Once more, our hero takes up the sword of darkness...
Well, it's official. I'm back in school, and about bloody time, if you ask me. As regular visitors to this page are probably aware, it was not the best of summers for me, and I had become increasingly isolated and monkish in my habits. It has been an immense relief for me to get back amongst my peers. My dorm room is all put together now, and all is ready for an awesome year. I had my first day of classes yesterday, and I have to say that I was quite pleased by all of this. My classes are all promising to be quite interesting for me, so that is a good thing. Another thing I have missed about school is the opportunity to become once more the figure who calls into question all the values normally associated with the good life. I find that I am happiest when I play the devil's advocate. The only problem is that this is often mistaken for a sincere belief in that which is antithetical to God, or life in general. The truth of the matter is that God is one of the most important facets of a good life, in my opinion. I am a committed Christian, but I also believe that it is intellectual cowardice to shy away from the unpleasant alternatives. Thus, I like to present those and at least make a case for them. This is something I can't really do at home, as my parents really don't understand when I am adopting a position simply for the sake of debate or arguement and when I am being sincere (they are most likely to take it for sincerity, and then get worried and give me long lectures and the like). Here, however, I can be an independent agent able to operate in the manner that I feel best serves my intellectual growth. Sure, I often sound cynical and sarcastic, but the fact of the matter is that this is more for my own amusement than anything else. That is one thing I have gained over the summer: The ability to laugh at anything. On the positive side, it has helped my outlook on my own life quite a bit, and has made me much happier overall. The downside of this is that it is often mistaken for callousness or cruelty on my part. The fact of the matter is that all of the things that we stress and agonize over are in reality quite trivial in comparison to the rest of the universe, and there is very little we can do about it except to come to terms with this reality and make the most of it. Just my two cents.