New Year, 2015, and it still feels like 2010 to me, because I haven't accomplished anything of value since then, or so it seems to be the case. I always wondered if going down the right path, it cheating on tests, and failing to best of my ability was "right". I could've cheated in college, and I've could've made myself show off aptitudes well beyond my capabilities, vying my way into a corporate position with barely learning anything in school. I could've cheated on tests, had someone far brighter than I ever could be to do my work, write my papers, although the papers I've written were perhaps my best attributes, seeing as my ability to write an essay is what helped me survive Algebra.
The point is, if I was a cheater, some low-life, no-good fraud, I'd be living high-and-mighty right now, none the wiser, and only a guilty conscious to live with.....would be hard, counting the money or paid vacations to Maui, but I would live. See, I'm not saying hard work, motivation, and perseverance don't make for winning bedfellows amass the intellectual orgy, carrying you forward to a fulfilled life, but even the wisest of the wise will tell you that intelligence aside, your paying to better yourself, not to repeat English 101 over, and over again, so isn't the point to have your money make you better? Isn't that the capital dream?
I'm not a promoter of cheating, in-fact I hate it, not because it discredits the education process, nor because the system is imperfect, name one that isn't, and I believe many who do rig the system eventually get their comeuppance. Still, I look at my life in the global aspect, and it shows that indeed, as much as I hate cheating, swindling, and focusing on success so much, that the equal amount put into cheating spent studying, one would succeed through the natural courses, and not need a cheat sheet to land a Fortune 500 career.
Yet, I tend to think that many have the natural talent to work, and do-so with a talent that can be hindered by the same broken system that penetrates the university psyche. Some lose ground through the education process rather than gain something from it. Granted, I'm not a fan of college, I feel grades do not determine intellect, common sense, nor innovation, if anything they hinder such aspects with totalitarian authority. Still, for the majority, a college education is needed to just walk through the doors of many of these establishments, who are inherently as authoritarian as the hallowed halls from which their employees are mass-produced.
Agreed, I am not some sub-genius intellect that has been martyred personally, I've made my own mistakes, and I suppose being honest was my biggest, so I do not fully blame the collegiate atmosphere for my failings. My failings are of my own design, and I accept them as such. Partially educated miscreants, such as myself, rarely ever take the blame for their mistakes. I'm the exception, because I know I've ruined my life, and have only my shortcomings to blame. I don't blame a teacher, professor, family member, or boss for my failures, I look in the mirror, and justly point to the one person that holds all the blame for how my life turned out.
So what do I do? Do I get a respectful job working for minimum wage, competing with kids just going into high school until I die of a massive heart attack, or organ failure doing a job at sixty that is barely designed for a kid in his twenties? Do I go back to school, and keep failing, or actually try to cheat my way into a job, despite the fact I'll be living a lie? Or worst: get caught? The options are inherently far and few in-between. At my age, even a government job may be out of the question, and many of those still require a four-year degree. I could get a commercial license, maybe drive truck, or bus and to be quite honest, that is a job that really hones in for a great deal of adventure and travel. Still, on the intellectual side, it's not the most fulfilling, and it's also one of the most dangerous jobs in the world....but the same could be said about slipping down wet stairs while mopping.
Life is a risk-factor, and although I believe I'm destined for a more magnanimous life where my talents as a writer, an intellect, and a speaker would lead to a more fulfilling time on this Earth, one remembers that a job is a job, and I am the only one to better myself, despite the popular belief that someone will give a shit about you, when they are competing for your little niche as much as you are! There's only so much land, so many houses, so much food, and there's only so many jobs.
In a world where there's so few decent writers, ones that can tug your proverbial heart strings until you feel some daft emotion, where you see true genius shine through, we now must rummage through ebooks that last-week-forgot to find a pittance of true craftwork. We are now given our time in the spotlight. Dreams don't pay the bills, and nowadays, neither does a Ph. D, and that's saddens me for those who strive to obtain both, wherein two decades before, either one was good enough to give you a fighting chance.
We are still not back to base, and we may never be again, all I know is that we all have to depend on ourselves. Someone once gave my high school class a motivational speech about "interdependency" and I'm sure that person is out of a job right now, because he was simply wrong: we are dependent on ourselves to carry us forward, and we truly have to fight the poor schmuck next to us just to get a place in the chow line. He was also a "motivational speaker, at the age of twenty-five, so that may have been a lost cause from the start! Hey, maybe I'll become a motivational speaker! That may be my calling, then I can get paid to be a blowhard whose only frolic into the real-world workforce is telling kids and business big wigs how to monetize their happiness. Yeah, I'll stick to washing dishes, that seems more appealing, more fulfilling a venture.
I'm not certain if more education, more jobs, less government, or more government programs are all, or part of the answers, but even a high school dropout can tell you it's a cold day in Hell when a college graduate can only find landscaping work, part-time to survive, and pay off insurmountable debt.
Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial
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