Termite TV - Life Stories

Hello. I’m Jonathan Clark from the University of Tennessee and Knoxville Tennessee and I hate being in front of a camera but it’s not very often you get a chance to speak your mind on some issues. And I feel that, uh, it’s my duty. I’ve earned my right to say a couple things. Um, I’m graduating next Saturday, as none of you know, and I’ve served my time at UT. I have this problem with the precedent that society is set, that one must obtain a college education to ever succeed in life. I started college in 1994 and I started in the college of engineering, which was a huge mistake in which I wasted two years of my life. I was beating my head against a concrete wall. It’s kind of hard but you get tired of butting yourself in that kind of situation. In late 1995 I decided I was going to quit college. I was going to test this conventional reality that “one must go to college to succeed”. I didn’t believe in that. I quit school for almost two years and I had a steady job. I was making good money and I worked this job for about a year. One day the big boss man comes in with this pink piece of paper and he’s like “here son” and I’m like “well, what is this?” Maybe a pay raise you know, something telling you you’ve done a good job. Well, you open it up and it’s a pink slip and as a lot of you know, a pink slip means you’re out of a job. The world came crashing down, you know? What are you to do? You’re 20 years old, no steady income, no savings and you’re just getting by day by day in life, which was not enough for me. About six months later after a lot of thinking, I decided to go back to college. And let me tell you, wow, what a decision in my life. Like I said before, I’m fixing to graduate. I just acquired my first career position with Script Studios, which is a major turning point in my life. And I just feel that, sometimes society’s right. We like to test the conventional reality, that society sets and sometimes that test is well deserved. I feel that I tested it and I definitely gained a lot out of it. Another thing I want to speak about is this whole “drug issue”. Drugs are not the devil. A lot of people think they are. I smoked pot for 8 years and in that time I’ve acquired a high school degree a college diploma and I now have a steady job. Well I’ve held a steady job since I was old enough to go to work but now I’m starting a career. And, I don’t see anything wrong with it. There’s a lot of issues out there with regard to drugs of a harsher nature; cocaine, crack, whatever you name it. I’ve had friends who were strung out, friends who done this, friends who done that and everybody says it starts with smoking pot. Well, let me tell you, there’s a whole lot more to it. There’s a whole other issue to it. Basically, that’s my take on that. And the next thing is violence in schools. What’s wrong with these kids and these guns in schools? I don’t see it. I’ve hunted since I was about 7 years old. I own approximately 20 guns, about 4 of which are pistols. I don’t see any need to go out, shooting kids up, shooting people period. There’s a fine line between protection and hate and people need to explore these lines and learn what it’s about. Basically that’s it.