Wrapping Up

As I'm sitting at my desk wrapping up my final projects and reports, I'm left wondering what the future holds for me.  College is nearly done, and my life is about to begin.  How did that happen!?  I still feel like a freshman or even a high schooler.  There is no way I am mature enough for the "real world."  I have held the same job for the past five years, and know nothing but that.  I'll be graduating as a history major and with a minor qualifying me as an underwater archaeologist.  Wonderful...how will I combine those into a paying job?  I have been toying with the idea that maybe I will just run and hide in the Caribbean and teach people how to scuba dive at a ritzy resort.  That would be quite the cultural submersion!  I would see people from all over the world, and experience cultures I would never dream of coming in contact with.  While that sounds like a good plan, I'm sure my family would have something to say about my escape from the real world.  I just don't see myself as a person who could hold a 9-5 job.  I don't belong at a desk, and I can't stand the manipulation and abuse of people in the business world.  I just want to enjoy life, and I don't know if that is possible holding a constant job.  As graduation looms, I think of the book "Into the Wild."  That doesn't sound too far-fetched to me anymore, but as opposed to a cold destination like Alaska, I would escape somewhere closer to the equator.  I tend to be a warm-weathered person.  I guess we will just have to wait and see where I end up, and what kind of work I will be doing.  Hopefully I won't be stuck doing some insignificant, mindless work at a desk in a cubicle somewhere.  Good luck to all graduating, and I hope the real world is good to all of us!

Culture Clash

Unfortunately I have not had an experience where two cultures have clashed like our professor.  I did however experience one of the most bizarre culture clashes a few years ago.  My former band was playing a gig in Asbury Park at the Stone Pony, and my band has a lighter, jam-band sound.  We were sandals, light jeans and t-shirts or some flannels.  Normally, I would not have thought about what I was wearing, but the opening band was of a completely opposite music culture.  Skin tight, black jeans, with even tighter shirts, spiked hair, piercings and make-up was the attire of the other band and the crowd they brought.  It was some of the loudest music I had heard, and their fans danced with such anger, that most of our fans retreated back to the bar to sit and watch from afar.  Our peaceful, hippyish friends and fans emerged to the front of the room once my band took the stage, and it was a reversal.  The crazed fans of the other band couldn't hand the light, flowing music with harmonies and happy lyrics.  I have never seen two groups of people so completely different, who have been brought together for a similar experience.  Everyone was there to support their friends, or to see a great show.  Little did we all know, that we would be sharing the venue with our exact opposites.  To this day, I still wonder who the man or woman was that thought it would be a good idea to book my band and the punk-rockers from Delaware at the same show.