Washington Square Park in the Summer

It's become a lot more relaxed walking to work since NYU got out. I think they must have had their JD and PhD graduations in the last few days, since I've been seeing more people walking around dressed up and wearing the weird octagonal cap on their heads They are headed for better things, I hope, sicne they or someone they know has been paying for them to receive their education at NYU or New School or any of those. I'm jealous too, jealous that I didn't think of it sooner, jealous that I thought i would really make it up here with a couple of bachelor's. So now my goals have changed. I don't just want a master's but a doctorate. I want to head to the top of the educational pendulum and swing from it like a monkey on a vine. Who knows if that would benefit me monetarily? I think the important thing is that it would truly make me happy, and in the long run isn't that what we all want?

I've tried for too long to put all my eggs into one basket. To count on certain things happening that I shouldnt' have been. And in realizing that, I'm trying to pull away from it and move into situations where I'll be able to better myself without worrying about others' approval. It was important for me to continue on and I'm doing it. It's a hard decision to apply to grad school this early. I know they're some people who go straight from undergrad, but I always feel like those people are the ones who are afraid to face up to the real world or else they are those crazy people who try and do it all before they're legal to rent a car.

My friend R and I were eating dinner last night, and she was telling me about seeing a friend graduate from UVA last week. She said that they were there and then this really gangly boy walks across the stage to receive either a master's or a doctorate. Who cares? you say. I say you'd better since he was only SIXTEEN years old and already holding an advanced degree in his hand. I wonder what his college experience was like. I can't imagine it was fun. He was probably too young to live in dorms, since he must have started college at 10 or 11, he woudlnt' have been able to date (hello, statutory) and I can't comprehend telling someone "I'd love to go out but have to get permission from my mom" in college. That seemed almost eerie to me. Here I am, almost twenty-four and trying to figure out my life, and he's laready got an advanced degree. He could teach college students. It seems very Doogie Howser, MD to me.

But what does that have to do with Washington Square Park in the summer?