The Columnist Manifesto

Overhearing undergraduate conversations!

It's delightful. These undergraduates are all over campus. It's like observing wildlife, except they're capable of higher order reasoning and speech. Like this:

My parents are like, "Whatever! Shit happens!"

The context for this very interesting remark was a conversation about dropping a course. Apparently, this young woman felt compelled to clear that decision with her parents who were, like, totally okay with it.

I was deeply impressed. My parents were so not like "whatever, shit happens," that I could hardly believe my ears. Maybe its a generational thing, the parenting style of the former 1970s youth. Will this "shit happens" style of parenting survive when the kids of the next crop of parents -- the soccer moms and hockey dads and play-date organizers -- reach college?

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