Delayed participation due to qualification

Part 1.

We’re told through the marshmallow experiment that the ability to delay gratification is a superpower. The educational industrial complex and the pyramid scheme that is academia enforces delayed participation due to lack qualification in much more subtle ways.

When I was in second year of theatre school, a couple arrived. They were ‘older’ by perhaps five or six years. As a nearly fifty year old, it’s not a big deal. For my twenty year old self, this was significant. They were different. They were weird. They may even have been (gasp) married.

As a second year theatre student, I had a small amount of status. I wasn’t a first year. These ‘new comers’, though older, were first years and therefore, in my mind, were of lower status. Imagine then, to my horror, when they started working in the field.

They started working in the field and they hadn’t even finished their first year / intro to theatre course. “HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE?” I could rationalize away the outrage. They were grown ups.…