COLLEGE

I have always had reservations about our current college entrance requirements.  Partly because I know if I had to meet today’s requirements I would be up the proverbial creek but I also feel there is a grave injustice being done to a great many people. 

Maybe there are colleges somewhere that you can get into with a C average but I don’t know of any.  There are not too many where a B average will open the doors.  Most are requiring a 4.0 or better average.  The better comes from advanced level curriculums that pile points on top of the 4.0.  As if that average is not good enough the entrants are weighed against each other based on extracurricular activities.  If you were a member of the debate team, student council, cheer squad or volunteered to help the poor, your chances are greatly enhanced. 

All of this is fine and dandy but who is to say these people deserve a college education any more than any other student who displays the ability to do college level work.  I can understand businesses, law firms and others looking for the best and the brightest but there are some very talented people out there who may not have mastered the art of preparing for an exam but, given a college education, will do just fine thank you when it comes to competing in the real world.

The classes for the first two years of college are, for the most part, quite similar for everyone.  They are designed to give students a well rounded education in subjects that are basically an extension of their high school college prep classes.  EVERYONE that is capable of college level work should be entitled to this education.  It is in the last two years that the student takes classes that are specific to the major chosen.  Be it pre-law, pre-med or engineering these are the years a student zero’s in on their chosen field.

Depending on the field, there is most certainly a relationship between excellence achieved in the class room and the real world.  If I am lying on the operating table facing life saving surgery you can bet your bottom dollar I want a surgeon with a 4.infinity working on me.  But there are just as many careers in art, advertising, restaurants, computers and others where creativity and hard work will win hands down over a gifted student nine ways from Sunday. 

Private enterprise is loaded with C students and college drop outs.  Most leaders have a natural ability to get along with people and get the most out of them.  These things cannot be taught in the class room.  Picasso was destined for greatness no matter what.  So was Mark Twain. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying a college degree is not a worthy goal, I am saying because it is we have to figure out a way to spread entrance acceptance around evenly to those qualified. 

WAVES

As I do every morning, I was enjoying a hot cup of Donut House coffee while browsing through the Daily Pilot, our local newspaper.  Given that our town is located around a beautiful harbor and has miles of beaches, there is much coverage of salt water related happenings, which is of interest to  sailors, fishermen, surfers, beachgoers and others.  This particular morning the Daily Pilot was reporting a storm In New Zealand was sending huge waves our way. 

A quick check with Google tells me New Zealand is 6,882 miles by sea from Southern California.  
Visualizing throwing a pebble in a lake and watching the ripples pulse off toward the other side I tried to imagine a wave rolling across the Pacific Ocean and maintaining any size.  The pebble would have to be a rock the size of the moon.  But these waves were obviously not sent on their journey by a pebble but by a winter storm.  What kind of wrath had God unleashed in New Zealand that had the force to push water some 6,882 miles and still muster the strength to pulverize the distant shore?

I drove down to a bluff overlooking a spot along the beach we call The Wedge.  So named because waves marching from the south wedge themselves between a rock jetty and a sandy beach, creating a peak affect that can turn an already large wave into a snarling monster.  These waves usually arrive in sets of four with brief periods of relative calm between sets. 

From my perch on the bluff I could see these lines of waves approaching the beach.  I tried to imagine their journey.  I would guess the birthplace of the storm was on the Antarctic side of New Zealand.  Whatever stirred the pot there created such havoc that mountains of water said to themselves “I’m out’ a here” and headed north. 

Save for Tahiti, Hawaii and a smattering of other small islands, it was clear sailing for these waves all the way to California.  Mid ocean they represent little more than a gentle rise as they pass beneath fishing boats, sail boats, freighters and cruise ships.  With God given instincts ocean birds watch respectfully from high above as they glide by. 

As they move over the horizon and approach shore the lines become more definitive and as the water becomes shallower the ocean bottom begins to tug on the lower reaches of the wave.  This tugging causes the surface water to begin to move forward.  As the majestic wave reaches shore the surface water says “Thanks for the ride” and hurls itself forward. 

At the Wedge there is a squeezing of this water into such a small area that the only place for the additional tons of water to go is straight up.  What may have been a 10 to 12 foot wave on a normal sandy beach is suddenly jacked up to 20 feet plus.  As all this water catapults upward and then forward it creates this magnificent sight and sound only God can create.  I scream to myself “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”!        

SUMMERS END

In tradidional terms Labor Day is the end of the summer season.  Don't go all scientific on me and tell me the autumnal equinox is September 23 and thus the end of summer and the beginning of fall.  If you are a kid growing up all you know is school starts just after Labor Day and that's it for summer.  End of story. 

God I hated going back to school.  I had not worn shoes for a couple of months, gone to bed late every night and slept till whenever, sand and the beach everyday and had this bronze tan look of a south sea islander and my hair had been bleached blond by the sun.  It would generally take me until Thanksgiving to quit pouting and get with the program.

There are only two good things about September.  One is it is the beginning of football season and the other is, if you live in southern California, it is the best fishing month of the year.  Football needs no explanation to any red blooded human being but fishing does.  Conditions are optimal for most offshore migratory game fish.  Ocean water temperatures are ideal, the weather is mild and boat traffic has dwindled considerably. 

Then there is Avalon.  This tiny little harbor and town on Catalina Island is a paradise.  Anchored in this beautiful harbor, some 26 miles from the mainland populated by millions of people, it is as if you are on a different planet.  To arrive here after a days fishing with your family, take a shore boat ashore for dinner, listen to a little music at one of the bars then fall asleep under the stars is the equivalent to getting the paddles to jump-start your heart.

So as much as I dread the arrival of Labor Day I must say I have had some of my most memorable family days in September.  Whether it is on the run home from the fishing grounds or returning from Avalon on a late Sunday afternoon, I have been reminded many, many times that it is not what you do it is who you do it with.  Then, as now, I would not trade places with anyone.