Ayn Rand taught me that I need to listen to my own wants, Hemingway showed me that I don’t need to follow a conventional path, Twain made me laugh, Tolle showed me my spiritual center, and John Kennedy Toole well he let me see that life doesn’t always have to be so serious. Where am I headed as it comes to the point in my life when I say sayonara to the University of California, San Diego. My answer is…well, I just don’t exactly know. My stream is joining the big river, I can go downstream, upstream or even across if I want. Honestly I am not completely sure where it will take me. Remember Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Graduate when Mr. Robinson asks him what he is up to these days. Hoffman while lying on his inflatable raft, beer in hand, dark glasses on, replies, “O just takin’ it easy,” while smiling in the sunshine in full knowledge that he is sleeping with his wife. He seems to have post graduation figured out. that makes me chuckle. He had he been told at his graduation party that the key to the future was “plastics my boy, plastics,” and he seemed to be making use of them via his inflatable raft. 

     My graduation party is soon approaching, next Saturday to be exact, and I’m not sure whats next. I mean, I know I will apply for jobs, hopefully get one in San Diego and check out how that treats me, but what of William Lyon in a year from now? Will I be in the same city, same state state, the same country? Will I be the young Hemingway working as an ambulance driver in Italy, or Joseph Conrad piloting his steamboat into the heart of Africa, or Che on his motorcycle following the periphery of the South American continent, or Shackleton leading his men on the Antarctic continent. Adventure awaits no matter what the path.