Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The college thing
We did the college thing this weekend — drove to our nearest UC, UC Santa Barbara, so that my son could take the tour.
I suppose UCLA might have been closer, but it’s UC Los Angeles. And, well, Santa Barbara. Anyway, I was impressed by the tour, and Santa Barbara is an all-around neat town, though a lot more packed than it was the last time Karen and I visited, about 20 years ago.
Hard not to wish that I was in Jake’s shoes with college still ahead. It’s that sense of possibility I miss. Perhaps that’s a part of why I write — that same sense of possibility suffuses a new project. But I’m not so foolish as to really want to go through it all again — it was a tough climb getting from there to here. Could I do it (Rodney Dangerfield-style) as a fifty-year-old? Never mind the ridiculous face of it (I still recall this guy in his mid-forties who dated one of the co-op girls at least 25 years his junior . . . the man cheated at Monopoly, for the love of God!) Do I have the same stamina I had then?
If I were independently wealthy and hadn’t a care in the world, I think I would do it. No, there’s not much point, other than that pursuit-of-knowledge thing. Which I think would be enough.
D.
UCSB? Was this just a first taste of visiting colleges? Has he been to Cal yet? If I were going to do it again, I think I’d look at the smaller liberal arts colleges (but maybe that’s just the fantast college life that one imagines is out there). Cal was great in lots of ways, but something more traditional, further from home would probably have been pretty cool (not that my parents were going to lay out the do-ray-me for some fruity faux exclusive place in upper Vermont).
Ah, that sense of possibility! I know what you mean. As one comes closer to the end, one can feel the possibilities collapsing with every passing year. Of course, one could still make big changes, but the costs are much higher.
BTW, are you referring to stamina vis-a-vis girls at least 25 years younger than you? Or college as a whole?
We’ll be visiting UCSD, Stanford, and Berkeley. Thinking about Cal Tech, too. Jake doesn’t want to be too far from home, which excludes the East Coast schools, and he’s heat intolerant, so even Cal Tech and Stanford are a little dicey.
Stamina to work that hard, m’dear!
I have great memories of visiting colleges with my kids. Have a fun summer!