Happy Humpday Haiku #48

Institutionalized

Being complacent

Is bad if you don't enjoy

Your station in life.

            You'll often hear the term to describe someone who's made a life in the prison system, and upon leaving the comfort of its familiarity finds the outside world difficult to handle. Such was the character Red from the film The Shawshank Redemption, as well as the character Jimmy from the show Breaking Bad (who will go to jail for you if the cost is right, so sayeth the lawyer). I'm finding my time in education to be similar to how I would imagine someone becoming institutionalized within the prison system. The daily routine is familiar and comforting. There is a slow but constant change in faces. The workload is hard, but manageable. And every once in a while someone tries to shove something up my butt.

            At the moment, I'm indifferent to how complacent to the structure I've become. I use to despise the emotion. I used to believe that growing comfortable meant settling for less than your potential. And while I don't see myself staying in Korea past September, I feel that if I stay out of education for too long, I'm going to become a bit edgy. Then again, for the last 18 or so years education is all I've known. And yet, there's something about the classroom that I've always found alluring.