We’re approaching the end—of the semester, the year, and for some of the cons here, the end of their time in this institution—and here I am, listening to The Doors, Jim Morrison’s harsh and beautiful poetry in “The End” sending me into an atmosphere that resembles the dream world just before a nightmare sets in.

In this daydream, I’m listening to Marlon Brando read T.S. Eliot’s famous poem, “The Hollow Men,” but the words have been morphed, calling out the ugly reality we face in college, especially as finals advance closer to our line of fire:

We are the broke men,
we are the stressed men,
stumbling together,
our headpieces filled with due dates.

At this point, we are beyond Eliot’s notion of the idea. We’re in the shadow, travelling away from both the idea and reality itself, and there is nothing more we can do but walk carefully through the dark, wandering in what Eliot considered the Twilight Kingdom.

It’s moments such as this in which I believe I’ve lost my mind, and as “The End” hits the climactic point, I question if this insanity is wrong, socially unacceptable.

I know that I’m rambling, but after all, I feel like the withered mad man drifting through the halls, muttering to himself. Nearly five years of college have left me clinging to the music of the drugged out 1960s and 70s and to literature – a facet of our existence that has sadly become a seemingly bygone concept of our society—and now I’m writing this, my final address within this college’s paper, wondering what to say to provide something eloquent. The process would be made easier if I had some rotgut bourbon, but seeing as how this is a dry campus, I’ll just have to deal with this in a sober mindset.

Most, if not all of us, came to this place with a desire to get something more out of life. I’m not talking about the degree, but something greater than that. We came to explore just how far our minds could go, pushing ourselves closer to some form of understanding.

That drive hasn’t been made easy through society’s view of college as a business, a view that sadly exists here at Wayne State.

Nevertheless, we’ve come to this place to find something more than ourselves, and while we may be wandering through the shadow, perhaps we’ll find the light at the end of this proverbial tunnel.

If that isn’t optimistic, then I suppose we can just blame it on the fact that this place doesn’t have an open bar in the cafeteria. I’m sure I’m not the first person to use that as an excuse, and I’m certain that I won’t be the last.

Then again, I have a feeling the rest of the fine people of this newspaper don’t have that problem, but hey, the bourbon minority should always be represented.
With that said, I think it’s time for that minority to go on a much needed vacation. This old con’s going on parole.