The following essay is an updated version of an earlier one and was recently published on Linkedin.

So, a funny thing happened to me on my way to two degrees during an eight-year journey: an A.A. in English and a B.A. in English Creative Writing. I gained a ton of insight into myself and a lot of information about people and institutions. Most of it is good, some of it not so good, and some of it, who cares? From the age of sixty-six to seventy-five, in a drug- and alcohol-free state (now sober thirteen years), when you can see, literally and philosophically, that the world from 2016-2024 was altered in ways we can only begin to understand.

Within that changed world, the institutions of higher learning stand out as a platform upon which we can stand and explore and build a theoretical framework to explain what is going on. It was a way of allowing me and hopefully you some relief from going stark raving mad. There must be a reason for this period in the history of civilization (all civilizations) when time is stopping (maybe stopped in some cases). The clock of progress is being slowly (an exaggeration; quickly is a better description) pulled, pushed, shoved, kicked, yanked, and dragged backward.

I never thought I would live to see the day or years when I would wake up one morning (one of many), look at my phone, and swear that I saw the date as December 31, 1953. When I think that all those years, I thought we were moving forward through a period of enlightenment, allowing us to free ourselves of antiquated roles of gender and class and race and pushing the boundaries of what is possible on earth as it is in the heavens and committing ourselves to serve each other. At the same time, we conspired to ensure justice was done and accept that we all lost something when one of us failed. We lose a moment full of someone’s future, of the fulfillment of their potential and contribution to this nation that likes to pride itself on individual accomplishments.

What does all this have to do with college? During those eight years, I was a witness to countless students of all ages, classes, races, genders, dreams, ambitions, financial burdens, one or two unhoused (those I knew about) and those at risk of being unhoused, bearing full loads of classes while they also worked one, two, as many jobs as they could bear (when did they sleep?) and still keep up 4.0 GPAs along with being heavily involved in campus activities and some cases as community volunteers. I bow before them. Their energy, willingness to challenge and ask questions, seeking answers, not excuses, confronting the orthodoxy, and understanding what is happening and why. Like all of us Boomers did when we were their age, we need to remember that.

I’m not just talking about twenty-year-olds. I met students in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have been inspired to rethink, review, and reflect on the world as they thought it was, on the beliefs they took for granted because, well, that’s what they always believed, they were taught in their textbooks that were fifty years old and written to satisfy the close-mindedness of a couple of states. Now, they ask, what the hell were we thinking?

You read the sensational headlines about students shouting down speakers and protesting and storming the Bastille, but what you don’t read about are all those students who are challenging the status quo by studying their tushes off so they can become doctors and nurses who will go into underserved communities or the future executive directors of the nonprofits who will organize the unhoused and build housing for them and run food banks or the future public interest lawyers or the long list of careers that include teachers, artists, musicians, journalists (trust me it’s a long list) that will contribute to the progress of humanity and will not be pushed back into a dark past, a dark period when this nation was not serving all of its citizens or soon to be citizens. When America was not as great as some delusional people want you to believe. I know; I’ve lived through some of that time, and it was not as great as they would like you to believe. Blame the professors, the advisors, the staff and tutors at the resource centers, and all the people who keep a Community College or University running. They’re to blame for turning often clogged brains entering the first year of college (of any age) into critical thinking, curious, dreaming, optimistic, determined individuals who will overcome the forces of a society that is determined to hold back progress.

For many, it results in depression, a feeling of loss, a sense that moving forward is just not worth the effort, the pressures too great, and a sense of defeat lies just around the corner. This is not what they should be feeling. College should be about a transition from one stage of a person’s life to a more advanced stage of one’s life, armed with the tools to not only pursue and build a career but also bring a boatload of knowledge, wisdom, and life experiences to their own lives and the society they intend to live in for the rest of their lives.

I’m telling you, I wish I had done this some fifty-five years ago, but I didn’t, and somehow I lived. Still, I also know I lived in a box constrained by drugs and alcohol and the limited oxygen of that box that never allowed me to breathe the fresh air of an unlimited atmosphere of knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot over the years. Much of it through on-the-job experience and street wisdom. However, something was always missing. I always felt constrained by this mind being locked up in that box, even if that box grew bigger and bigger as I grew older. Studying and graduating from college has helped me free myself. I learned not to fear climbing out of that box and to stand tall upon the accomplishments of the past eight years and the sixty-six years before.

Thank you, Long Beach City College and California State University, Long Beach, for being the platform I stand on today.