Why Bother?

Right now, I am sustainably happy--that is, I am continually finding myself smiling, sighing with joy, loving life, and feeling accomplished. I'm somewhat ahead on my school work...that's fleeting, but a fun fact nonetheless. I'm making real friends, and establishing real relationships with professors and staff here at Hampshire. I'm contributing to class discussions, and not afraid to voice my opinion. In all these complex classes I'm taking, I'm not only learning how to understand their deep ontological meanings, but also my own; I'm finally starting to understand myself, and how I fit into the world that I'm learning about.

Great. I'm in a bubble of free-thinking isolation. I'm happy...but mostly because I haven't really ventured outside it much. We had this huge celebration when Obama was elected, and it seemed a little appropriate. Someone described it, pretty accurately, the next day in the dining hall: "It was like having cancer for a really long time, and finding out that a new treatment might kind of be working." Well, we really need to start that treatment, because the world outside Hampshire is having some hideous side effects to whatever it's on now. 

The economy! Good God, we acknowledged the problems two months ago here and moved on, but they sure as hell exist, and are only getting worse. My parents are college educated, hard working people. They are both at risk of losing their jobs, because their companies aren't receiving enough profit to pay their employees. What will happen in four years? Growing up, a college education meant a guaranteed paying job after graduation, and only those without an education risked working minimum wage. My parents, a lot of people's parents, a lot of PEOPLE in the work force are college educated and beyond. And they are losing their jobs. I'm happy now, but I gotta ask--if I'm no longer promised a career for an education, why bother?

Ohh, to make this about knitting, yes--I am knitting a LOVELY pair of socks (Slippery from Knitty, Winter 2007) with some delectable yarn that I have been dying to knit up since before I was even accepted to Hampshire College. I am knitting them in class, and people oggle. I love them. I might actually finish them, too.

Also, many, many hats...but more on that later.