To My Friend Nick

I totally saw this on my friends blog, so I stole it and put it on mine. I thought that it was that funny! No I am not in the habit of stealing, nor am I in the habit of taking credit for OPW (other peoples work) so a shout out to my friend Nick and his creative geniousessness with this post.



this brought this whole scene to my head of some lady grabbing this lovely bikini and tromping through the rest of the store until happening on the cookie isle. You can almost feel the inner struggle where the balance between bikini and cookies was momentarily in chaos... guess who won? Yeah, ditch the bikini and go for the box of cookies!

Thanks Nick you are a true rockstar. One thing people may not know about me is that I had one class with Nick. We knew each other through various activities and shared friends, but only had one class together. This class was a computer like class (I can't remember really) I only remember it was on of those classes where the teacher does not teach they just assign and you get the work done. It was also one of those classes that you only take because you absolutely have to. We would just show up to the computer lab and do our work and go. Not only did we hate the class, but the only reason that I would show up was to glean the wisdom of Nicks analogy's and metaphors.

During class one day (one day is the best way to describe this day because as we entered the day neither of us would know the significance of how this day would change not only my life, but my love of life) I was sitting doing some random computer assignment that would not benefit my life in any other way other then get me a diploma. The time that I waisted in that class is now lost to time along with the knowledge associated with the assignment as it left me five minutes after the end of class. But I digress for what Nick taught me during that class stays with me. Nick came into class about 10 minutes late. Not a big deal, I was only on time that day because... come to think of it, I can't remember why. Nick sat down next to me and one of us made some remark like "I am sick of this class" or something similar. We shared a quick laugh and started talking about the assignment as Nick was getting his book out and logging in.

That is when it happened. (at this moment it is important to note that all of these facts may be fake for I don't remember much about what happened that "one day" it was just a day long ago) Nick turned to me and said "you know, I am not going to work on the assignment today. I am going to write a letter to the editor instead." "You might fail the assignment" I cautioned. "Like Hell I will" Nick laughed (at this point I have to mention that I have never heard Nick swear in my life... it was added to show the seriousness of the assignment)

Well, as the class was coming closer to a close Nick turned to me and said hey read this. As I was reading I noticed that this was a very well put together letter. It had costs of college/books costs of time spent in class. It had time spent in classes needed for one's major vs. time spent in general classes that don't help in the job field in any way. (I thought Nicks example was funny, he used Art Appreciation, but he was kind of going into art back then so... you should see the kid paint/draw/whatever artist do... I failed art appreciation so I don't know what it is called...) He gave statistics on how many people have to retake these classes because they failed, he gave the stats for classes failed in one's major. The stats that he had showed that more students fail art appreciation then they do in their area of study. He gave detailed analysis on how much more one could learn in their own field if they could take the time spent on General ed and put it toward their own field of study. He stated the importance of being well rounded, but the importance of the schools responsible to prepare a student for the work place instead of teach fluff classes.

I know at this point of the story some of you are concerned about Nick and his grade on this assignment. Well, he finished it in the last five minutes of class like every one else. Instead of spending our time on a cause that we believed in we spent our time on "the world wide web."

Does Nick know that I remember this? Does he know how much it inspired me to live my life in the little moments that make me happy? With how much effort he put into this letter to the editor he taught me that life is not about having fun, he taught me that one cannot really be happy just surfing the web or playing. He taught me that work, yes work, is where true happiness comes from, for that is where our accomplishments lie.

Thanks Nick for the lesson and the picture. Oh yea, I would feel out of place if I did not mention that a bikini trumps cookies in my book any day... but I am a guy...