Memoirs of a Fat Girl

Lance told me yesterday that I should get an honorary degree for receiving, in a manner or sorts, yet another education.

It’s true, in a way. I have learned about many things while being at this job. I’ve gone into the intricacies of Photoshop and In Design. A know how to most effectively place Type on a page. I can give a debate on Mass Market vs. Trade Paperbacks, pull up sections of the DSM-IV, discuss the absence of Human Rights on native reserves, properly administer an epi-pen shot, and do a Venn diagram.

The only problem with that is, what degree could you possibly give me? I’ll probably just have to draw it up myself and add to the, “Jack of all trades, master of none” pile, currently accumulating within the inner recesses of my brain.

Professor Moira Banks teaches a morning class called, “Children with Exceptionalities,” and it’s one of the more interesting lectures of my haul. Every week at least one exceptionality is discussed, and the class is always fully attended.

It’s because Professor Banks is just that fascinating to listen to. I even find myself forgetting to type, because I’m so absorbed in what’s being said. When a person loves what they do, as she obviously does, it reflects in every corner of their lives.

Today, Professor Banks is discussing the exceptionality known as Autism, and something she’s just mentioned has struck me. This has been happening, it seems, more often than not in the past few weeks.

What the good professor said, word for word, was, “You get as much out of life as you put into it.”

You get as much out of life as you put into it.

Seeing as she was discussing Autism and not any generalized form of Self-Help, I could take this in one of two ways:

1) Lecture notes. Nothing but.

2) Hidden messages are everywhere. Chalk it up as serendipitous, and use what you’ve learned.

You get as much out of life as you put into it.

Clearly an oxymoron. It’s one of those things that’s so bloody evident from the get go, the meaning that is, and yet you have to ponder it for eons to really get its full meaning.

How much am I getting out of life, and how much have I put into it?

This could take years. But for now, the day was too gorgeous to be denied. I turned my cell phone off, and took Joey for a spin.