Introducing the passion of the Old School

By: Sanjai Tripathi

Posted: 1/14/09

They lurk in many undergraduate classrooms.

Usually they sit near the front, furiously taking notes and frequently stopping lectures to ask irritatingly earnest questions.

Their clothes are terrible.

Among a sea of supple, young undergraduates, their weathered skin and graying hair creates a sharp contrast.

"They" are the older than the average college student, and are what I like to call the "Old School."

And I am one of them.

We are out of place in the undergraduate classroom, like the rough among diamonds. If you are in the 18-23 age range, you may pity us or disdain us as outsiders, but I contend you should take note. As freakish as we seem to you, you could learn something very profound from us.

For one thing, we've seen more of the world. It is cliche, but true: young people are far less knowledgeable and wise than they think they are, we experienced people know things that you do not.

We've seen what happens when the world turns.

When I was young, we didn't have Google to answer our every question because we didn't have search engines, because we didn't have the Internet, because we didn't have computers.

We used typewriters or we just wrote stuff by hand. Do you know what it feels like to write a 10-page, single-spaced paper by hand?

There was no spell check, so you just had to know how to spell stuff. What happened if you made a mistake writing in pen, you may ask? Well, there was this stuff called "white-out" that you would slather onto the page.

And if you wanted to "cut and paste," you needed scissors and glue, baby.

I remember when it was cool to drink and drive and when everybody smoked cigarettes. Not only could you smoke inside offices and restaurants, you could also smoke inside airplanes. Think about that for a second.

Now we have problems with Nigerian e-mail scams and financial scandals, but back in the day, we just had crime. There were three times as many rapes and murders in the 80s as there are now.

Back then, being racist used to just be a personality quirk, and the need to end apartheid in South Africa was a debatable notion.

I have a recollection of Ollie North's amnesia, the birth of hip-hop, the threat of the Japanese taking over the world economy and Christina Applegate as a bottle-blond bit of teenage jailbait in the show "Married With Children," on the brand-new Fox Network.

I remember Mikhail Gorbachev's birthmark. We used to have this thing called the Cold War against this place called the Soviet Union. It nearly destroyed the world. Perhaps you've read about it.

I saw it end when David Hasselhoff tore the Berlin Wall down.

I remember when Michael Jordan flew through the air, and Michael Jackson became the first man to walk on the moon.

Like most of those from older people, my reminisces are probably vague, gratuitous and boring to the young. But that doesn't take away from the point; we Old School have seen things, and you can learn from our experience.

Aside from the often esoteric facts of history, one major lesson we can impart is an appreciation of how quickly life happens. You're just puttering along, enjoying the promise of your early 20s and marveling at your own recently matured lithe, attractive body and the infinite possibility of life.

Then you blink, and all of a sudden it hits. Time is like a thousand rapid cuts.

While you once had a svelte, defined chin and smooth torso, there appears these hideous things called "waddles" and "pooches."

You'll discover what "dyspepsia" means. Hair disappears from the places you want to have it and appears in places you'd never imagine it could grow.

Regular actions that once came easily, like getting in and out of a chair, become ordeals that generate involuntary groans every time you attempt them.

As your previously vigorous and beautiful body disintegrates around you, the shocking realization strikes: I'm going to die someday.

Now, of course, even young people know what death is. You are aware that it exists and will happen to you, but you don't really feel it until you reach the top of the hill and start looking at the down slope.

The other major lesson of the Old School is what happens after college. For us to be coming to school for the first time at an advanced age, or coming back to school for the second time around, it probably means we were off the ball in our 20s. We're only now getting done what we should have done before.

I already have degrees, but after I got them, I frankly didn't know what to do with them My first stint in college was academically rigorous, but lacked direction. I didn't know where I was going or what I wanted to accomplish, so I just drifted through.

Many young people today are like I was. You go to college because you are supposed to, but you are not sure where it is supposed to lead. If this describes you, then heed my tale.

When you are a smart young kid, they tell you the world has infinite possibilities. At that point in life, the notion that you can be anything you want to be is empowering.

After college, though, it can quickly turn into a burden. You can no longer be anything. You have to be something. You have to make the choice, to pick a door and walk through it.

It seems simple, but this can be profoundly disappointing. You probably won't be famous, notable or wealthy. If you are lucky, you will be something more like an accountant or engineer - stable, comfortable and living a life nobody would want to read about.

Or, you may still not know what to be, and you are just lost. You will drift from job to job and place to place and still not know where it all leads.

This feeling is a lot like teenage angst, except worse, because it's coupled with the sensation of an existential mid-life crisis, when one senses his or her own mortality and starts wondering if what's in life is all that there is.

If you are young, you probably can't understand the feeling I just described, but know this: it sucks.

I'm not telling you this to scare you, but rather to warn you.

I mentioned before that the Old School in your classes tend to sit in the front and approach each day's lecture with earnestness. This is no accident.

It's because we know what is at stake. We aren't back in college to screw around and imagine the possibilities of life. We are here with a mission.

We finally have a vision of where we are going, and this sense of purpose drives us.

I once floated through classes, putting forth just enough attention and effort to get Bs and not really imagining how most of the lessons might be useful later in life.

Now I'm approaching scholastic life on my toes, trying to absorb every lesson, knowing full well that both the job market and the life ahead are demanding, and that it's a lot better to learn something I may not use in the future than to risk not learning something I will need.

Whereas I once didn't bother to talk to my professors, network with peers, go to clubs, chase internships and generally go-get, I now do because I finally see the importance. Those are the types of things that get you where you want to go, assuming you know where that is.

The main thing you can learn from the Old School is that opportunities in life don't always just open up. The good ones you have to target specifically and hunt them down like animals. They don't generally come to you - you go to them.

You have to grab life by the short and curlies.

It's my birthday today, and I'm at the age when birthdays aren't as fun anymore. They were once a celebration of growth, but they now are another reminder of being older than most of my peers and of not already being a success.

If you see me around campus today, like an ancient dinosaur among young mammals, you could pat me on the back in sympathy of my condition.

But don't pity me too much, as I finally now have the great gift that is direction in life. I'm here with purpose.

How about you?

Sanjai Tripathi is a graduate student in business administration. The opinions expressed in his columns do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily Barometer staff. Tripathi can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.