Oh, the Cleverness of Me!

My current sort-through box: all my notes and papers from my undergraduate degree. ALL of them. Even the syllabi. What was I thinking? Did I really think I would EVER later in life need to refer back to my Pre-Calculus assignments?

So, I'm piling up the paper recyclables again. But I've saved a few things. I want to read through my Biblical Literature notes one more time -- and I may decide to keep them. And my Western Civ notes. And my journal from student teaching. And I'm saving a few papers just because I decided they were pretty darn good, and I like what I had to say.

One paper, though, jumped out at me. Written for my Intro to American Ed class, on January 19th, 1987, it is simply titled "Home-schooling" -- and it begins, "Home-schooling has many disadvantages . . ." A one-and-a-half page paper I wrote my first year of college dissing homeschooling. I read through this and thought, "This is about the time Donna Webster was homeschooling her boys -- when the idea was radical -- when people were being taken to court for doing it . . . " Fascinating how the times change. And how we change.

I also found a little exercise I did in some writing class apparently. We had to take a short saying and rewrite it in as many words as possible. Here's my take on "Look before you leap":

"Whenever a person comes to find himself in a particular situation where it might be necessary or proper for this said person to make a decision to proceed with a certain strategy or action, it would be exceptionally wise and prudent for this said person to seriously consider within himself what might possibly turn out to be the consequent results of the particular decision or action which he may be leaning toward -- or most seriously giving consideration to -- at that particular point in the decision-making process."

From a four-word proverb to an 86-word massacre. How good am I? In fact, the instructor wrote at the bottom of the page, "By the way, you were the clear winner of the wordiness contest!" I'm the master!

Which lends some light to my husband's recent comments about my Ona posts . . . something to do with his eyes glazing over and resorting to skimming . . . perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same?