My Severed Reality

As most of you know, I've been in Florida for the last year-ish, going to Florida Tech. I've met a lot of really amazing people, and learned a great deal about myself. I also learned a great deal about how fucked up our "education" system is, notably past high school. To make a very long story short, I've grown to hate the school I attended, not for the people, not for the education, but for the way they run the "institute".

I suppose I should have seen it coming, really.

To illustrate the way this school is run, I'm going to present two cases, both completely true, but with names removed for privacy.

Student A is a high-GPA student with a peaceful demeanor and the seeming incapability to intentionally bring harm to anyone or anything. After one of his scholarships failed to renew, due to circumstances outside his control, he was put $3,000 in debt to the school. The school kicked him out with two weeks remaining in the semester, and banned him from the school grounds, stating that any attempt to return would result in an arrest being made.

Student B is, quite literally, a 0.0 GPA student. He attended few classes his first semester, and even fewer his second. He was caught selling weed to an undercover, and his dorm was raided. Finding large amounts of weed in his room, the police arrested him and a judge set his bail at $160,000. His mom promptly flew here, bailed him out, bought him an apartment off-campus, and is now fighting the arrest. The school, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he has no interest in a higher education, has allowed him to finish this semester and continue his tenure next semester as well, so long as he is only on campus for classes.

The person who wanted, needed, and deserved an education is being deprived of one, where the one who can pay for the schooling in full (despite showing no interest in it whatsoever) is wasting it. I can't believe that this is what the world has come to- the Almighty Currency. Never has this glaring fact been so apparent to me. I've known it for a long time, but I never imagined it spread as far and as densely as it has.

Right now, the school is becoming so overwhelmingly costly that my parents can't afford the interest on my loans for my first year. It's that bad. My merit scholarship is up for review, and without that the bulk of my financial aid is gone. Essentially, if my merit scholarship doesn't renew, I can't go back. If I can't find $18,000 in scholarships in the next three months, I can't go back. If any part of a delicate situation slips, falls through, breaks, whatever- I can't go back.

The problem is, I'm not sure I want to go back. The school has driven off many of the people that I care about, mostly for money. My best friend at the school is leaving because she hates how much like a high school the place is. A lot of the people there seem to be a soulless fucking shell of a human being, following blindly their high school habits and becoming the pathetic "Animal House" stereotype. The genuine people, the ones that wanted a quality education, the ones with personalities beyond "get laid, party 'til you puke, and do it all over again tomorrow" are leaving. And why?

The Almighty Currency.

This should be the part where I talk about how we could improve the system, or boycott it, or rally against it, or fight for reform, or something else. I'm not so self-absorbed to think that I can make a difference on the scale I want to, so I'm not even going to bother.

So to you, my FIT friends, I will miss all of you, but I'm not coming back next semester, or ever. I doubt I'll ever set foot in Melbourne again if I don't have to. To my closest friend from FIT (you know who you are), I will miss you more than words can describe. It's been an honor to know you all, but I can't foresee a means of me coming back to that hellhole. I can't bring myself to do it.

4/20 Hypocrisy

[Unedited]

Right. So, today, as most anyone with a high school education knows, is the unofficial stoner holiday, 4/20. I'm not gonna get into my own use, nor will I talk about how it should be legalized. Pardon the pun, but those are arguments with no need of re-hashing. No, I'd rather like to rant about how fucking annoying people are about this day.

So, let's get started with the obvious- there are going to be people out there who do not want to smoke marijuana. That's a given with most anything- vegans, the "straightedge" movement, and people who refuse to shop at Wal-Mart are all pretty common examples. It's not for everyone. Again, that should be painfully obvious- despite the all-too-common argument against decriminalization, everyone in the world isn't going to blaze before work or take a bong rip before walking down the aisle if weed is legalized. There will always be people who, for whatever reason, do not like marijuana.

There. That's taken care of. Now, down to business.

I've noticed that, in the days leading up to (and including) April 20th, more 4/20 related statuses have been popping up on Facebook, tweets about it are rampant, and bloggers/news outlets are jumping on the pot hype. The annoyance isn't with dissenters; I'm comfortable with people standing up and saying "No, I don't really want to smoke. It's not my thing." My problem is when every other update on Facebook is "______ liked "I Will Not Be Smoking Pot On April 20th - 4/20" or "________ all this 420 shiiiat is super annoying. please refrain from talking about how much weed you're smoking today, no one carrreeees."

I get it. You don't think smoking weed is cool. Fine. But when, out of my 222 friends, exactly one stoner posted, where at least 15 non-smokers did things like what I mentioned above, I feel a bit of hypocrisy. The lone smoker posted, early in the day, this exact message: "happy 420 everyone be safe and don't let PD get you".

Happy 420. Be safe. Don't do something stupid and get caught. That's his entire message. Nothing about how much weed he was going to smoke, nothing about the parties going on, nothing about legalization. He was presented with a current reality- one where smokers are persecuted and prosecuted-, and reminded fellow smokers to be careful, and to not attract unnecessary attention. THAT'S FUCKING IT.

Everyone else that popped up in my News Feed was talking about how they'll never smoke marijuana, how 4/20 is a bullshit holiday, how stoners are worthless jobless lowlifes, etc. Right. I could list off the countless list of celebrities, businessmen, and so forth that smoke, but that too has been overdone. Everyone knows Steve Jobs and Bill Gates smoked. They just refuse to accept that, in time, marijuana will overcome the negative stigma it has accrued from political agendas and corporate lobbying and be legalized.

Until then, it appears that every self-righteous asshole with an opinion is going to loudly proclaim how proud they are about not smoking and judging those of us who do. To you, the judgmental asshats for which this post was written, I should kindly ask you to refrain from bashing those who live a different lifestyle than you, when no harm befalls anyone directly because of their lifestyle. I would, but I know you will simply leave flame-bait comments or try to argue things I've specifically said are not the topic of this note.

So, instead, I will kindly tell all of you to SHUT THE FUCK UP. I don't go around screaming about how I'm Atheist on Christmas and Easter, so do me a favor and stop being so fucking self-absorbed for a second and let us have our day.

Peace, in whatever form it may find you in.

-Andrew