Some West Wing Enlightenment

The West Wing is one of my favorite shows of all time. I was watching it on Bravo the other day and part of the episode really caught my ear. In it, the character Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), the Deputy Chief of Staff, is doing research to get some more funding for NASA and he's trying to come up with some sort of heartwarming story to drum up public support. Then he starts reading about Voyager 1...

"Voyager, in case it's ever encountered by extra-terrestrials is carrying photos of life on Earth, greetings in 55 languages and a collection of music from Gregorian chants to Chuck Berry. Including "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" by '20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, whose stepmother blinded him when he was seven by throwing lye in is his eyes after his father had beat her for being with another man. He died, penniless, of pneumonia after sleeping bundled in wet newspapers in the ruins of his house that burned down. But his music just left the solar system."

This was just one of those "wow" moments that make you stop and think for a few minutes. I don't know why, but this concept seems to epitomize the reason I want to be an aerospace engineer. I just really liked this part of the show I guess, thus I'm sharing it with you.

My First Bill

The response e-mail I recieved was short and to the point:

"** Please do not respond to this automated message. **

If you have questions regarding this email or your account,

please log into your online account atwww.SallieMae.com.

This email serves as confirmation of your online payment.

You can monitor the status of your payment online.

We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

Customer Service

Sallie Mae"

However it might as well have said, "WELCOME TO THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!", because this now-monthly student loan interest payment was the first in a long line of bills I'll be paying for the rest of my life. Under the assumption that the payments on my sophomore year's student loans would be deferred until after graduaton like last year's, I applied for a new type of loan from Sallie Mae and in one click more than doubled the amount I owe to that company. Soon enough I discovered that this type of loan requires me to make monthly interest payments to the tune of around $40. Inititially dismayed, I soon took the optimist's approach and convinced myself that although its an inconvenience now, it would probably save me thousands of dollars in the long run.

But the fact remains: it's $40 a month and I'm a college student.

I thought about this whole situation and I guess its one of those various "turning points" we have in our lives, though I never considered it as such before. If you'd asked me a month ago I would have said learning to walk is a turning point, your first job is one, so is high school graduation, and your first kid too. It wasn't until I checked my "Payments Due" tab on my loan account that I thought, "Whoa, I start this and things will never go back to the way they were." Unless I run away to the Canadian wilderness that is, which may become an option with the state our economy is in.

Nonetheless, before I finally clicked "Submit Payment" today, I had a slight urge to wait, as if I was subconciously trying to preserve as much of my childhood as I could, though as many people who've graduated college and gone on to have get jobs and buy houses and whatnot have told me, this is akin to bailing water from the Titanic. I value my teenage (and often childish) freedom. I've resolved to try to retain it as long as I can because I know it'll be one of the aspects of my life I will miss the most when its gone. I don't think I'm alone in this. My generation as a whole seems to want to stay young and free longer. I guess this stems from not having to work at a factory when you're 12 or having to raise brothers and sisters yourself because Mom and Dad work all day every day. It's as if each generation stays younger and younger as they get older and older. Now, I'm not suggesting that the youth stays irresponsible as we age, but it just seems to me that there's less, "You're a 40 year-old man, now act like one" mentality in today's society.

I honestly hope this idea of staying "young" sticks around because I intend to take full advantage of it.