Now here's a weird anniversary to observe: twenty years ago, I graduated from college.
May 1992. I graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in English that took me five years to complete. I wish I could say that I spent most of that time partying and engaging in illicit activities, but the truth is I was just an undiciplined so-so student with no idea what I wanted to do with my life upon graduation.
I remember graduation day. A gorgeous early summer morning in northeast Ohio. Walking around the campus as it slowly emptied of students. Filled with more than a little dread. I had no job lined up, certainly nothing that would lead to a career. My first job out of college was a porter at a nearby Holiday Inn. After five years in school I'd spend that summer running clean linen and pillowcases to the housekeeping staff and extra toothpaste and bathrobes to guests.
Sometimes I wonder where I'd be now if I'd taken a different path. Like a year off to just work, or a few years in the military, or Peace Corps, or whatever. I don't regret my college experience, but there's plenty of evidence that I was just going through the motions.
Who could have seen then that the things that led me to my career now, my life now, would be the things that most consumed me when I was fourteen? All those lovely summer days spent indoors pouring over issues of COMPUTE! and typing BASIC programs into an Atari 800. More summer days spent indoors learning every note of David Gilmour's guitar solos on The Final Cut. Who would I be now if I weren't such an indoor kid?
But I didn't study computers or music in college. For the people who are still making up their minds, college years are over and done before you figure out what to do with yourself.