The Case for Living a Non-Academic Life

[Beware, counter-cultural speculation to follow!]

First, an anecdote. On Saturday I was at my piano teacher's house hanging out for an hour or so and listening to another girl I know play her RCM grade 9 piano pieces for me. I also played mine for her. A mutual friend of ours, with whom we took History 3, came to listen. Afterward, we were discussing what careers we were looking at and what our university plans were. The one girl was going into engineering, and the other was taking sciences and then pharmacy - both of which will make them money. I'm looking at a three/four-year Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, which, while being the choice I'll enjoy the most, does not promise me a cash-filled future.

About now, I start to feel unsure about myself. What am I doing, studying English? How will that help me do anything more than become a starving writer? I should pick something that will give me a career, and write on the side. That, in turn, makes me feel gloomy. I don't want to pick a different career. Moreover, I don't want to have to work doing something I don't really enjoy.

Then, in the car on the way home - epiphany!

So I want to write. Okay. I can finance university myself. I'll do the Bachelor of Arts, and then what if I don't want a career that will make me cash? Say I want to be a stay-at-home mom. Maybe I'll home-school. I can still write (that's what the BA is for), and I won't have to make a choice between working - continuing in that prestigious career I worked so hard for - or being mommy.

It was a very liberating feeling, to realize that I don't have to stress about marks to get into university and then about getting a job out of university and then about making lots of cash. Our society tells you that marks matter and money matters and you better spend 25 hours a day doing homework otherwise you will fail at life, and what it's done is make education a god. I'm sick of my friends having too much homework to do fun stuff. I'm sick of them being stressed. In a weird roundabout way, I start to actually feel guilty about not being stressed. As I've said many times before, there are points at which school needs to stop being the top priority. Okay, so don't drop out of high school or anything, but do you really need to spend so much time at it?

Do the things you love. Maybe they won't make you money, but hey, money can only do so many things.

Nobody needs to agree with me. But this is what I think.

(As an afterthought, the world does need people in careers that take eight years in university and so on and so forth. The point is, don't do that for money, do it because you love the profession, and if it's so stressful, is it REALLY worth it?)

Poetic

Because if I don't post it now I'll convince myself I shouldn't.

Memory is fading
And the sun was just a lie
When naught is left but diamond drops
Within a soft dark sky

Celestial shores beckon
From a place beyond the moon
Between the dream and waking
Worry not; I'll see you soon

Diamond turns to snow, and each
Within its crystals bright
Is different as you and me
Falling out of fading night

Pale mirror shatters
When truth dawns here below
Recall it all, here in the fall
Of sparkling diamond snow.

Out of a sense of duty -

- I am posting. Generally, when this happens, you all (all, what, five of you?) get to hear about my interesting life because I don't have much else to post about. I mean, I'm sure I could come up with something abstract and philosophical if I were required, but as I've filled my quota of that type of writing for today (essay on Batman and Spiderman and their heroic contrasts) - alas, it is not to be.

So. Life. What have I been doing lately?

Well, working. Working is excellent because it means cash. The possibilities that open up when one has cash are just endless. It's definitely a bonus when one enjoys working, which I do. With the exception of clean-up, generally. The perfectionist in me starts to wail when it's time to do clean-up, because especially if one is cleaning the non-fiction, there just isn't time to make it look more than sort-of-halfway-presentable-if-you-don't-look-too-closely. The first time I cleaned up non-fiction, I got woefully behind and it was not a good thing. However, I am improving.

What else? School. Definitely school. Piano and quizzing included. Grade 9 RCM will come to a glorious close with my exam on the 27th, after which I will never be touching those pieces ever again in my entire life. I'm also in the middle of learning That's How You Know from Enchanted. It's got crazy syncopation, but it's a lot of fun. I discovered that the library has music books, so I also got one with love/romance songs, and started on If I Never Knew You from Pocahontas. It always reminds me of M/K. Quizzing is a whopping 43 verses from Acts 18, which I finished today. Well, 'finished'. It needs fine-tuning. The rest of school is chemistry (molecular structure), math, english (Batman/Spiderman essay!), French, reading Evidence That Demands A Verdict and 7 Men Who Rule The World From The Grave. I recommend both.

Working, school...oh, I'm rewriting my NaNoWriMo novel, and by rewriting I mean almost completely reworking so that you might not even recognize it. That's coming along more slowly, but the working and the school sort of get in the way. I'm also finally reading #3 of the Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb. Those books are definitely not for kids, but I really like her style and the way she doesn't tell you what you're supposed to think about the characters. One I'm done that I'll start Pendragon, #4 of the Pendragon Cycle (Stephen Lawhead).

And in the category of miscellany...I made this recently, for one of the A-U contests. I really like the images and I would rather not have put text in, but I still think it looks nice.

Upcoming events: Inkheart, January 23rd! Very exciting. Also quiz meet, February 6th and 7th in Innisfail.

And now I will get back to work.

Since when is the existence of God subject to probability?

They have free speech, same as me. But please show me the study that can prove God's existence as unlikely.

“There’s probably no God,” the advertisements say. “Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

I like my life fine, thanks.

Because I am oh so original

Resolutions for 2009

- Invest in people, not things
- Don't let fear of failure stop me from trying
- Give hugs
- Remember to say I love you
- Go for walks
- Do my best...
- ...without forgetting that sometimes a break is okay
- Do some headbanging
- Splurge occasionally
- Give of myself
- Grow spiritually
- WRITE
- Remember how much a smile can do
- Curl up with a book and some hot chocolate once in a while

...clean out my dresser, and floss my teeth.