Bright eyed, slightly scruffy in pajama pants, ragged jeans and flip flops, no concept of the juggernaut that lies before them, standing near mommy or daddy or grandma or grandpa as the speaker presents. Oh the joys of the college orientation experiance. Some of the faces area little worn, the parents knowing the pain of forking over 14K to get little Susy or Timmy in school. Oh how they pray that they wo't join the stoners who sit near the courtyard in hemp fabric with loads of beads or join up with the Aryan Nation (a vile group yet protected under the joyous armor of Free Speach). The students themselves just listen intently, the nervousness in the air heavy in the room. However, in one...perhaps two....maybe even three...there is a calm look. that glint of escape from some boring existance or those with knowledge of what is coming and how to deal with that which looms before them.
These are the few who greet the real world, knowing that the sunshine and roses are not here anymore. The world of highschool and all of it's protective film and glossy, "can't be touched" mentalities are now in a foreign place. They are strangers in a strange land, some are anyway. They are now in a place where their status they had before has been ground into the dirt. I saw those few who had never been expected to succeed in life by their peers now cut loose in a place where they could florish. They know how to survive here, I know because I am one of them..dressed in plain clothes with that hunger to make myself something gleaming in me. The jocks who came to play football were there with wide eyes. Their homefields of dirt, and grass now met the giant lights and astroturf of a stadium built to hold tens of thousands. Those that came here from priviledge...with a horde of money to power their way...they were an interesting lot. Some had that same cold look we outcast survivors had, hungry to make themselves into something. A large number had a dazed, almost hazy look in their eye. they did not care of what was happening, their life having been spoonfed to them being something easy to read on their faces. There were a few in the crowd who looked at others in surprise. you could tell they had not been far beyond the walls of their hometowns. I smiled at one of them, this tall bright eyed girl. So full of promise these few hold..the altruistic ones they are. Amongst them were the rabble...the guys and girls who had goten here simply because of a policy of diversity. No ambition was in their eyes...they personified the crude stereotypes others of noble standing spilt blood trying to wipe away. It made part of me sad to see that, to see the possibility of this monster of an opportunity wasted on those who looked like they would not try.
The odd thing and the thing made me chuckle was that we all had something in common. We where the transfer students, the freshmen transfer students. We were the remaining few that were given the keys to the castle, after all the new pages and maidens had been shown about the keep. You would have thought that many of their looks would have dulled or had grown used to what they were experiancing. Another lesson that teaches not assume lies in the transfer student orientation. As much as think they would be used to it...chances are slim that your actually right.
The coming weeks should prove to be a most interesting time.
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