Quarantine, School, and Pop-tarts

Quarantine, School, and Pop-tarts 
by Camal Ali

I feel like I've gained two steps forward in the name of freedom. However, school is just as prominent and as stifling as ever. My problem wasn’t having to go to school, but rather the way in which school is done and the way I must navigate within this fixed system of acceptable oppression. That’s been my problem. 

Being away from school during this pandemic has allowed the sleeping giant to awaken from his slumber. His coma had been permitted by school’s inevitable persistence and depressing culture. It is here where my genius lies dormant. Although he hasn’t stood to walk around yet, his posture is being rearranged and his eyes are opening.

Ironic isn't it? How is it at all possible to personally find freedom in a new time in history where we’re objectively losing more and more of it? Well personally I could never shake this feeling of there being something better, something more, far beyond the horizon. It feels like school is somehow holding me back, and one may sarcastically ask, “from what?” To where I would respond by saying, “my truest potential.” But of course it would be impractical to say, “You know what, I'm going to ditch school.” School is inevitable right? We know this to be true. However, there's something new about school during quarantined Mondays. Today I’m doing school on my own time, and that’s wonderful. However, all this surplus work just thrown at me from my computer screen is just so overwhelming, but wait there’s more- there’s always more! I’m pretty much being force fed useless knowledge that I feel as though is suppressing any action I'd want to take to fulfill my sense of wonder and curiosity.  I'm being force fed the sodas, pop-tarts, and doughnuts of knowledge. When I should be indulging in the highly nutritious foods of knowledge which I do on my own. But it becomes harder  to get a summer brain eating strawberries and avocados while also eating sodas, pop-tarts, and doughnuts. I crave the mental orgasms I get from the strawberries of knowledge. Not these two dollar lubeless mental handjobs I'm getting from school, which is paid for with our tax money I may add. I just feel as though if I can cut out the pop-tarts of knowledge, I can carve out and enjoy my summer brain.  Just a little food for thought as I comfortably slide off on a quick tangent.

You take a pre-adolescent child and ask him or her if he or she wants to learn, and that little kid is bright eyed and bushy tailed. The pre-adolescent child is always curious and eager to learn, so then what happened as they get older? School! It’s school that happened! Child plus school divided by time equals CES (chronic & excessive schooling) which may lead to depression. You see school doesn’t appeal to the genius that lays dormant in everyone. In fact, I believe it suppresses it. Think about the first time you’ve found yourself being non-complacent while being very aware that you just half-assed something. I guarantee you that it was most likely school related. You see those who suffer from CES have developed a mindset that shifts from learning, to just getting by i.e. ‘I stopped coming to school to learn and now I just come to pass.’ Those words were not conjured up by me, no those are real words that I’ve heard. School is the very first place where one learns how to be comfortable in mediocrity. Students begin to lose curiosity and wonder, the drive to simply know, and curiosity is the medium in which genius operates. It grants genius its compass to navigate and the will power to go in whatever direction it wants.

So the quarantined life hasn't been so bad for me. My family and I did run low on toilet tissue and water for a brief moment in time, but besides that everything’s been great. The family’s spending more time together which is great. My mom’s bringing us peace and good fortune, as she is hand crafting custom designed safety masks from her sewing machine and donating them to a worthy cause. And I must say they are quite the beauty looking from any eye. Everyone’s enjoying the time off and the environment within our home reflects that. So basically what I'm saying is that we’re kind of rocking this whole quarantine thing.