Dante's Grocery Shop For Disadvantaged Parsnips

Today something truly remarkable happened. But in order for you to fully understand the wonder of this, I will start at the beginning. Way beginning.

When I started school at age six, little more than a week later my parents were summoned to see my teacher. And while this was something they would in time get used to, this was pretty much the only time they met in this light. My teacher, along with the school head mistress, suggested that because I was somewhat ahead of myself, they could move me up one year and I could start at second grade. My parents, thinking this would alienate me from kids my age, declined. A decision I have never forgiven them, and consider to be the root of all my later problems.

Come grade 7, where my teacher attempted to get rid of me by throwing me to a school for “naughty children”. In order to do that, a student must be evaluated by an independent psychologist. The whole “gifted but incredibly arrogant and disrespectful to authority” didn’t really sink well with my teacher, seeing as how now she was stuck with me, and I had an even bigger chip on my shoulder. The psych evaluation also came with instructions to make extra curricular activities available and allow me to read a book in class when ever I came bored. She did neither. No Teacher Of The Year Award for her.

High school, second year. My literature teacher says she has never met anyone with a mind so naturally oriented towards linguistics. I dropped out of school two months later.

Enter a period of about ten years, during which I do little more than drink and abuse drugs and myself. A few odd jobs here and there do little to amuse me. I occasionally think about taking classes at the Open University, an adult learning facility at Turku University. But as this never will result in a degree of any form, I always decided to buy a bottle of scotch instead.

Then today. There is a thing now, called the Open University Portal. It allows for people who, for one reason or another, missed out on the opportunity to get in to uni when they were suppose to, to get a second chance. If I take classes at the Open University, gain 80 educational points, and then pass a rigorous close examination, I can earn myself the right to study in the real University, and get myself an actual degree. So today, I enrolled in my first class. Media Studies – Basics, 25 points if passed. All in all, in 3.5 to 4 years, I should have a Bachelor of Arts in my pocket, with a major in journalism and a minor in history.

The dream, is alive.