"Entry Level" initial draft - August 2013

Growing up I always tried to hit the fast forward button on life. It seemed from infancy, even if I wasn’t aware, life expected me to get to the next step.From being a baby and muttering phrases that I probably thought made perfect sense, the expectation was planted that I would form words someday. Somewhere along that same timeline, my crawling would be expected to progress to a walk. That was Phase 1. Phase 2 was being acclimated into society without driving my parents crazy. I made my mark by shitting and peeing with reckless abandon, and now it was time to begin the quest for education at preschool. At this point I’m still following the rules of my elders. Phase 3 was elementary school. Ah, time for an array of educators to take this prodigious blank slate of a boy and make sure I don’t come out looking like a twisted Picasso. With a name like Sage Griffin, their job should have been easy. By the later grades my wonderful personality begins to shine ever so magnificently, and I crave more responsibility/freedom. Phase 4 was junior high and high school, where the expectation was to collect respectable grades by any means necessary. Then, by the end of high school, my own desires really come into focus as I desperately want a drivers license and to get on to more adult activities. You know, things typical teenage boys yearn for: Dating. Partying. And Dating. Phase 5 is currently facing completion. College. This is what I’ve waited my entire life for. After these 5.5 years for a 4-year degree are completed, full adulthood will be in full swing. What’s the next step? Suddenly there isn’t a guaranteed one. There is no path that you are really shuttled off to like in the previous phases. There’s a subtle excitement in the chaos of the unknown. But I feel confident I’ll join the working world soon after graduating. I imagine employers sift through the resumes of college grads and view them like a sports stats card. I was putting a lot of eggs into the basket that graduating from Kansas University would help me land somewhere. The university had a great reputation, particularly in the Midwest. My best friend Ethan graduated from KU a year ago and he found a great paying gig right after graduating. This provided me some level of comfort.