I have to say, admissions committee, I'm not entirely sure I reckon
             that college is the right place for me. There's a part of me that still
             thinks that book learning is not all that it's cracked up to be. For
             instance, I think of the widow, who I lived with for a spell, who made me
             wear stiff clothes and eat with a fork and spend my whole day inside,
             listening to her fine speeches and breathing in all that Bible dust in her
             house. She meant well, but I don't think I learned nothing, I mean
             anything, other than starch scratches my skin. Gosh, I'd rather be dressed
             as a girl than wear some of those shirtsâ€"not that I made a good girl, or
             that I want to get into that charade of mine. (I got found out at that,
             real quick. So don't put me up as some sensitive guy trying to get in to be
             women's studies major or anything like that.)
             Anyway, I don't put much stock in book learning as a rule. Like, I
             also think of those fighting families and the room of the girl that died
             that I stayed in for a spell. Whew, I didn't sleep well there. There they
             were, these people, shooting each other full of buckshot for generations,
             while this little girl that died just sat around drawing arms on all these
             pretty looking angels. What did reading about Jesus and learning about
             drawing do for all of them, except make her miserable and make them feel
             But then I think of some of the fine Shakespearean speeches of some
             of these actors I met while traveling down the river. Those fine words of
             Mr. Shakespeare sure made me think that words could be powerful. And more
             than the power of these actors, though, I think about the power of the
             words of Jim. Jim is just about the best friend I ever had. Jim is I
             guess what you would call, admissions committee, a Black Man. All my life
             I was told that Black men wereâ€"well, I won't say the n' world, cause I'm
             ...