The problem with not going to school anymore is that you feel somewhat dumber at first. Yeah, not having any homework, or papers, or tests is awesome, but I started feeling like I was loosing touch with what was going on around me. Most throw themselves into work or their families or some even go back to school. As for myself, I went the work path for a while and then I realized I can stay in touch with the world by reading about what’s going on. Since then, I’ve been listening to more of news radio shows, I’ve started to read articles that I never thought I would read out of magazine that I thought were for the old or more geared to intellectuals rather than myself. Then it occurred to me that an intellectual is someone who keeps up with current events and doesn’t ignore them. Everyone can be intelligent if they just start being aware. Then I thought of what Matt said a couple of weeks ago. He said, “Being aware of what is going on around you is half the battle.”

Alex Tienda Third Dan at the AAC taekwondo school