Chat

      Every senior in Esteban's class had to have a chat with the college counselor before graduation, and Esteban's was that morning right at 9:00. It started at 9:15, and Mrs. Sweeney was waiting with that weird little smile, like she was holding back a torrent of things she actually had to saw behind it she dared not say, or was having trouble how she would approach.

     "Esteban. You have no applied to any four-year colleges."
     "No."
     "Will you be taking community college in the fall?"
     "Yes."
     "Have you already registered?"
     "No."
     "What do you plan to do with your life. I mean, in an ideal world. What will you do?"
     Get high? he thought to say, but that would not be received well.

     "I don't know, ma'am. I have some things to figure out, but I'll take a couple classes. I was thinking, I might do aircraft technician. A cousin of mine did that he's making good money now."
     "You know, Esteban, I see quite a bit more potential for you than aircraft technician. I look at your grades and your scores. You could have applied to State, at least. Heck, you could have gotten into several schools, I think, if you had tried."
     "Maybe. But, you know, my family needs me here."
     "State is out by the mall."

     "I know that."
     "You telling me you can't get to Stonestown."
     "I could get there."
     "It's okay. You want to take your time. But you ought to know, sometimes you think in your head, well, I could do that tomorrow, and I could do that tomorrow, and then sometimes many years pass by that way, and you're your father's age now and you realize, I never did it, and now I can't do it."

    "But what would change?" Esteban said. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Sweeney."
    "Why should you be sorry, young man? What can change? Well, I want to tell you about some changes that have happened to society, just since I started being a college counselor here. Computers. When I first got here, everything we did was typewritten and filed away by hand. Now we have computers and the internet, and you know, I don't think any of that is going away."
    "No, I guess not."
    "Things can change, and they can change rapidly, and if you are not a part of the society that is adaptable, well, guess what, society is going to change without you."

    She leaned in while she said this, hoping for more of a reaction, but instead Esteban shrugged.

    "Well, anyway," Mrs. Sweeney said.