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If it is indeed true that time flies when you're
having fun,
then Salida must be one of the most
entertaining spots on earth.
Perhaps a fortnight ago, it seems, Andy Kahan and I
stood outside the playground fence during kindergarten
round-up week.
Both our eldest daughters were starting
school the next fall, and as Andy and I watched the
five-year-olds explore the swings and slides, we chatted
about how old we felt to have kids in school.
Of course we're not any older now, but Columbine Quillen, Tawni Kahan and 86 other members of the SHS class of '93 got their diplomas Friday night, and they can't be any happier about it than their parents are.
When you've got a senior, you've also got at least a month of assemblies, presentations, ceremonies, meetings, concerts. If I ever gave a high-school commencement speech, I'd urge the graduates to devote a year to goofing off before attending college or starting a career and ending up in a life of assemblies, presentations, etc.
The military offers that -- it makes demands, certainly, but you get to travel, and somebody else worries about food, clothing, shelter, medical care and the like. You get to explore the world without wondering whether changing majors will make you lose half a dozen expensive semester-hours of credit, thereby costing you a recommendation that might have gotten you into a better graduate school.
There are many other means of vagabondage, but kids now face a much harder world than we did 25 years ago. Back then, rent was $60 a month (all utilities included; $15 damage deposit) for a dump on Capitol Hill. A dead-end laundry job paid $1.40 an hour, so a week's pay pretty well covered the rent, and you could try life in the big city for a while.
Now you're lucky to find a $5-an-hour job if you're just out of high school, and those same apartments, now somewhat gentrified, are $450 a month, or two weeks' pay. How does anybody manage to avoid putting down roots for a while?
Among the many reasons Martha and I are proud of
Columbine is that she's found a way to manage what the
Germans call a wanderjahr.
Come August, she goes to Saudharkrokur, Iceland, for a
year as Rotary International Exchange student. Her host
family will make sure she's fed and sheltered while she
goes from a little mountain town to a little fishing town
near the Arctic Circle. Her grades at Saudharkrokur College
won't be all that important. It's a year of goofing
off
while learning things that no college can teach,
and we're glad Rotary provided this opportunity.
But how on earth can she be perusing Air Iceland
schedules and studying Icelandic for Beginners
when
just last week, she was worried about getting lost on her
way to kindergarten?
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