Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

International students beat Americans in so many academic endeavors for one main reason, in my opinion: They study study study hard hard hard.

I've spent more time in the library in the past three and a half years than in my previous life combined. That's throughout two bachelor's degrees and a minor.

Every time I was in the library working on this master's degree, I was in the distinct minority as a white American male. Sometimes, I was the only white guy in the entire place -- except for a few who work there. And I am not stretching it.

Today, that was reflected when they called the names of those of us who earned master's degrees "with honors," which means we got out with a 4.00 grapde-point average -- straight A's.

It went like this:

Foreign name ... foreign name ... foreign name ... foreign name ... Erudite Redneck ... foreign name ... foreign name ... foreign name ... foreign name ... and so on.

My real first name is as Anglo as they come, and my last name is four letters long, one syllable with a long vowel sound -- not common, but it sounds Anglo, nonetheless. They were the only such names in the list of honors graduate students.

Made me proud and somewhat concerned at the same time.

The most statisfying moment was when I sat back down after being recognized with the other honors grads, and my seat mates, fellow worn-out-and-torn-up, bedraggled working adults taking grad classes on top of everything else in life, all rank strangers, each congratulated me. They know how hard it was. I was touched.

Touched also, I was -- or "tetched" as we say in the hills -- when, as my name was called later to walk across the stage and get the empty sheepskin (real diplomas come in the mail, recall), Dr. ER, from up near the rafters in the University of Central Oklahoma's Hamilton Field House, hollered out "Git 'er doooonnneeee!" a la Larry the Cable Guy.

We truly are erudite rednecks, Dr. ER and I. :-)

--ER