San Juan, 5 October 1984

Dear Mr. Sterling –

 

	Well hello, stranger. I’ve been meaning to write to you for months now, but have never quite been able to get around to it (obviously) until now, of course. So – what’s new? How’s school?  Have you finished your novel yet? So tell me already! (Note that sense of urgency letters never really get across.) –

I am doing fine, but then I’m always doing fine, so that doesn’t tell you much. Argentina is more or less agreeing with me. My host family is wonderful, naturally. My host brother only drives me up the wall occasionally, because he is, in my eyes, immature. It’s probably just the age difference between us (he’s 17). We like each other, though, so we get along. –

I am gravely disappointed with the school system I have been put into here, however. The methods are about 100 years old, and make me appreciate the value of the education I have received in the US. The students have virtually no rights, and do not elect their courses nor teachers – only which type of secondary school they will go to, technical, commercial, or humanistic (i.e., humanities).  The course of study is the same throughout the nation for all schools of the same class (i.e., technical). But the biggest fault I encounter is the lack of individual and creative work within the curriculum, a fault which causes rampant cheating/copying and memorization without understanding (my opinion and observation). – 

My obligation to attend school here is more personal than official – I go because I want to learn, and often become frustrated with my classmates and teachers who do not take the work seriously. However, whether anything is ever achieved in class or not, I, being foreign, learn something always by just being there, so all is not lost. I merely worry about getting out of practice for University. –

UNIVERSITY! Yes, the rumors are true, I am planning on going to college someday. Actually, now that I’ve gotten around to it, I’d appreciate your opinions here. I’ve more or less decided that I want to go to UC Irvine, with my major as yet undeclared. Now, why UC Irvine? Several reasons, actually. One, it’s affordable, being UC. It’s located in an area where I would be happy living, an area with a lifestyle and future possibilities such that I would like to make my permanent residence there. And, well, being here in Argentina, it’s the only University I know of at the moment that fills those two requisites. Unfortunately, I know virtually nothing about the actual campus or curriculum, except that it seems to be strong in Business and Biology. –

Business, by the way, would be my probably eventual major. I don’t really like it, but it seems useful and lucrative. Political science and/or something like public relations I want to study as more like minors. English and literature will remain as hobbies/interests. And I’ll continue as a second-rate actor because I would like to become the President of the United States someday. –

There, now that you know my current interests and considerations, feel free to respond freely. What do you think about UC Irvine? I’ve also got another little problem. I’m applying now to UCI (priority deadline is 30 November), but I haven’t yet taken my College Board exams. Can I take them in February, when I get back, and be accepted to the University for fall quarter of ’85? The students handbook and application pamphlet say nothing about my extenuating circumstances, and I’ve no idea. I have to get accepted to a University for fall of ’85 (or I’ll die).

I shall write more soon. Please answer me promptly – I’m even enclosing stamps for you! And – Thanks.

				Sincerely, Randall

P.S. – ‘Member me?







Dear Randy,

	Randy who? Of course I don’t remember you, Henry. Of course I have still nagging at the back of my mind the sense of incompleteness, the lack of closure, the feeling that here’s another one who didn’t quite get away but who didn’t quite finish everything he might have, which only means the relationship continues, mentor, friend. Whoever you are. I thought I’d better take a break from the work I never finish (papers I’m grading with greater and greater precision, as time allows; letters of recommendation I’m preparing—that cycle again; the panic I feel that my students are not ready enough, not serious enough, don’t know enough, haven’t learned enough…all in the first few weeks of the semester) and drop you a line, since I’ve been carrying your letter around with me and meaning to get something down and posted. So…:

I called an admissions officer at UCLA, explained your situation and asked on behalf of Irvine and/or UCLA, and she said: Irvine doesn’t have the competition that UCLA does, but even at UCLA you would be admitted on the basis of your grades/transcripts (do you have or need a copy?), could take your tests when you return to confirm/finalize the admission procedure. Have you filled out/sent your application yet? If not, do so now during the month of November.

Irvine: good school, good choice, good/small/intense campus. I’m aware of the special reputation for their MFA in creative writing, their strong dance department, their respected programs in sociology and other social sciences, so undoubtedly a good choice if business is your goal. I don’t know about the business program there, but think you can’t go wrong, will flourish and make quite an impact. A caution about business as a major if you announce it (too) early: study the parameters of the course of study, get an education first (poly.sci/publ.rel. might form a more “productive” basis for the education upon which you will build the business emphasis; I just don’t want to see you tied up in the knots of economics, manipulative trends, the psychological dependence on behavioral modification toward self-aggrandisement in the definition of an acquisitive identity…I don’t want you to become a philistine).

I look forward to seeing you, talking literature & culture (I don’t get many/enough students (or friends) of your level of intensity) and hearing about your experiences, however filtered.

Other questions, which I don’t think you ask merely in the tone of chit chat to be polite, but because “that sense of urgency letters never really get across” is not really screened out. Yes, my novel’s finished, looking for a publisher, with so far no luck whatsoever as economic conditions militate against a breakthrough and publishers cannot gamble on unknowns (what else is new?), but I continue to peck away have written a number of hard-hitting socio-political poems, another sci fi story, am trying to find time to read Pynchon and Piercy; and (this I hate) am taking courses at Cal State in order to get a clear credential (the life credential I have is k-8, and the secondary single subject is constrained by new laws), mainstreaming & teaching the handicapped, courses in “substance abuse,” all poor excuses for taking up my time with empty gestures and some of the worst teaching I’ve ever encountered from those who are supposed to be the leaders in the profession. We live in parlous times, fella. And they’re putting chloramines in the water now—tastes terrible, people (we too) are buying bottled water, markets all have water purifiers vending a gallon at a time for 35 cents; and the up-coming election is very scary, not ideal choices to run our wonderful country, and Regan’s mental grip is visibly slipping, I don’t know what you’ll come home to… And at ___, Mr. J.C., late of ___ Jr. High, is the current administrator with heavy boots for stomping and kicking, a bull horn for yelling at students and staff (this, at least, is literally true: “Get to class! Move along! On the right side of the halls!”), and a curious notion that the best way to help the minority students is to inflate their grades (he has changed/raised the grades several teachers have given, an illegal act on his part, but he believes that no student should fail, all students should be allowed to take honors or AP courses whether or not they meet prerequisites… many stories there). I have two “average” 9th grade classes (didn’t ask for them, there’s no real curriculum for them, but I don’t just want to complain or cry on a distant shoulder), but two good Comp.& Crit. Classes (many good students, plus quite a number mis-programmed…what else is new?) and (let me see if it works to type on the other side) one World Lit AP class just after lunch but doing well (digesting literature). Yes I love my students, am proud of them (so what else is new?) and am really pleased by their progress though of course am not (never) satisfied.

An unhappy note—you may not have heard. Tom___ just died a few days ago, climbing in Yosemite with David____. I don’t know the details of how or why he began to suffer from exposure/hypothermia, but couldn’t be saved. The family wants no service and I haven’t yet seen them or David. I was very close to Tom and it’s hard right now to know what to say just typing this. I remember one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read was a tribute he wrote for a friend and fellow climber who died whose ashes were scattered in the mountains by his friends.



I don’t think I’ll write much more right now but don’t want to end on a sad note. No, there were no stamps enclosed in your letter, but that’s ok because we do have a postal system here that ought to reach Argentina (were you sending me Argentine stamps??). I hope you weren’t kidding about wanting to become the President of the United States (hurry and grow up to 35). Sure, I’ll write again, even send you some of my class notes from the mainstreaming course… 

					

							Take care.



By the way, if you (ever) need a letter of recommendation, I can dust off and update what I wrote before – a free offer.