Ryan S

Into the Great Wide Open or Last dance with Marry Jane

Hello Everybody,

As the sun sets on my undergraduate education, I have yet to determine what my plans will be post-graduation. After declining a job offer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I'm still waiting for the next one to come down the line.

It has been four years since the combatrhino crew was operating at full capacity, being at that time a large portion of the gossip in the Westside IMCs outside of Brandon Fleaharty's world history video. As the world sucks you into our respective cubicles, there's one thing that you just can't give up--your individuality. In the past year, my desire to be a better engineer has sucked away certainly a lot of time and also a lot of individuality which I've prided myself on in the past. Sure, I feel like an individual in the Cartesian sense, but blending into the background noise of the world is something I fear may be happening at least for a few years to come.

So what do we do to avoid this induction into the comtemporary Matrix? I think the answer is clear to a lot of people. Don't fight it. Just live your life, indulge in the simple pleasures of life and forget about eminence. But how is this satisfying? In your own mind, you cherish those memories that linger no matter what the situation brings. How then, can one be happy being a forgotten memory in the mind of the world?

If you can't be happy with that, then the simple answer is fight, fight, fight. Keep trying and trying until something catches, and then try some more. Jimmy Cliff famously sang "You can get it if you really want, but you must try, try and try, try and try...". Perhaps for the rhythm of the song, Mr. Cliff left out the infinite intricacies that are involved in his profession of possible victory through hard work, but his message remains both as an opportunistic and cautionary one. So if you want it, you must try, try and try, try and try.....

...You succeed at last.