Cougar Tales: A different education system by Mark S. R. Sterling

Author:Mark S. R. Sterling [Sterling, Mark S. R.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2015-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Cougar In Distress

The final month of my senior year at college was one of haste. Everyone was eager to finish their studies and head off – we were done with school. Most of my student friends were ready to move into their work careers with their first professional jobs already in the bag. Some others were heading to graduate school. The rest were probably headed back home to once again attempt to live with their parents; they had neither a job nor an acceptance to grad school. I was somewhere in between.

“Mark, so you’re going to do it?” Jenny asked me.

Jenny and I were electrical engineering students and she was my partner for our Senior Project. We spent two afternoons a week together, developing and testing computer algorithms for closed loop control of robotic arms. The purpose of our study was to compare and contrast different methods of controlling the system feedback. I had known Jenny for the entire four years I had been at the University, but we had only been friends for the past five months, during our project. She had arrived at school with a ready-made boyfriend; she and her high school sweetheart, Jim, had enrolled together. He was an architectural student and I had met him several times at various parties, but I didn’t know him very well. They had been living together for the past three years and the couple was affectionately known by the student body with the colloquial - ‘JJ’.

“It looks like it,” I responded to her question. “I don’t see any other option.” We had been discussing my post graduation plans. She had accepted a job with a local firm so that she and Jim could continue living together while he finished his fifth year. I had been accepted to grad school, but had no money and no scholarship. I had been so set on attending grad school that I had not attempted to find a job. Therefore, my only prospect was the Navy, and I had just accepted their offer to teach at the Nuclear Power School.

“Are you coming to the campout?” Jenny changed the subject. While Jenny and I frequently exchanged teasing verbal flirtations during our hours together, our relationship was completely platonic. She had given me a lipstick smearing kiss on my cheek for Valentine’s Day, but beyond that I had hardly ever touched her skin. Therefore, it was a surprise when she invited me to tag along with her and Jim to a weekend campout at Hippy Hollow with a group of his architectural student friends. I had imagined that she had accidentally spoken the invitation, and didn’t really mean it, so I had ignored it. However, now she asked again with a distinct sincerity in her voice.

“Sure, sounds like fun.” I didn’t have anything else to do over the weekend. I had been to Hippy Hollow twice before. It was a secluded alcove on the shore of a local lake where the students went to party and sunbathe naked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.