I Met Gogol

During the Thanksgiving break my family got together with many of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. However, it is my twenty-three-year-old cousin from Washington D.C. in particular that I would like to focus on because of his striking similarities to Gogol. In a physical sense, my cousin closely represents Kal Penn’s portrayal of Gogol in the movie during his college years because he is tall and thin and has long dark hair that he keeps tangled and messy. My cousin does not like his first name (which I will intentionally omit) and instead chooses to be called by his middle name, James. James, like Gogol, has one main disagreement with his parents. James’s parents wanted him to go to college and earn a degree but he chose not to. Also, James maintained a fairly distant relationship with his parents until their divorce several years ago. After the divorce he grew much closer to his mother and he looks out and cares for her. Similar to Gogol, James has a girlfriend that his family does not approve of. I met her a year or two ago and I can definitely understand why. However, it is not James’s similarity to Gogol that prompted me to write this blog entry, it is his one main difference with Gogol that has inspired me. Gogol educates himself at Yale while James unfortunately has never gone to college. This is such a shame because James really is an intellectual person and I think he would have enjoyed the academic environment at college. Additionally, without a college degree it is difficult to have a real impact on the world. James I think has sadly learned this the hard way. He is a very driven and motivated person and he campaigns and speaks out for what he believes in. He has traveled the world to protes the G20 summit, he has protested capitalism, he has gone to great lengths to support the labor movement, and he now labels himself as an anarchist. He can protest all he wants, and he can act out for what he thinks is best, but without a college degree it is nearly impossible to actually have an impact or work to rewrite policy or work as a political figure. The real reason I wanted to write this blog entry is because I want to emphasize the importance of a college education to everyone reading this. I do not think this is a big problem with our AP English class but you never know, James turned down admission to Brown because he wanted to try to focus his efforts on pressing world issues. Although he never said it this weekend, I think he deeply regrets his decision.