I remember little of the classes at Richland College except for a few;
one was a History of English Literature class, which introduced me to Keats
and Yeats and Tennyson and Shelley through an instructor who *loved* his
work and the writers in question. He just breathed life into the words,
and he encouraged me strongly to pursue my writing.

Beyond that, there were mainly classes in psychology, sociology,
some math stuff, and philosophy. One was a History of Greek Philosophy
course (Thales to Aristotle), which I just loved. By virtue of taking a
LOT of electives over the years in areas that interested me, I kinda ended
up with a classical education. It's more breadth than depth, but it gives
me the tools I need (over the course of four colleges/universities and
a couple of degrees) to find whatever more is necessary for stories or
scripts.

The best thing about the year or so I spent at Richland was that at
this time (around 1973), beat poetry was still in vogue (well, it was OUT
of vogue everywhere else, but trends always start and finish first on the
coasts, then work their way inland from there), and every day at noon by
the commons there would be performances of beat poetry, which led me to
explore Ginsburg and Ferlinghetti ("This Life Is Not A Circus Where"
and "Christ Came Down" being two favorites) and other contemporaries.

I've always been naturally curious about stuff, and to me the college
experience was the chance to find out about *anything*. So I just dived
in and took it for all it was worth. If I'm going on about this a bit,
it's because I know there are lots of folks here who are currently in or
entering college. If you only see the parking lot and the cafeteria and
the bathrooms and the classrooms of the courses you have to take...you're
missing the point. It's an *amazing* opportunity that will likely not
come your way again in such plentitude. Take courses in areas outside your
major, even if just to audit them. There are amazing opportunities you
can mine if you're a writer, also...college newspapers, magazines, low
power local/college radio and TV stations, theater department productions,
on and on and on.

Granted...a lot of college was a pain in the ass. I took a lot of
stuff I didn't want, didn't need, and have never used because they were
required for my major. (One semester, just to get RID of some of this
stuff, I took 24 units -- crashing classes over my 16 unit limit in order
to sneak past the rules -- at one time, while working part time. It was
a profound mistake, since it included 8 units of German and classes in
Statistical Psychology, Biology and other stuff. Major brain-fry.)

But overall, the experience was rewarding, and I encourage a
generalist approach to others. If you're going to be there, ENJOY it.

jms