Miami Student

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: OpEd Page

"I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?"

I start with a quote, and one that appears to be highly intellectual and a bit snobbish. However, I feel strangely compelled to begin with these words-words from Job as well as Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure-because they are anything but snobby. In fact, they are as blue-collared as you can get.

Upon reading this passage for my Victorian literature class, I felt instantly attracted to this impulsive statement from Hardy's protagonist. Jude scrawls them upon the walled gates of Oxford College, realizing that he will forever be barred from such majestic halls of learning due to his class. It was one sentence out of a million, yet for some reason I couldn't push it from my mind. In that statement, I saw some kind of answer to the very blue-collar dilemma that consumed me at the time. I saw fellowship in my intellectual frustration. I saw a reason to grasp at a bitter pride. I saw London as an impenetrable stone wall, shutting its gates to me.

I was going to London this summer. It was completely planned. All I had to do was sign on the dotted line and mail in the check. It was a dream come true-I've been fantasizing about my 'European tour' ever since I could fantasize. But beyond that, I was finally on my way to fitting in with my impossibly chic pals. I was going "abroad." I was going to learn the lingo of international airlines, immerse myself in foreign tongues, sleep in a hostel-all the components of a good Miami University student. Live in the bubble nine months out of the year; traipse around Europe the rest of time.

But I'm not going to London anymore. My parents said I had to pay, and being practical, I realized that I could not blow off $10,000 on a six-week excursion. I was disappointed, and for a few days felt horribly inadequate next to friends who were able to spend their summers country-hopping and growing more worldly-while I suffocated in southwestern Ohio.

To cheer me up, my boyfriend decided that I needed a vacation, even if it lacked any international flair. So a week before Christmas, we went to Washington, D.C. He had relatives in Virginia who lived conveniently close to the metro, so we decided to explore our nation's capital for (at least for me) the first time.

However, money was still an issue. To save on travel costs, we decided to skip the plane, skip the 13-hour drive-we took the train. Yes, train travel still exists in this country. Being Cincinnatians, we arrived at Union Terminal at the ripe hour of 3:30 a.m.; that being the only time the Cardinal Line passes through Cincinnati on its long journey from Chicago to New York City. Waiting in the sitting area, which felt much like a modern antique in itself, was a bit surrealistic. We sat near a haggard old man with a beat up suitcase, a young Latino man in working-class coveralls and a tired family with a sea of luggage surrounding them. No one cared about my cute new suitcase or my Ralph Lauren glasses. This was, after all, the real world-and most of isn't trendy.

Continued...

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