The Fact That Someone is in College Does NOT Make Them Smart

Greetings my adoring fans!  I am sorry for how long it has taken me between posts.  I just think that it is very important to not write something for fun if I don't want to.  However, I am now inspired!
I know that my last post was about my Introduction to Literature class, but I'm going to talk a little bit about it again...

I was sitting in my Literature class today and we were all numbered off from 1 to 5 (I was number 4...no pun on the upcoming movie). We then got together with our corresponding numbers, were given a poem, and told to discuss it.  The poem that my group discussed was "Sometimes the Words Are So Close" by: Julia Alvarez.  It was written in sonnet form and was all about how Alvarez believed that writing conveyed what she meant to say much better than her spoken words did.  Because I liked it so much, here it is...

"Sometimes the Words Are So Close"

By: Julia Alvarez

Sometimes the words are so close I am
more who I am when I'm down on paper
than anywhere else as if my life were
practicing for the real me I become
unbuttoned from the anecdotal and
unnecessary and unpressed down
to the figure of the poem, line by line,
the real text a child could understand.
Why do I get confused living it through?
Those of you, lost and yearning to be free,
who hear these words, take heart from me.
I was once in as many drafts as you.
But briefly, essentially, here I am...
Who touches this poem touches a woman.

Great, right?  Now, if you do not like poetry, then just bare with me.

Most people with half of a brain could at least say what they "think" the poem is trying to say.  I was paired up with three other people whom I had never worked with before.  I tend to answer all the questions normally, so I figured that I would stay out of the discussion as much as possible and only provide bits of my opinion.  Each group was told to read the poem out loud and I volunteered.  Afterward, I asked, "So what do you guys think?"  For thirty whole seconds, they didn't say ANYTHING.
For those of you who might not appreciate just how long that is (especially during a time of discussion) I want you to stop reading for exactly 30 seconds and imagine that someone is supposed to be saying something, but isn't. Go ahead...

IT IS A RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME!!!!  I wasn't just going to sit there and look like an idiot, so I tried to get the conversation rolling by saying, "Well, the whole thing is just talking about what writing means to the author.  What do you guys think?"  After another ten seconds or so, the girl who was writing down our–rather MY–discussion points said, "....yeah, that sounds pretty good."  I continued to poke, prod, suggest, and ask each of them questions directly.  They never spoke in our entire 15 minute discussion.  NOT ONCE!!!!!!

After I realized that they weren't going to say anything, I started offering my full dissection of the poem with the occasional direct question to one of them to ask what they thought.  Only the girl did more than shrug her shoulders.  We had about 2 minutes left for our discussion and I finally looked at them and said, "Really?  Are you guys serious right now?"  They didn't say anything.

They should have just stayed at home and slept.  Not even offering a, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking" proved to me that they lacked the brain capacity to do much more than drink booze and walk back and forth between classes.  It actually baffles me that they had the brain power to know how to breathe.

Well, that's my rant for the day.  I hope you guys enjoyed it and thanks for reading!

_Moses_