Miscellany: Yeah, it matters.

When I got my diploma in the mail over the summer, it was sort of a turning point.

I waited a long time for the darn thing to arrive. It came in a modest cardboard tube. I told myself it wasn't important; after all, didn't everyone get a degree nowadays? I didn't even graduate from any place fancy. My parents, though, got it framed at the same place where their diplomas were framed.

My grandparents never went to college (well, my grandfather was a colonel, so I suppose he sort of got the equivalent). My father's mother grew up on a farm; she would have went to school, but one of her family members squandered the money set aside for her schooling. It is a stereotype that Asian parents value education above all else. I don't value education because I'm Asian, though. I value it because my grandmother never got the opportunity to learn how to read. Every time a word enters my head, I feel like it's doing double duty.