June 7, 2007

I just real­ized that writ­ing my senior sem­i­nar paper is almost entirely par­al­lel to one of the most embar­rass­ing moments of my life. Hear me out.

It was my first year of col­lege, I was hang­ing out in the hall­way out­side all of my new friend’s rooms. And some­one com­ple­mented me on my shoes. My irra­tional enthu­si­asm led to me talk­ing about how Birken­stocks are named after geo­graph­i­cal regions.

And then it hap­pened, “These are named Gizeh, wher­ever that is!?!?!”

Silence.

These were not just any friends; these were the elite, hand­picked, hon­ors stu­dents who scored 1580 on their SATs. My friend Laura said, hes­i­tantly, “The great pyra­mids of Gizeh,” emphases on the great pyra­mids, which lead to almost silenc­ing the Gizeh, as if to ring, some bell inside my soul. I think she really hoped I didn’t mean it. I felt sorry that I did. I meant it; in that god-forsaken moment, I truly had no idea where Gizeh was. All I knew was how much I loved those shoes. They brought me to a new plane of aware­ness. Enlight­en­ment even. The thought of rep­re­sen­ta­tion had never occurred to me. I had never even noticed their Egypt­ian look. Some­one mer­ci­fully changed to subject.

I later called Matthew. I think he felt bad for me too, or maybe just wished I had thought before I said it.

Ok, so here is the cast:
“Wher­ever that is?!?!”: the point behind my paper
Me: Me
Friends: Reader
Matthew: Professor

This paper/dissertation/deliberation will be pre­sented and may or may not result in my point com­ing across as me try­ing to resound within my read­ers, but they are wish­ing that I were bet­ter than I am, and my pro­fes­sor know­ing that I am bet­ter than what has been artic­u­lated in the paper.

2 Comments »

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  1. Time heals all wounds.

    Also, beau­ti­ful. Way to pop the new server cherry. If you will.

    Comment by Matthew — June 19, 2007 #

  2. I’m def­i­nitely still excited about see­ing it, the the­sis not your said “cool shoes”, although I’m pretty sure they’re not as cool as those sweet lace­less white and blue slip-on wrap-arounds that you sport. Those are aren’t sweet, they’re kick-ass!

    Comment by Jordan — June 19, 2007 #

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