, I could already read. When my kindergarten teacher found this out, I was sitting at a table in the back of the room, away from everybody else, learning from a little separate pink book. Then they put me in the more advanced classes as the years went on. In 8th grade, I took Algebra. Then I went to a private prep school, where I spent many nights coming home to do nothing but homework. I was taking lots of honors classes. If I took easier levels of the same classes, I could have gotten on the honor roll, but alas, if it's one thing I've learned about the world of schooling it's that they don't want anybody to have a free ride. Fruits of labor don't come until after the game is over. Maybe, that is.

So I worked hard in high school. Taking Algebra in 8th grade meant starting off with Geometry in my freshman year, which meant taking Algebra II and Trig the next year, which meant taking Pre-Calculus junior year, which brought me to taking AP Calculus my senior year. And I took a 4th year of German and AP Chemistry, when I didn't have to. Also: jazz ensemble, german club (secretary, president, donator of the bulletin board they still use), literary magazine, after-school meditations and discussions with Brother whats-his-name, and brief stints in fencing & math club.

With a resume filled with elbow grease, awards, and extra-curricular activities (and recommendations from 3 teachers), I got into a great engineering college. I started off with Calculus III. (I could have taken IV, but this time, just this one time for the first time in my life, I wanted to start things a wee bit easier on myself. Besides, classes at the school only went by the 1/2 semester.) Rushed a few fraternities, pledged one, got initiated, lived in our house for a year, elected and praised a great Sergent-At-Arms, 1 fling early on with a gothy chick who already had a boyfriend, more german, German Club, Jazz Workshop, several flings with girls from other colleges, 1 long-term death-defying roller coaster relationship, an inductory homosexual experience, President of math club, inducted into the math honor's society Pi Mu Epsilon, president of the Pi Mu Epsilon chapter, a project in math & music, an award-winning project with 2 others on the Mathematical Modelling of Metal Rod Forming, teaching assistant for Differential Equations, BiLaGA, BS & MS degrees crammed into 5 years (actually 5.5 years due to a needed extension on my Thesis).

With a new resume filled with work history, subjects studied, skills, awards, and extra-curricular activities, I went looking for jobs in my field. And couldn't find too many at the entry-level position. A post-college slump and a few recruiters later, I put my computer skills at the top of my resume instead of the bottom, and entered the field of QA.

So, from always working hard and getting to the next level, I have a high-paying career, which I always knew I'd get. And then this question started to creep up: "so now what?"

Well, I do see the life that so many 9-to-5ers get into, and I refuse to fall into that trap. I'm not talking about working in an office and having the same work days every week -- I LIKE that aspect. I'm talking about people who come home from work and do this every single night: watch sitcoms (and/or play computer games) for 4 hours, eat a bad dinner, check their email and some internet porn, jerk off, go to bed, and start the whole thing again the next day. EVERY day. Except maybe on the weekends when they go to a bar, don't smile or talk to anybody they don't know, and yet wonder why they're single. I don't want to fall into that pattern. Many people only get out of it by becoming parents (the type of parents that breed human beings for the purpose of validating their own directionless lives, or worse, the lives of their pressuring friends and family members), or similarly surrender all remaining self-control and thought to become born-again-whatever zombies.

No thanks. It's the curiosity, joyful persuit of knowledge, and little creative projects that keep me going. If others want to dismiss it as useless, nerdy, or a sign that *I* have no direction, so be it.

But when it comes to the question of "what have I accomplished today", I simply would prefer to be able to say something like "I wrote this song" and not "I made it to the next level of Final Fantasy XXXVII".

And speaking of those who liked both imagination and knowledge: happy birthday, Albert Einstein.


"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." -Groucho Marx

�

previous - next

� Older Entries � � Latest Entry � � Email � � profile � � http://www.diaryland.com �

�


And all those damn diary rings:
Hell yeah I'm a guy!
<< � random � list � home � >>
Longhair
<< � random � list � home � >>
The Police Fans
<< � random � list � home � >>
I am not a teen
<< � random � list � home � >>
The Pro-Choice Ring
<< � random � list/home � >>
I am not a goth
<< � random � list � home � >>
Pleasure Seeker.
Hedonist Diaryring:
<< � random � list/home � >>
I know how to spell.
<< � random � list/home � >>
Butt Rockers Unite!
<< � random � list � home � >>
The Black Sabbath Diaryring
<< Osbourne � Dio � Gillan � Hughes � Martin >>
The Def Leppard Diaryring
<< � random � list/home � >>
The Marx Brothers Diaryring
<< Groucho � Harpo � Chico � Zeppo >>
About a 2 on the Kinsey Scale
<< � random � list � home � >>
Massachusetts
<< � random � list/home � >>