-Albert Einstein
What I like most about this quote is the fact that it correlates to one of my favorite books: Technopoly by Neil Postman. I had to read this back in eleventh grade, alongside 1984 by George Orwell. It's not my favorite book because it's exciting or dramatic, because, in all truth, it can be a very boring book if you're not reading with the right mentality. It still became a favorite though because if its subject matter: it's about how our societies are slowly giving up control over their own culture and instead relying on machines and computers and technology. Now, I'm an Internet addict as much as any other person my age, but between deciding what's right for myself or letting a computer decide, I think I'll stick to my head. I might have some screws loose and some more missing, but I trust myself more than the impending rise of computers.
Anyway, I'll stop waxing philosophical for a bit. I was out today, as usual, and when I made my last stop at Subway before heading home, who should I find but an old classmate of mine from middle school. As I'd said in another entry, I have fond memories of high school, and I still think it contributed to helping me turn away from the dark path I'd been walking on. It wasn't the sole reason, mind you, because to change as a person, you yourself must want to change, and at some point in tenth grade, I'd met my best friends, saw that they were normal people and that I wanted to be somewhat like that too. Middle school, by comparison, screwed me up for life, and it's one period of my life that I don't look back on very fondly. A quite personal event sometime before that kinda started everything, but it still sucked.
This classmate of mine, though, was one of the few people I knew could genuinely be nice to me and not abuse me or step all over me. It felt weird seeing her after so much time. Last time was the prom actually. I could tell that not only I had changed, but so had she. Apparently she's engaged, but it's going to be a long engagement till she and her fiance both finish college, which is nice to hear. It was still startling to see how much we'd both changed. Funny thing with me is that I don't really notice how much I change, because I tend to act the same on the outside.
But what was more startling was how after talking to this girl again, I feel that I can finally let go of my time in middle school. I'll still hate it, and I'll still wish it had never happened, but I can just let go of it now. If anyone were to ask me, rather than shrug, I'll say it straight out: middle school sucked for a lot of reasons, but I'm still alive and I managed to survive, and I managed to become a better person than I was. Besides, I don't entirely regret it, because if I were to wish for that time to change and for it to have never happened, then I wouldn't be who I am today, for better or worse.
And now, in honor of Superman Returns, a lovely comic from the guys at Penny Arcade.
I'm reminded of the guy from that show American Dad, I seriously am.
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