Redemption
I have always thought that The Shawshank Redemption could be viewed an allegory for the journey to complete a PhD. You chip away and chip away at your walls for years, doing little more than beating your head against the stone. You need luck to be able to continue your project because you could easily have to begin from scratch. The university is your prison; the lab your cell. The warden is your supervisor; the guards your committee members. Writing your thesis is solitary confinement. Your committee is also well symbolized by the Sisters: sometimes you can fight them off; sometimes you can't. You may be lucky and have friends/labmates (like Red played by Morgan Freeman) that make your stay enjoyable as it can be.
Once you've been away from the real world long enough, you start to find comfort in the walls that protect you from the outside world. You become institutionalized like Brooks. You are scared of the prospect of freedom, and try to find ways of extending your stay. You realize that you do not know how to survive in the outside world. However, inevitably the day will come when you will have an opportunity to swim through a tunnel of shit to emerge into freedom on the other side.
You find your courage and make a dash for freedom. When you finally make it to the warm sandy beaches of Mexico, you look back on your imprisonment as if it were a dream. You wonder if you could have found a way to make your escape sooner. You begin to see your experience for what it is: a surreal odyssey. Like a war veteran, you realize that most people in the real world have no concept of what you've been through. Likewise, you have no concept of what it's like to sit on the beach and do absolutely nothing. You have forgotten what it's like not to be weighed down by the oppressiveness of prison life.
Satisfaction comes not from a piece of paper, but from knowing that you have been tested and you have survived. The reward is the knowledge that you can do it, and nothing more. It is worth it.
Once you've been away from the real world long enough, you start to find comfort in the walls that protect you from the outside world. You become institutionalized like Brooks. You are scared of the prospect of freedom, and try to find ways of extending your stay. You realize that you do not know how to survive in the outside world. However, inevitably the day will come when you will have an opportunity to swim through a tunnel of shit to emerge into freedom on the other side.
You find your courage and make a dash for freedom. When you finally make it to the warm sandy beaches of Mexico, you look back on your imprisonment as if it were a dream. You wonder if you could have found a way to make your escape sooner. You begin to see your experience for what it is: a surreal odyssey. Like a war veteran, you realize that most people in the real world have no concept of what you've been through. Likewise, you have no concept of what it's like to sit on the beach and do absolutely nothing. You have forgotten what it's like not to be weighed down by the oppressiveness of prison life.
Satisfaction comes not from a piece of paper, but from knowing that you have been tested and you have survived. The reward is the knowledge that you can do it, and nothing more. It is worth it.
Well said Tyson.
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T-Bone. Hope that you can relax during your well-deserved vacation. Also hope that you always look back in fondness on all the friends you met along the way. Carve you name somewhere in the dessert so I can inscribe, “Dustin was here too” when I get done. Love ya buddy.
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