about this time every year, high schools accross the country celebrate graduation, the emerging of a student into a new world, filled with new wonders and responsibilities, exploring new life and new civilizations, as they boldly go into a region of space known as "adulthood."
from here, it is socially acceptable, and prompted, for said students to continue thier education in college. the ones who do must either be rich, or lucky enough to get at least one scholarship, if not many to just barely make ends meet.
as one of these non-rich aspiring college students, i filled out application after application, poured out my heart and soul in the cheesiest forms imaginable, as is acceptable to whatever board looks them over and makes the final descisions, decides my fate.
then i held my breath for a year, until the year-end "awards banquet," where all the scholarships are presented to their recipients. such a stuffy event. bad food. crowded. starchy people. too many balding, upper-middle-class twits for my taste. besides that, my body was having an adverse effect to the wheather, which meant i was hoarding the table-mints to settle my stomach.
i understand that my high school was an oasis of equality compared to others in the country, not at all like the idiotic shows on tv ("seceret life of the american teenager" at the top of the list of idiocy), and that this is a small town, where every local establishment has a family name on the sign. quaint place, really, if a little redneck and really sexually repressed.
BUT ALL THOSE STUPID SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS WERE RIGGED!!!!!
yeah, sure, the kids that got them worked hard, were immersed in their community, and behaved like perfect angels when people were watching, but the same ten kids, out of a much bigger class, soaked them ALL up. yes, they were good athletes, or really smart, or (most often) related to the right people. but that little part in the "requirements" paragraph about "financial need" -- i'll say it again: FINANCIAL NEED -- must've been an old addition that had not yet been removed, because most of the final ten were RICH kids, that wouldn't NEED a scholarship to put themselves through HARVARD!! and here I am, going to a community college, practically begging for spare change just to get CLASSES, no idea how i'm going to pay for gas to GET there and back, and here's miss preppy-pants, and mister sportsmaster, neither deigning to drive a car old enough to be potty trained, and having uncles, grandparents, family friends (all on the scholarship committe, of course) THRUSTING even MORE money at them as a barely-inconspicuous "favor," (no prep got less than ten of their own scholarships) so if they weren't ALREADY set for life, they certainly are NOW!
and even worse than the pity i felt for myself, was that for the other ninety-percent graduating class that got zilch, just like me, that were just as, if not more quallified as the rich kids that got noticed. one boy, probably the smartest, most quirky, most shy guy i know, who's had a suckish childhood, and had been forced to grow up faster than any kid should, when his name was called at the very end in the Looser Lineup (also the only place mine was), was not only offered no scholarship, his only legacy was that, despite all the crap he'd had to deal with in his entire life, he'd gotten the 4-year perfect attendance award. that's it. a slip of liney printer-paper with a cheesey clip art version of the school mascot on it, and his picture in the paper. that's not going to help his situation in the least. no money, no references, nothing.
jack squat.
and so, in conclusion, i would like to say that it was because of the personal injustice done to me (i'm self-absorbed, as you already know if you had read previous enteries) that spurred this descision. but it's not. it's because of the great injustice done to that boy. while i grew up with him, i didn't know him too well. i wish i had. but i know enough about him to know that he is now el-screwed-o. no college for him. he wouldn't be able to afford it. he'll have to skip straight to the work-force just to make ends meet. his entire future is ruined because some old men with checkbooks chose favorites without really consulting the details.
it is because of him that i have decided that, in four to six years (when i gratuate college with the help of my chorus half-ride), i'm going to return to my hometown every year, around graduation time, and present the Jack Squat Schollarship after the awards banquet, to the student who desserves the most, and recieved the shaft. it will be a numerically-based system (using numbers instead of names) so that it would be impossible to "pick favorites" outside of the presented application perameters. i shall save up money all throughout college, ask for donations, and start a foundation in the end, so i can do more good than the small-town favoritizers have done to that poor boy in my graduating class.
this is my way of fighting the establishment where it really matters. i could protest, or i could fight fire with fire, money with money, and maybe i can strike a chord with the financial world, get on the news and make them all look bad in a way that forward-thinking students will boycot donating to the foundations that support favoritizers. maybe, in the end, i can change the way scholarships are won: with character, rather than person.
wouldn't you donate?
It seems like if you want to go anywhere as a student, you have to be a stuck up, snobby, brat! 3 quaters of those people get good grades for 1 reason. THEY CHEAT! But do the teachers care? Well absolutly not!!!! If one of us cheated though, we'd be getting punished up the waz000! But dont give up Franki, your hard work will get you somewhere one day! And when all those Preps actully have to WORK for something, there gonna get a reality call!
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