Court Quotes, Volume I, Issue 2 - The Dream Crusher
Municipal Court. Judge is questioning a young man while the parents look sternly on.
J: Are you in school now?
YM: No.
[Young man wipes his nose with his jacket sleeve behind the unwashed curtain of his long, stringy hair.]
J: What are you doing now?
YM: Hanging out.
J: What do you want to do in the future? I mean, what's your plan for the future?
YM: To be an architectural engineer.
[Parents straighten their backs and put tight little smiles of repressed pride on their faces. Young man looks around the room with a cynical smirk and hooks a finger in his belt loop to hike up his drooping pants.]
J: That's gonna require a whole lot more school. At least four years of college so . . .
[Judge raises his eyebrows and lets the question hang there for a few seconds.]
YM: Yeah.
J: How much schooling do you have?
YM: 11th grade.
J: But you want to be an architectural engineer?
YM: Yes.
J: So why did you stop?
YM: Kicked me out.
Dad: We want to get him into job service or the military. And to get him off the marijuana.
The judge then gave him the typical writing assignment. Maybe a research assignment about the evils of drug use or something.
The whole thing leaves me unsatisfied. The parents seem a bit out to lunch and the kid's fantasy life is clearly out of control.
On a happier note: look what Scott brought home for me:
Dim sum! Is he not the dreamiest? Love you baby. :)
4 comments:
Dim sum, Yum! OH now I'm going to be craving it for days...
Is that what it is? Ooh!
Bring some up here!
The military? Light those parents a bowl, please. Sounds like they need more help than their son. How depressing.
But the dim sum looks great! What a sweetie!
"...The whole thing leaves me unsatisfied. The parents seem a bit out to lunch and the kid's fantasy life is clearly out of control."
My parents were out to lunch and I was out to dinner. I wanted to be a physicist but it takes math, higher math and highest math. After too many years, when I finally finished Calculus, I began to have an inkling about what high school math really meant. When I finished Differential Equations, I started to understand Calculus, But then I could go no higher in my understanding. In and out of school over many more years, I finally graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. But I had crammed for tests and taken courses in different schools over many non-continuous years. Faked my way through. Consequently I knew nothing. My diploma is worth a penny more than the young man's dream, but he is young and I'm not.
Free-verse Poetry
Post a Comment