And Now, You're a Free Man!

Long long time ago (maybe in my previous life!), I'd seen a movie where some bonded people (slaves?) had got their freedom. Some guy told them: "And now, you're free men" so that they may rejoice something granted that they should had enjoyed long before. Well, I really can't remember the title or anything else about that movie, but this sentence and scene I remember quite vividly.

Whenever I achieve a milestone (or a turning point) in my life that would demand a great deal of concentrated effort to overcome obstacles and extraordinary patience to cope with the hassle thereof, I say to myself: "and now, you're a free man". Especially, when the objective be something very basic that I should had got for granted.

Plain and simple, there's nothing more aggravating to me in this world than going through foolish paperwork (do we ever have non-foolish paperwork BTW?) and wasting a lot of resources and burning valuable gray-cells to go through procedures that shouldn't be in place at all. And all that for something that's among my basic rights as a free decent human being deserving to enjoy what God has given me.

First time I uttered this was when I got rid of military service. When I was 16, I'd volunteered to defend my country during the war imposed on us by that lunatic criminal Saddam and I am (and will be) proud of my volunteering then. But forcing people to waste their time to serve something ultimately useless (called army duty) in the most foolish way is something I cannot stand. I have difficulty understanding why educated people should spend 2 years with marching and other mundane senseless chores instead of using the skills learnt at a hefty price with govt budget (state universities in Iran are tuition-free) to serve their country in a tangible way.

And then it was when I could release my academic credentials. I had served my duty to my country as an engineer for more than the budget spent on me over the years I was a student of Electrical Engineering. Yet, I had to go through a paperwork crusade to have my official transcripts released. I needed those papers to be able to apply to programs in Sociology in the US (and elsewhere). And I had to send those EE grades to departments out there to be evaluated for admission. Still, I wondered how official grades for EE courses passed more than 10 years ago could be a criterion in any way to determine my eligibility for admission to a graduate program in Sociology.

And after going through all the hassle for getting a US visa (again, utmost foolish paperwork serving neither security nor safety nor any other interest of this country, just making troubles for qualified people like me and not necessarily keeping bad guys at bay), I landed here just to go through another batch of extensive paperwork at UT to get registered as a graduate student of Sociology.

Today, I finished with this too. And now, you're a free man!