Accepted

I've been accepted to my culinary arts program. The call came earlier this week.
I'd pimp for congratulations but I didn't even know that acceptance was up for consideration. This program is run by a vocational school, so I figured that enrollment equals acceptance. But no. And that's fine.
All this was prompted by the completion of course prerequesities last week: a job readiness class, orientation, and a life skills seminar. None of them were at all necessary for me, but they were educational, sort of like going back to high school where the quality of students is so dramatically stratified. One chap became argumentative about trivialites ("how do we know you're not telling us all this stuff for your own benefit!?"), another openly fell asleep in the front row. The guy next to me made calls on his mobile during an exam.
I share these as observations only. From the start it was clear that this experience could provide a mountain of comedic material. But that form of smug, ironic chuckling is so tired; it has no appeal to me. But, neither do I intend to romanticize or excuse the disorganized and often self-destructive behavior that I've already seen among colleagues-to-be. That kind of (intended) neutrality will surely be bad for ratings, but what the hell. A mid life career change probably shouldn't be the source of sneering comedy anyway.

August 15 classes begin.