It’s not every day that your professor specifically tells you to write an essay on a boring subject. But then, when you take a course in philosophy, you have to be prepared for anything. Last time, we had to write 10,000 words on a single object we had lying around in her bedroom. The point wasn’t to make it interesting; it was mostly just to see if we could write that many words on a single subject. And let me tell you, after writing 10,000 words on a tennis ball, my brain felt like it’d been slow-roasted.
This assignment is on things we find interesting, but other people might find boring. I don’t know how boring it is to other people, but my uncle used to do pest control in Rosebud, and while I was always up for hearing stories about it, he’d often say that I was the only person who seemed interested. Maybe pest control is the type of thing that everyone needs, but people don’t necessarily want to hear about. I mean, you’re basically displacing a load of creepy-crawlies. It’s not the most glamorous job. But then, if someone worked in an office job wearing a suit and typing numbers into a computer all day, I wouldn’t really want to hear about it. I remember thinking that pest control just sounded really adventurous. Like, you get to travel, meet different people, solve their problems and do battle against hordes of invaders. Cool enough, right?
I’m not sure if it perfectly fits the assignment, but that’s the good thing about philosophy: there are no wrong answers, so long as you justify your work. Most people wouldn’t choose to hear about pest control for Mornington homes or wherever, so I think it fits. I won’t have any trouble writing about it, though. Easier than a tennis ball, and not as many words.
-Sym
