My December to Remember: Day Eight
News: Damascus overtaken by Syrian rebel fighters, driving Assad out of power and some say “freeing” Syria; Israel seizes “buffer zone” with Syria, Russia says Assad is in the country and has been offered asylum.
Trump says he’ll pardon January 6th rioters in his first day back in office.
The more I look back on the entirety of my schooling career, the more I realize just how much of a chore it felt like to me. Every morning my mom would have the toughest time getting me out of bed and ready for school. I’d make up every excuse in the book, trying to will a sudden cold or fever so I wouldn’t have to go. I just wanted to sleep in. I wanted to stay in bed until I wasn’t tired anymore. I didn’t want to be taught a bunch of stuff I wasn’t interested in, only retaining the knowledge for testing, which unfettered an entirely new set of anxiety I wasn’t prepared for either.
Once that calendar turned over to June, I knew the countdown to freedom was on. I couldn’t wait for the final day of school, knowing summer vacation was right around the corner. That meant pool trips, sleeping till whenever, hanging out with friends, late nights in field catching fireflies in jars. It was a license to have a New Jersey childhood, and I could only enjoy it when the school itself took the shackles off and let me run wild into the hot, summer season.
This freedom was only temporary, of course, as another countdown would have to happen as soon as September appeared. I couldn’t believe I’d have to spend another nine months in prison, learning things I didn’t care about all while suffering with homework. I struggled though this obligation pretty much for the entirety of my schooling. Once I got into the working world, the sentiment started winding down, as there is no summer break from the job, with the only freedoms to look forward to are manager-approved days off.
Only there’s no countdown anymore. I look forward to things I have planned and all that’s going on, but if that’s a few days away, it can wait. I have a lot to do in the interim, and the independence to set my own schedule around it. What I don’t have here is anyone granting me my sovereignty to do what I want, set my own schedule, and accomplish all I can on any given day. I’m looking at is as certain things happen in a day so more can happen on another day. It’s very scheduled and regimented, like a school should be, but my liberation doesn’t happen when someone else says it does.
I say all this because some people are treating January 20th as some sacred date when all their problems suddenly evaporate, and they’ll feel confident enough in the world again to craft their own paths in life. And because I played the game and voted Orange, I have to say that this date truly will mark a new and different day for America. But in the lead-up to it, I’m a ghost. There’s nothing pulling me toward it, nor am I desperate for the day the inauguration occurs. There’s something to do each day leading up to it, and I’m too busy getting everything done to care. Class is actually interesting enough this time around to stay focused on the next lesson.
It might actually behoove me to look forward to all this, though. Not only will I get to report on real news again, things might actually become easier for all of us to graduate to the next level on things. The legitimacy of the “mandate” they keep speaking of may actually fix things around here. And although I don’t like the concept of Man as a savior, perhaps staying open to the possibility, for all intents and purposes, might actually give us a chance for all of us to make the grade. Just a few days to go and it will be “granted.” Maybe the endless summer vacation dream will actually come true this time.
