Transitions, part 2

This is one of the reasons that I moved away from the D.C. metro area in January of 2004. If Washington wouldn't listen to me from 30 miles away, it could not listen to me from 600 miles away in Murfreesboro, TN as well. The real reason that I left northern Virginia though is because that area is overcrowded, too high-paced and required driving too much. I made approximately $37000 in my last year with Old Navy before moving and didn't have much left over after living and auto expenses. My move to Tennessee was predicated by several visits to see my brother. I liked the people that I met, the fact that we mostly walked where we went and most of all, I love the thunder storms here. They are wonderful!

After a year of working at a book factory in Middle Tennessee and driving an hour round-trip every day, I decided that it was time for me to return to college. This past stint was my third time returning to the university setting and I was eager to learn in a structured environment again. I quit my job, almost a year to the day after accepting it, dropped the car, bought a bike and a laptop. I haven't looked back since, except to drop out of school yet again this fall.

In the year that I worked at the book factory, I read a ton of books, about 50. I studied some economics, political science, history and wound down with some nice fiction like Frank Herbert's Dune series. I listened to NPR every day of the week and subscribed to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to keep up with current affairs. I still love NPR but I listen to the news much less these days. By the time that I returned to college at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), I thought that I knew the basics of every field of study that was important to me. I was pretty much right. Intro classes to economics, political science and history bored the heck out of me, but I stuck with it. For example, in my macro economics class, I attended about 8 times the whole semester. I had the blessing of my professor because I aced the first test. I also aced the class. The subsequent semesters were less tiresome and more challenging.

Earlier, I mentioned Dr. Franklin. I first met him in American Government and Politics. I wasn't looking forward to this class, but Dr. Franklin has a fresh way of teaching his courses. He brought in many articles specific to what we were learning and made the material relevant to current events. The class was more informative than I would have expected and quite enjoyable. That and I got a B! I left the class looking forward to another opportunity to learn with Dr. Franklin. That opportunity came in the fall of 2006 and a class called Special topics in Political Science: A Survey of Social Movements.

By this time, I had gone from an Economics major to Political Science. Not the first change of major that I had made and certainly not the last. This survey class took us through the major and minor social movements of the world in the past century to today. We studied movements, violent and non-violent; large-scale and small. They took place in Venezuela, the United States, China, Northern Africa and more. Through this class I learned that social change is possible, challenging and dangerous depending upon the nature of your government. I learned that there really is something called 'people power' and that it could take down racist institutions and fight back against oppressive governments. Through this class I learned that I could have a positive effect upon my country without being a politician or one of the rich and powerful. Co-incidentally, the following semester, spring 2007, was when I became involved in the YCAC; an organization that gave me a whole picture of the power of community and the average person. People power!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE IN THE
NOT-SO-EXCITING SAGA
OF THE DROP-OUT
WHO NEVER STOPS LEARING