{"id":177,"date":"2015-11-23T12:50:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T17:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=177"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:29:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:29:27","slug":"thoughts-of-a-drama-king-old-and-in-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=177","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts of a Drama King – Old and in the way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Loomer<\/strong>
\nThe Wildcat Roar
\nNovi HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 1, News Writing
\nFeature Columnist<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I am young, not even old enough to be considered an adult, but I still feel as though I\u2019m some sort of ancient recluse.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why or how, all I know is that it happened.<\/p>\n

Quite honestly, I\u2019d probably enjoy it more if I had the perks that came with actually being elderly: retirement, a motorized scooter and early bird dinners at the local Country Kitchen Restaurant.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I\u2019m not literally elderly. That would require some kind of weird Benjamin Button-esque situation, and frankly that reference is becoming kind of dated.<\/p>\n

But I certainly feel elderly.<\/p>\n

Not in the \u201coh, my aching hip\u201d kind of way; rather the \u201cI can\u2019t believe my kids put me in a home\u201d kind of way.<\/p>\n

Not that I actually have my own kids – but you get the point.<\/p>\n

I feel like the archetypal old man in the theatre department. Sort of like Chevy Chase when he was on Community – another dated reference, I apologize.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just kind of there, spewing out all kinds of nonsense about my memories of the 00\u2019s (the 1900\u2019s – not the 2000\u2019s) while the young\u2019ns wait for me to kick the bucket so they can inherit what I leave behind.<\/p>\n

Eight months ago I wasn\u2019t old. I was still young, I was hip and with it.<\/p>\n

Then senior year hit me like a ball hits a bat in a baseball metaphor.<\/p>\n

I became the old bloke.<\/p>\n

From my perspective I can see all the underclassmen in the theatre department growing together as both friends and artists.<\/p>\n

Being the miser that I am, I\u2019m left out of this tightly knit circle. They\u2019ll give me the courtesy of a short interaction here or there, but beyond that I\u2019m left alone to watch reruns of Golden Girls.<\/p>\n

Some people in my situation might say that I\u2019ve got only five months \u2018till graduation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not enough time to make things right before I depart. I might as well read a book – you know, one of those things one could buy at Borders before it closed down.<\/p>\n

I, for one, will not go gentle into that good night. I may be old, but I still got a fight in me.<\/p>\n

It may be an impossible task, but before this year is out I will make an underclassman friend. Create a sort of Karate Kid situation: I\u2019ll be Mr. Miyagi and I\u2019ll teach some kid how to wax my car.<\/p>\n

On second thought, that sounds like a bad follow-through to a good idea.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I should find some lucky (or unlucky) underclassmen to mentor. I could impart all of my accumulated knowledge onto them. I could make sure the legacy that I\u2019ve carried down from last year\u2019s seniors lives on.<\/p>\n

No more will I be the miserly old man, I will be the miserly old mentor.<\/p>\n

Except, I know that won\u2019t really happen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest, the likelihood of my senior year ending with a bang like that is so slim that I might as well try flying to the moon on a bundle of balloons.<\/p>\n

To an extent, I don\u2019t really understand my situation.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ve changed since last year.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019m just perceiving things wrong.<\/p>\n

Maybe I really am just an old, corrosive man; though, I would hope I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s time for me to go back to my cozy chair and talk about my memories of the Spanish-American war. Then, before I even know it, I\u2019ll be gone. I won\u2019t have anything to worry about.<\/p>\n

Until then, I\u2019m just old and in the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liam Loomer The Wildcat Roar Novi HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Feature Columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[57,4],"tags":[48,20],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-featurecolumnist","category-nw","tag-48","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-2R","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}