1: It's more or less the same as the "Fake World".
People are just as ridiculous (ly dressed, opinionated, and confusing) as they were in college and high school. In fact, some of them are even MORE difficult to understand than when they were 7 and insisted that their wearing of a special pair of Power Ranger underwear would help them to win a little league game. Those people (once fully aged) have just as preposterous ideas that make even more dramatic impacts in their lives. And some of them still wear the underwear when asking a boss for a raise.
In reality, the maturity level (from what I've observed in general) of humans doesn't increase one bit from birth to age 50. What happens is that the risks increase at a similar ratio to mental faculty, and the illusion of maturity is created. The same flaws, mental chinks, egocentric tendencies, superstitions. childish behavior and self-destructive desires haunt an adult just the same if not moreso than their childhood counterparts. A huge percentage of full grown adults have a 9 year old self wrapped up in a thin sheen of financial stability and facial hair. Women just have a sheen of plastic.
2: Words barely mean anything.
Let's look at this in a Case Study format. The word "Epic" was originally created to describe " An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero." But has now become used to describe "Kyle had a semi-exciting weekend where he and his lackluster friends became intoxicated and embarrassed themselves publicly, but were too inebriated to notice the social ramifications. They then spent the next 30 hours in a hung over state."
Or even better, the word epic can be used to describe someone falling on their face.
Moving on to another word. I have recently been pondering the word "Good" as it was originally intended to be used. The dictionary has a few different definitions of this word. It can mean "morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious" or "of high quality; excellent." But I would posit that it could have a much more pure meaning. C.S. Lewis' Christ figure, Aslan is described to be majestic, regal, selfless, and many more high and righteous words. But I have always thought that the most appropriate and heartfelt/innocent/pure/beautiful title he was ever given was when Lucy mentioned that he was "Good".
I find it such a dishonor to the word that 'good' has become something that we will say that we are in a state of when there is nothing necessarily wrong with us, but nothing extraordinarily excellent about our current situation. When asked how a person is, the most common response is that they are "good" (and typically, so is the asker upon being asked).
I have begun to suspect that the length of a word is directly correlated to the probability that it will be corrupted by the common tongue into something that it was originally not. Though there are exceptions, (such as the word "Legendary", but this is more likely a way for a person who will ultimately go unnoticed by historians to make their lives feel slightly better about that fact) but longer words seem to maintain their factory settings longer than those that can be spewed out in a shorter amount of time and with less breath. Either way, I doubt anyone will be trivializing the words "Constabulary" or "Parsimonious" by adding them to a narrative about their road trip.
3: I have not changed.
Some may note that my first discussion seemed rather pointed. The reason for that is introspection has been rather harsh in it's findings. My soul has gained no extra worth by going to a university. And the knowledge that I have gained is either buried so deep in my memory that random access is nearly impossible or completely irrelevant to anything other than a specific video game. The same insecurities and human weaknesses that I have had since birth have not been expunged by some higher wisdom of a textbook or professor, and anyone looking for fulfillment in academia will only be distracted for a time.
I do not regret my choice to go to college, but I realize that it is not something that will make me a better person. The only way to truly better oneself is through a knowledge of Jesus Christ, not through an extensive knowledge of the legal system or the anatomy and physiology of a human. Not to say that those things are not useful and important, they are simply not the end goal. The nice thing is that Christ doesn't cost 40,000 dollars a year in tuition, but monetary value isn't really what the Christian life is measured by, now is it?
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