Dude, Jude, Your Life Sucks
***Disclaimer: This post is going to sound less scholarly than usual due to the fact that I'm extremely out of it and whiplashed from a traffic accident earlier today. I've been lightheaded and loopy and my neighbors tell me I've been talking to myself for a few hours. That, however, is not abnormal. The other website (www.paullangdale.com) is transitioning currently to a permanent home base of operations for me. You should all check back there mid-week next week and there should be some fun stuff and hopefully some of my music!***
Where to begin...
Some girl pulled out in front of me and I got in a car accident today. Now the insurance companies have become involved and it's turning into a huge fiasco and they're trying to pin it on me. It's wasted an entire day and it's probably going to waste another few weeks and drag on. But there really is one thing that's kept me going through all of this: My life certainly doesn't suck as much as this guy's. If you haven't quite finished the reading go ahead and have a look. I think this video (relatively accurately) sums up Jude. The only difference is in the book he really actually doesn't get laid as much. It just seems like he gets the girl pregnant every time he does it. If only the Trojan man arrived on time in costume this could've all been prevented.
My college dreams started as just that - dreams. I didn't really have a view of the college experience as some all-encompassing wonderful enlightening thing. But alas, I found myself gripped with the desire for something more in life. I knew in my heart and in my condescending, narcissistic, selfish mind that I would be accepted everywhere I wanted to go. My dreams were limitless. I could apply myself, so therefore I would apply - to about 8 schools I wanted to go to. That worked, for half a second. When six of them sent me back letters that read like that in Jude: "Sir- I have read your letter with interest; and, judging from your description of yourself as a working-man, I venture to think that you will have a much better chance of success in life by remaining in your own sphere and sticking to your trade than by adopting any other course" [85]. The fateful words. The thin, tiny envelopes. That omnipresent odor of failure following you around in life. But rejection, though terrible, is not fatal.
Well, that didn't stop Jude, so it wasn't going to stop me. Of course, whereas Jude studied extremely hard and worked, I just kind of sat around and prayed. He was forced to pray at Christminister. I was just using it as a last resort. There really wasn't much else I could do at that juncture. ITT Tech looked so awesome and DeVry was starting to make Dallas County Community College look like the Harvard of the South. But I had a saving grace. At the last minute the University of Texas decided to accept me into the summer freshman program. Alas, someone actually read my essays! Well, my college experience took a blastoff after that. But for Jude, there really wasn't much he could do. No one wanted him and he was being held down mainly by:
a) psychotic women. [I don't know what I would do if a woman ever turned to me and said, "I rather like this... Outside all laws except gravitation and germination" [101]. See the image of Medusa.
b) unfair class systems.
c) an über-religious society that operates on the purely subjective moral of some great authority and not the collective moral environment of the group.
Luckily, today, we're not burdened with such great obstacles. Whereas many of us will still overcome social and personal obstacles on our way to college, we should all be thankful that we do not have to endure the great tragedy that Jude has: that of continuous societal rejection that eventually leads to him being a complete and utter failure. Depressing, isn't it?
