My Degree

Had I attended college when I was

of a certain age, say a recent graduate

from high school, like most of my

contemporaries, I may have chosen

an obscure major with which most

folks would have little or no familiarity.

Of course my life went in a completely

different direction, and I missed out on

the opportunity to garner any academic

accreditation. Oh well, at this point in

my life having achieved my honorarium

by default as a disabled senior retiree,

none of that makes a hell of a lot of

difference now to anyone including me.

Chances are by now that I would have

forgotten all the information I may have

amassed in my time as a student anyway.

Besides, very little I could have retained

would certainly not apply to my status in

life now, nor amount to a hill of beans in

the waning time I have left confronting

me. At least should anyone have an

interest in asking me where I attended

college, I could tell them, oh no not me.

Instead at seventeen, with my mother’s

written permission, I enlisted in the Army.

Generally, decent folks won’t ask if I was

in Vietnam or killed anyone in the perfor-

mance of my duties. And I feel that my

degree of acceptability comes when they

look me in the eye and thank me for my

service, not even knowing my specialty.

Surely, they would assume that I must

have completed my term of service some-

what honorably. Rarely do I pursue the

subject any further in mentioning that I

was a clerk, and to a degree, a pretty

damned good one at that.

Chris Hanch 11-2-18