Thought Provoking End to the Semester

I left the classroom today with my mind stuck on the ways in which we could view our own experiences in education through these novels, especially in terms of how we will view home, our parents, our old friends and ourselves. Like Snehal mentioned, the reality our generation is faced with is that the cost of education doesn’t always equal its benefits. So I don’t necessarily feel I’ve moved on my life in some way that my friends from back home who didn’t go to college haven’t. Not when some of them are now homeowners and I’ve spent the last five years spending 600 dollars a month on rent and piling on student-loan debt. This is not to say that I’d trade spots with any of them, its just to say that when I go home and chill with the old crew and someone says, ‘Your graduating right? That’s awesome!’ in my head thinking, ‘Do you have student-loan debt? No… That’s awesome.’

I agree with Snehal that maybe what we get out of our education in the humanities is the ability to view our upbringings and those who we may have left behind with more sympathy. I love that I’m from the south side of San Antonio and I cherish all my trips back home and all the friendships I’ve been able to maintain. However, when I left SA for Austin after high school-- Did I feel like I was escaping a place and people I held with some disdain? Sure I did. I think it had something to do with, as Ngugi puts it, viewing my past as “one wasteland of non-achievement” and I desired to distance myself from it. I see things differently now of course; I am a product of all my experiences and wish not to run from my past or the history of my people, but to understand it and embrace it all, good and bad.