by Jonathan Reed
I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in…
holy. fuck. this is beautiful.
(read it back to front on the second read through)
| — | The Little Prince |
by Tao Lin
”[…] let me go scratch my paw on a tree
let me go eat a salmon
last night i cried onto my salmon
the salmon was sad but it still wanted to live
it wanted to swim and be sad and i ate it under moonlight […]”
Electro-house remix of Daft Punk’s backlash to electro-house music which they themselves kickstarted into the mainstream
Officially accepting a graduate school offer should feel like a monumental event… or so I’m told. I’m on track to get a PhD, to publish, to teach, to be Dr. Hwang instead of Tim Hwang or even Mr. Hwang.
Yet I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a sense of regret at how things have turned out. I was told that upon reaching the final submission form, the fruits of my labor, appending my digital signature and hitting the submit button would make me feel like royalty, pressing my seal into hot wax, authenticating my identity in a manner fit for a king or some shit. It would be more apt to describe the button as the final nail in a coffin, with the tiniest sliver of light leaking in under the lid being slowly and inexorably hammered out with every pound.
Could things have been better? What if things turned out differently? Would I feel differently if instead, I had been rejected from every school and been extended offers from various companies (that weren’t shit)? Would it feel exactly the same?
I guess the grass really is greener on the other side. I would be lying if I said I hated research, if I said I truly believed that I didn’t have the curiosity it took to contribute original ideas to scientific literature. I would also be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy teaching; honestly, being a TA for the past… 2 years. wow. has been one of the most enjoyable and most rewarding experiences I’ve had as an undergraduate.
The swirling miasma of uncertainty that I (and many other graduating seniors, I’m sure) have been experiencing has led to various amounts of doom and gloom in my life. I’m kind of trying to justify straight #yolo-ing and ignoring all my responsibilities for this final week of my undergraduate career. I am determined to leave Rice with a sense of accomplishment and a confident path forward, not a should-have would-have, full of regret.
