I lots of times forget how stinkin' privileged I am. Durham isn't exactly the nicest place around; it certainly has its problems. Like the large populations of gangs and the really high murder rate. We have enormous race problems too, especially when it comes to our schools and the school board. But we're so much better off than a lot of the rest of the state. I was talking to Ali, one of my friends from GSW yesterday and, like most of the other converstations I've had in the past 3 months, we were talking about college. I don't remember how it came up, but she told me that out of her entire graduating class, only about 20 will go on to college. Granted, she only has 1000 in her whole school, which means a graduating class of less than 250, but still. Take that and compare it to the 92% at my school (in my class of 360) that go on to college of some sort the year after they graduate, which discludes everyone who takes a year off or joins the military before going to college. My mom and I estimated that about 98% of Jordan graduates go on to college of some sort. The fact that there's a high school only an hour or so up 85 from me where less than 10% of the graduates go on to college just blows my mind.
I was in Sanford last night at a birthday party. It's like another world. I so often forget that rest of the state isn't like Durham or Raleigh or Chapel Hill. I forget how affluent my area is. I forget that there's kids who live and hour or more away from Southpoint and plan trips in advance to go. I forget that there's towns with only one movie theatre, a Wal-Mart, a K-Mart and a Golden Corral. I forget how stinkin' blessed I am to live where I do and go to school where I do. And I'm glad I have friends to remind me otherwise.
- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 2:24 PM