as i walked home in
Already : Hatachi Archives
as i walked home in Wednesday February 27
as i walked home in the bright, snowy sunshine from physics discussion this afternoon, i passed krannert. school buses had been lined up earlier, and many times i've seen young children from first grade until seventh or so filing in and out of buses on the east side of the building, obviously coming for a field trip to observe some of the midwest's best high art. (no slander on krannert intended, of course.) the snow is wet and fresh, and as i walk i see two shuffled, wobbly parallel lines start from the sidewalk and end yet again on the sidewalk. clearly, an adventurous child, probably a boy, decided to shuffle his feet through this winter's only real snowfall and generally make a mess of his shoes, socks, and lower pant legs. he probably was directed by the teacher to rejoin the line and to get onto the bus. there he sat, in that fourth row from the back, talking to his classmates as his pants, socks, and feet remain cold and wet. eventually, it dawns on him. maybe it wasn't really worth it at the time.
i think we've all been that kid in our day, or the one who threw snowballs and got reamed for it, or the one who got hit by the snowball and cried. and as i walked past those foottracks left from earlier in the day, i wondered how life had come so far. at that age, sitting in my basement with my legos and model trains was special enough to make the whole evening a success, a motherly call to the pizzeria would have sweetened the deal further; cold and wet socks or not. truly, we had nothing to worry about except for whether or not the animaniacs or tiny toons show would be a re-run.
can i extrapolate that to today? even as i walk past in fixed gaze i can't help but think that things will just get more complex for me, too, as i grow older. i'll be forced to find a career, i'll be forced to begin paying back the people i'm borrowing tuition money from, and i might even be forced to wonder whether or not i want to have children of my own. some have said that college is one of the hardest times in your life because you're so free to do anything that you don't know what to do, but looking back being ten years old, what's more: playing with trains until dinnertime, or constantly thinking about the day, when you, too, will be an adult capable of deciding whether or not you actually want to eat those vegetables on your dinnerplate?
i guess that's rhetorical.
