Rest,_Romance,_and_Rock-N-Roll

Rest, Romance, and Rock-n-Roll Terry Esquire ENG 525 English Literature May 2, 1997 Ron Wheeler Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, TN College years are the greatest years of anyone’s life . . . or so they say. Perhaps we all just want to be young again. For me, it was the stage to step out of the role of being an only child and becoming a student at a small liberal arts college in the hills of Tennessee. I’d made some dramatic spiritual changes in the previous years of high school and changed career ideas a few times, but the desire to write remained the same. My addition was in being an escapist. A trait of every fiction writer is an involved imaginary thought process. I had a spirit of adventure and thrived on books and movies that took me out of reality. Steven Speilburg, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and anything with vampires provided the temporary means of this spirit, but I needed to take larger steps. My grandfather had lived through the Depression and Atomic Warfare and my parents had watched Vietnam and a presidential assassination on the evening news. But let’s face it, besides a space shuttle explosion, World Series earthquake, and showing our parents where Kuwait was on the globe, what major events were there for Generation Xers like me before the internet' Clearly there was more out there and this was my chance to accomplish some goals outside of small town, Ohio. . .to truly escape for the first time. I studied Philosophy and Theology along with mixed drinks and dollar movies. I traveled to Mexico and learned how devious men and women can be in their relationships. I took a quick shot of popularity while being elected to office, only to turn it down when the woman I loved nearly broke my will to finish school and I retreated from intimate relationships through my remaining academia. I had one professor that expected all of his students to be perfect while another was unrealistic and made certain no student could achieve perfection. I was introduced to a Margarita and Mocha within a week of each other and both took the place of my precious Mt. Dew as my drink of choice. Needless to say, being 400 miles from home allowed me to be in situations where I didn’t have to explain why I was there and grew in ways I never would have otherwise. I made friendships that replaced the lost friendships from high school and before it was over, I watched each of them get married, promise to stay in touch, and never heard from them again. My faith in God was tested during this time because I was on my own. All the decisions we make, we make from our experience and the wisdom we gain. Being in a fraternity of fun-loving party guys was great, but their mindsets of wanting to instill values and to do service projects that made the world a better place that opened others eyes to the love of God made a huge impact on me. “Being involved” in people’s lives, especially those I would never have the chance to be a part of became a value in itself to me and not just saying I’m part of some religion. It made a difference. Seeing that my effort made a difference. Well, it made all the difference.