get to know the other residents. But here, on my very first day in the dorm, I already feel like I’m part of the group. All you guys seem to have good relationships with one another. I hope you can accept me as one of you.”
“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll fit right in. There’s some weird ones among them, but basically I think they’re all right.”
“Is there very much partying going on?”
“Partying is not the word for it. Some Sunday mornings, it looks like a hurricane’s been through the lounge.” For some reason I found myself making life in the dorm sound so much funner than it actually was. “You don’t seem the type to go in for parties, though.”
“You’re right. To tell you the truth, I’ve been a little lonely ever since coming to this school. It can be a little intimidating here if you don’t have any friends.”
“I know what you mean.”
Our school was known to be highly competitive, and coming straight from high school, I’d experienced something of a culture shock. Though I’d been in the upper ten percent academically in my high school, I hadn’t been prepared for the high level of instruction given here. With its distinguished academic reputation, it had attracted the top students from all over the state, as well as from out of state. And there were many foreign students here as well, on government scholarships. The professors came from all over the world, and some of them had won Nobel Prizes. For kids just out of high school like Scott and me, it was like stepping into another world. I’d been amazed at the high intellectual level of some of my classmates, and for a long time had been afraid to open my mouth in class. Scott apparently felt the same way. Like me, he had come here expecting to carry on in the same way as high school. Used to getting straight A’s, we had to learn to be content with B’s, even C’s.
“It’s tough,” I agreed. “I’ve never studied so hard in my life, or worked so hard for my grades.”
“Yeah, me, too. But it’s worth it.”
“What’s your major, Scott?”
At this question, he seemed a little embarrassed. “Well,” he began, “One of the reasons I chose this school was because it’s one of the few which has a creative writing program.”
“So you want to be a writer.”
“I guess so. I’ve always liked to write. Ever since fifth grade, I was the one whose essays and stories the teacher read out loud to the class. My classmates probably thought I was weird because I liked to read books and write, but I was never interested in the things they liked: football, cars, school dances, et cetera. Oh, I wasn’t a pariah or anything like that, but I always did feel I was the different one, the one who didn’t fit in with the others.”
I looked at him, wondering if he was flashing a tiny secret message at me.
“What’s your major, Guy?” he asked.
“I haven’t decided yet. And I’m not exactly in a hurry to file for one, either. At this point, I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. My father keeps dropping hints about the usefulness of getting a business degree or an engineering degree. I know he wants what’s best for me and all that, but I just have no desire to follow his advice. And I feel a little guilty about it because he’s paying for most of my education here. Oh, I’ll pay him back, of course. But I hate the idea of being in debt to him.”
“I see.”
“The studies which might lead to a good job once I’m out of here don’t interest me in the least. There’s so much I want to learn about the world. That’s why I came to college—to learn things. I didn’t come here to enter some job training program.”
“I know what you mean. What’s your father’s job?”
“He’s an engineer for this company that makes instruments for airplane navigation. I think they’re also involved somehow in the space program. I don’t know.”
“Wow. Sounds real high-tech.”
“Yeah. I think I was a
“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll fit right in. There’s some weird ones among them, but basically I think they’re all right.”
“Is there very much partying going on?”
“Partying is not the word for it. Some Sunday mornings, it looks like a hurricane’s been through the lounge.” For some reason I found myself making life in the dorm sound so much funner than it actually was. “You don’t seem the type to go in for parties, though.”
“You’re right. To tell you the truth, I’ve been a little lonely ever since coming to this school. It can be a little intimidating here if you don’t have any friends.”
“I know what you mean.”
Our school was known to be highly competitive, and coming straight from high school, I’d experienced something of a culture shock. Though I’d been in the upper ten percent academically in my high school, I hadn’t been prepared for the high level of instruction given here. With its distinguished academic reputation, it had attracted the top students from all over the state, as well as from out of state. And there were many foreign students here as well, on government scholarships. The professors came from all over the world, and some of them had won Nobel Prizes. For kids just out of high school like Scott and me, it was like stepping into another world. I’d been amazed at the high intellectual level of some of my classmates, and for a long time had been afraid to open my mouth in class. Scott apparently felt the same way. Like me, he had come here expecting to carry on in the same way as high school. Used to getting straight A’s, we had to learn to be content with B’s, even C’s.
“It’s tough,” I agreed. “I’ve never studied so hard in my life, or worked so hard for my grades.”
“Yeah, me, too. But it’s worth it.”
“What’s your major, Scott?”
At this question, he seemed a little embarrassed. “Well,” he began, “One of the reasons I chose this school was because it’s one of the few which has a creative writing program.”
“So you want to be a writer.”
“I guess so. I’ve always liked to write. Ever since fifth grade, I was the one whose essays and stories the teacher read out loud to the class. My classmates probably thought I was weird because I liked to read books and write, but I was never interested in the things they liked: football, cars, school dances, et cetera. Oh, I wasn’t a pariah or anything like that, but I always did feel I was the different one, the one who didn’t fit in with the others.”
I looked at him, wondering if he was flashing a tiny secret message at me.
“What’s your major, Guy?” he asked.
“I haven’t decided yet. And I’m not exactly in a hurry to file for one, either. At this point, I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. My father keeps dropping hints about the usefulness of getting a business degree or an engineering degree. I know he wants what’s best for me and all that, but I just have no desire to follow his advice. And I feel a little guilty about it because he’s paying for most of my education here. Oh, I’ll pay him back, of course. But I hate the idea of being in debt to him.”
“I see.”
“The studies which might lead to a good job once I’m out of here don’t interest me in the least. There’s so much I want to learn about the world. That’s why I came to college—to learn things. I didn’t come here to enter some job training program.”
“I know what you mean. What’s your father’s job?”
“He’s an engineer for this company that makes instruments for airplane navigation. I think they’re also involved somehow in the space program. I don’t know.”
“Wow. Sounds real high-tech.”
“Yeah. I think I was a
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