Day 303: Intellectualism

Michael and I had an interesting conversation last night/early this morning. He brought up the fact that as of late he doesn't often have "intellectual" conversations, but never really noticed it until someone pointed it out. Neither of us feel like we've been lacking chats that have depth or academic scope, so what's the big deal? We got into this big discussion about how our lives have each changed since leaving our respective academic environments, and as a result our day-to-day conversations have thus changed quite a bit too.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of university life that I truly loved was having these amazing awesome intellectual conversations with my peers. It didn't matter if it was in a lecture or tutorial, or at the pub after class, or at some house party or wherever, but my life was filled with these truly fantastic conversations. Conversations filled with the exchange and debating of ideas and opionions, philosophies and ideologies. Sometimes rather passive, sometimes rather contemptuous, these great dialogues were challenging, enlightening, and entertaining. To me they represented the true spirit of all those who pursue greater education.

Since graduating university, two and a half years ago now, the frequency of these conversations has dropped significantly. It doesn't mean that I'm stuck bored having shit conversations now, it just means that the nature of range of topics have changed. And as I communicated to Michael, I don't think that's a bad thing at all. We're in a completely different environment now, living a completely different life. Our conversations are now filled with discussions on curriculam and classroom management, teaching horror stories and funny anecdotes, and our plans for our precious weekends. Having a lack of conversations that may traditionally be labelled as "intellectual" doesn't make us any less intellectual, we just have other things to talk about now.

I believe that those "intellectual" discussions cannot really be forced or scheduled into your life. They're best when they just naturally happen on their own. Otherwise they feel fake, as if you're playing a part to try and maintain some degree of academia in your life. Life is full of change, people and places move and evolve, the actors and setting in our life are not a stagnant backdrop. Times change. And it doesn't mean that we've gotten dumber just cause we're not debating Japanese Post-World War Two industrial development or 1960's social planning paradigms in North American suburbs. Still, it is a little hard not to feel like you're "slipping", or loosing your "intellectual edge" or something.

I guess this is all just part of growing up?