The Educated Vagabond

As I was walking to my final Visual Literacy class today, I walked by the two bums that I walk by every day. Yes, the same two who were rolling around in the dirt the other day. At 9:20 this morning, they were passing a 40 of beer and joint back and forth, and discussing the difference between college kids now and college kids when they were in college.

I was a little shocked by their topic of conversation. I never imagined that these two very dirty men, with their long greasy hair, missing teeth, and thread bare clothes, have college educations.

"Why?" is the resounding question in my mind today. Where did it all go wrong for those two? What happened between college and now that led them to this--sitting on a mound of dirt, almost invisible because of the dirty camouflage covering their skin? I thought I was past the point where things could go that horribly wrong. Now I realized that point is a figment of my imagination. There is always a chance that I, or anyone else, will end up just like the bums outside of the journalism college.

Scary, humbling, motivating.