The Less Things Change

Note, this post was originally started on 3/13/09.

Upon reflection, my departure from Champaign will be the end of an, admittedly long, era. I mean, crap. High school class of 1996. In honor of the internet, I am including an incomplete list of 5 things that have stayed the same since I started my career in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois.

Things that Haven't Changed

1. The fact that most people are behind the times. When I was starting college, it was the whole idea of the internet. I was still on AOL at that point in 1996, but soon weaned myself off of it once I hit college. Now, it's social networking sites. Apparently Facebook is the latest and greatest thing for people 24-35. Ordinarily, this means that some established corporation will overpay for Facebook, right before it comes crashing down, when teens and college kids decide that they want to do something cooler than hang out online where their parents and teachers (and professors!) hang out. Of course, with the down economy, no one may be in a position to overpay for Facebook.

2. My sleeping habits. I still take naps. I love taking naps. I also like sleeping through the morning. I've never been fond of mornings. In fact, I woke up at noon-thirty today. And today's a Thursday.

3. Segregation in higher education. I'm wondering when we're going to finally let black students into business and engineering colleges. I'm not really for or against segregation, per se. And it appears that a small foothold had been achieved by black students in relatively tangential fields where you can't make a living, such as African Studies, African-American Women's Studies, or Sociology. However, the policy of excluding black students in the fields where people can make a living is something that I'm sure that folks like Westy would push for.

4. Dorm food is bad. I'm teaching Marketing Research for the 3rd time. For the 2nd time, I have a group working on a project that looks at how you can improve the school's dining services.

5. The age of the undergrads. Sort of like Wooderson in Dazed and Confused. I keep getting older... they stay the same age. I'm not going to lie. My extended stay in college has probably stunted my growth into adulthood to the point where my expectation of people has been irrevocably altered. As far as I can tell, people should be roughly 21 years old, attractive, fun, moderately intelligent, play sports, and be borderline alcoholic. I'm sure that this won't have any negative repercussions on how I view people in the future.

I'm sure that many other things have stayed the same. And now we'll see how many things stay the same until the next major life event happens.

-Chairman