Saturday, February 27, 2016

Death doesn't take a holiday, as college makes me feel older

Regular readers, who know the person behind this, may know a fair amount of my background, but I'll provide it anyway as an explainer.

I went to my dad's conservative religious alma mater for my undergraduate degree, out of a mix of drift, depression, and not bucking his passive control of me, when I was in high school. I then went on to his graduate seminary before kicking at the traces.

The above is part of why I worry about employment and related economic issues. The college is now closed, and with my originally slated four-year graduating class having about 50-60 people (yes, that small) and my actual five-year graduating class (in the last year the school was open) having even less, I don't have a lot of networking for jobs among the old fellow alums. And, of course, a seminary exists for one particular thing. (Well, with academic graduate degrees, it exists also for continuing education of pastors, and creation of professors for there and the denomination's colleges, but still, there's no alumni office for job placement help there, either.)

My college still sends out a quarterly newsletter. That includes an "in remembrance" of the recently dead. This time, that includes the college's business manager when I was there. And an affiliated ministerial-evangelist staffer. And the chaplain at the state mental hospital in the same town, who was an alum and had college affiliation. And, the father of a classmate. And a classmate. Then, after the newsletter had been printed, found out that the college's last president died.

Not only does it make me feel older, but, I think it has subconsciously kicked up another round of resentment over life issues. And, I need to let that happen. Including any feeling of "stuckness."