WELL! Sorry for the negative rant last night! I'm suffering from MBD (Mudcat Bipolar Disorder) as well as LID and LON!

Education is 99% of my life. I was homeschooled starting at age 7, because my parents (and I, though so young) realized that the public school I was in was not as challenging as the Catholic private school I had been in before. So...from age 7 to 17 I learned millions of things, at first from textbooks and things that my mother gave us...then as I got older, I began to choose what I wanted to learn about. That's how I got to spend 3 years studying The Civil War, and another 3 years studying just the Pacific Theatre of World War II. I also got the read the books I wanted, from The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini to Twenty Years after to the unabridged Les Miserables to the Pulitzer prize-winning Peter The Great:His Life & His World. Sure it took my 6 months th finish it.

But I enjoyed every minute of it. There have been times in the past when I whined or complained about school--too much studying, too much work...but I have NO regrets about what I have gone through. What I once thought as horrible is now knowledge that I possess...I mean who else makes corny jokes about cell theory and chemisty 2 years after taking the class? It's come to the point now that I must keep learning new things everyday...I'm like Number 5 from "Short Circuit"--"MORE INPUT MORE INPUT!!" For instance, I'm a graphics design major here at East Carolina University, but for an elective I'm taking Printmaking. I had no previous experience with this subject...I wasn't even really sure WHAT it was. And yes, you will hear me complain about time pressures and crits I receive, and how the "acid wasn't biting" today...but I'm learning something I never knew how to do before, and I think that's the most important thing. It also goes for music...I'm not one to harp on the old very much...I always want more new music to keep me interested.

My old guitar teacher and kindred spirit said that we were two of a kind--thinking men in an unthinking time, and as his wife put it--encyclopedias of useless information. Yes, we do know countless tons of stuff that noone but ourselves will find of interest, but we still like to know them all the same. Hey, my parents used to laugh because when I was little, I would "read" the encyclopedia. Just pull out a volume, and read about everything under that letter. I also used to do it with dictionaries too.

I'm not sure where I would be right now without my education. Sure, I haven't learned much at all about life...I'm still a very nervous, shy person around people...I'm kind of a loner. My education really hasn't taught me much at all about human interaction. That's why I'm such a loser in matters of the heart to. But I feel at home on a computer, or with a pen, actually writing how I feel instead of sitting there rambling like a doofus as I would if I was talking to you in person. But all in all, I know that my education can and will help me in the future to become a better person...to be better with people...and to be made understandable to others. Now that's REALLY just me!

Good Lord! I've just written a 3-point essay! Ahh...Ms. Dees-Killette would be proud!

--Matthew Richards (Mbo) Official card-carrying Boy of Destiny