By William Roger Jones
As graduation from the halls of ivy drew closer, I reluctantly sent out commencement invitations to family and friends. I'm a late bloomer. Most who know me don't realize that my degree approaches real time. As a frosh, I was the same age or older than my professors. I graduated in June 1999 at the age of 52.
I now share with you in part my letter of invitation and present the rhetorical question, ``Does it ring a bell?"
May 1999. Just a note to say I would wish it upon no one to sit through a three-to-four-hour graduation ceremony, wherein staff and faculty and invited others harangue those attending with their perceptions. This mailing of invitations is merely perfunctory on my part due to Mom's insistence. The only reason I'm attending the ceremony is because protocol demands it, as I may require some letters of recommendation down the road.
Initially, it occurred to me to include with the invitations some pithy or witty quotations on knowledge, education, universities, etc. But you probably have heard plenty of those already, and created some of your own. So, what have I learned through all the on-and-off years of university attendance?
The ability to learn anything primarily lies within the realm of genetics. After having that, then it becomes hard work, persistence, sacrifice and rote memory. Because learning has its foundation in genetics, no one should exhibit hubris or arrogance.
Short-term memory definitively declines after the age of 35, and that does not include senescent contribution.
Different people learn different things at different rates of speed. I happen to be a very slow learner, in all things.
Environment influences learning, i.e. the more comfortable one is, the more learning one accomplishes.
A university education is a fractional education. Only within the past year did I learn that there was well over a dozen types of water other than H2O and D2O. That's sad. What I'm saying is that it's quite impossible to but touch the surface of knowledge within the expected traditional four-year period.
What is my degree to me? Another trophy. That's all. It would be a nice one were it not for the universities across the country giving them out like candy.
So what's to be done? You either must specialize and devote your life to it, or join the rank and file of some sort of public servant. That can afford one a comfortable living, but can also make one miserable.
What I'm to do next, only God knows.
Inequity still amazes me. Why for instance, are movie stars paid more than doctors? Why are doctors paid more than farmers? If I've learned anything, I've learned that very little makes sense when you examine very closely. Of course, the natural laws add up piece by piece.
Anyway, I'm near to going on a tangent, therefore, I'll stop at this point and let you know that I accept many questions as unanswerable at the present time, i.e. correct answers or satisfying answers.
As a final point, it is important to know the facts, but it is more important to have concurrence.
This invitation is simply to let you know that I'm adding another document to my collection, which you probably haven't seen. It is not a notice for handouts. I don't want that. It's more of a notice to say I haven't forgotten any of you, and that I love you. I'm, perhaps, eccentric and somewhat alienated, because that is my preference. Very truly yours.
Retirement beckons me now and my advice to all is to get that degree, if for no other reason than self-satisfaction. Remember, it's never too late to learn. Get over the idea that only children should spend time in study. Be a student as long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.
William Roger Jones has taught English in Korea for five years. He presently teaches with the English Program in Korea (EPIK). He has written a novella with his Korean wife entitled ``Beyond Harvard.'' He can be reached at