Blogging at completely inappropriate times seems to be my specialty lately. It's always when I am doing something completely unrelated that my thoughts decide to take a field trip and explore a topic lodged in the crevices of my mind. Today, I was walking to the book store and contemplating the overwhelming amount of things that I need to do today (and every day) when my brain skipped a beat and my Grandpa Jack came into play.
Jack I've always imagined as an academic sort of man: someone I could easily see as being a Professor if he had the opportunity. He enjoyed contemplating life and making up his own philosophies about how it was best lived. At the same time, exploring multiple subjects of interest (engineering in cars, reading the daily news, being an English scholar) was also one of his favorite hobbies. I was only two when he passed away, and yet often I feel like I can sense myself mimicking his ways, consciously or not. I too am a person interested in many subjects: English, Politics, Economics, Philosophy, Theater-pretty much anything but Math and Chemistry interest me to some extent. It is this ever prevalent hunger for knowledge which pushes me forward, and pulls me back at the same time.
Did you have these problems, Jack? Did you want to know everything, but you knew that you didn't have time to take it all in? Did you ever get frustrated when you couldn't do everything your mind was pushing you to do? I guess it all goes along with the saying "Everyone's best at something, but no one's best at everything".
Sometimes, it drives me crazy that I sign myself up for all of these different activities and classes, even when I know there is little time to spare as it is. But I cannot justify not doing everything in my power to absorb the abundant knowledge that is present and waiting for me in college. When else am I going to get the chance to learn about these things? Let's face it, after college is over, my opportunity window will be drastically narrowed, leaving only a minute space for freedom. So cramming all of these experiences into these four years is what I feel like I am here to do.
It sort of amuses me when I can picture Jack watching me from wherever he is, smiling in fond reminiscence as he remembers when he was at this stage in his own life. I can vividly imagine his experience being quite the same as mine. Can you hear me, Jack? What is it that you are trying to tell me, interrupting my thoughts on this busy Tuesday afternoon?
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