Robert - No Small World

There's a sort of collision of worlds that occurs within me whenever I see Claire Staten in my residence hall or Ali Becker at the Plaza 900 cafeteria. These are people from my old world, and they don't belong here.

My old world is 200 miles away from this one. Our childhoods ended, and we scattered about the country like roaches. Some to Columbia, some to Washington state, some to Washington district, some to Florida, to Massachusetts, and some still in Springfield, IL. So why do I still run into old friends and acquaintances almost daily?

The answer, I know, is that me and my peers' lives are still a little more preordained than I'd like to believe. We spent our younger years growing up in elementary and middle schools or oppressive Catholic grade schools, waiting for an age of freedom and responsibility. We went to high school at Springfield High and Glenwood or oppressive Catholic high schools, waiting to be released from the town of Springfield. At such a time, we would truly be our own persons, making our own decisions and independent from the teets of youth.