johnson's intro

its your boy da'rell johnson making a debut to the spot. many of you in the internets world may alreadyknow me for my own heavy-hitting, world changing, infrequently updated (by infrequent i mean there hasn't been shit in the past 3 months) blog. but that's enough shameless self-promotion; i'll get to the point.

so we will be leaving this incredible school behind in a few short weeks. many of us will be hopping on american airlines jets with one-way tickets to the east, west, or south, returning to neither lambert airport nor this gorgeous city until 30 years from now, when our kids get waitlisted by the ivies, and history repeats itself (i, luckily enough, will have the pleasure of spending a few more years getting to know the actual city, which innocently exists beneath the domineering presence of the danforth campus).

so, the questions arise: when we look back on college in five years, what will we remember? will we still call our precious drinking and smoking buddies "friends" in ten years? will our children be amazed and impressed when we recount stories about being the inaugural facebook class? obviously, the answers to these compelling inquiries cannot be found at the moment. so we stick with the more context-appropriate "what are you doing after graduation?" or "how come we never hung out all of these years?" acknowledging the transition upon which we are about to embark, but not contemplating the gravity of post-wrighton life.

its obvious nothing can be done to stop the inevitable. or to speed it up, for that matter. we're left with two choices: to blindly thrust ourselves today in the mindset of the future and to pretend we are already the grad students, teachers, bankers and engineers we will be in mere months, or to cling to our moments, thirsting (literally!) for the next thursday night at morgan street like it won't be the same as the last 30 times we've been there. each approach has its merits; each has its follies.

i've never been a fan of suspense, so i'm going to tell you plainly that i'll opt for the latter. i don't have any emotional or sentimental reason for doing this; it just seems to be my natural inclination to live in the present. therefore, i solemnly swear that, for the next 45 days, 14 hours, and 48 minutes, i will drink like i've never drank, nerd like i've never nerded, bears den like i've never bears denned (at least not since having a legit meal plan), morgan street like i've never morgan streeted, W.I.L.D. like i've never W.I.L.D.ed, CEC (that's the engineering computer lab, for those of you sub-calculus III idiots out there) like i've never CECed, and, well, i assume you get the point. because on may 16th, the eulogy will be delievered for the sideways StL hat-wearing, slang talking, down-for-whatever Da'Rell Johnson, for better or for worse.

until then, however, you can catch me kickin it by george washington in front of the brary, trying to decide if i want to cop a bucket at kilkennys or spit karaoke at duffys, chatting up shorties, dapping and dipping spots, clowning randos, mocking herbs, crushing A.D.D. medicine and all nighters before tests (like now), wigging at W.I.L.D. and just generally being the man.