If anyone told me twenty years ago that I would be attending graduate school in my late forties, and at Clemson University, I probably would have looked at them strange. Higher education is something you must be committed too, and ten or fifteen years ago, I didn’t understand that kind of commitment.
It’s taken me awhile to get here. Many ups and downs, lessons learned the hard way and so forth. The past five years, I’ve learned a lot about myself and about others. And now that I’ve finished up the first semester of grad school, I’ve learned some additional things about commitment. Graduate school isn’t easy. There’s a lot of reading, and your writing skills must be honed to perfection, especially when you need to crank out sever 25 page papers in a semester and the research that goes with it.
I also thought I had a clear picture of what I wanted to do for my thesis, but I found after writing a paper on World War I, that I’m changing from the era of the French Revolution to this time period. I watched a film called “My Boy Jack,” which was based off the story surrounding Jack Kipling, Rudyard Kipling’s son, and his death in World War I. (If you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you do.) The emotion from the film stayed with me for several days. I couldn’t shake it. It was if a million voices of the lost generation called out to me, and I found myself committed to a topic that caught not only my imagination, but my emotions. I guess that’s what fuels commitment, deep and unfathomable emotion. It’s too bad we don’t incorporate that into everyday life. Perhaps the people who are most important to us would feel better appreciated, and understand our love.
The ending to this year is bringing some changes to me. I don’t know if anyone else sees them, but I know they are there. I sense these changes, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful 2014!
Legends of Green Isle 