LIZ PHAIR
OBERLIN COLLEGE
(Oberlin, Ohio), 1986-90

YOU ALWAYS FELT FREE TO DISagree at Oberlin. You had to read all the "Great Works", but it was OK to have your own opinion. I remember one of my art-history professors being like, "Degas is a misogynist pig." That kind of intellectual misbehavior was so great. The thing that I know about life now that I didn't know then is that all the effort in the world can add up to shit. There really isn't the fairness that you're used to in college. You go from a world where people are paid to support you, to the adult world, where people are paid to keep you from succeeding.