Editing Demetrios Alissandratos

== Found diary entry of Maria Neumann, former Minister of Colleges and Universities in Ontario ==

I need to get this down on paper, I just need to vent and I’m definitely not able to talk about this with anyone so here I am. I haven’t written in some kind of diary or journal since I was a kid, but I don’t know how else to get this off my chest so here goes nothing. You would think that being the new Minister of Colleges and Universities in Ontario would be something to celebrate, but all I’ve gotten from this position so far is the delightful combination of headaches and stress. I didn’t realise just how tenuous my position is, naïve in hindsight when of course that’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t be publicised beyond the obvious political disaster everyone and their grandmother can see. 

I mean of course I went into this knowing about the obvious tension, people are more concerned than ever about the cost of post-secondary education and its increasing necessity if you want a job at all. Truthfully, I thought I could do more about it. Sure it wouldn’t make me friends with any movers and shakers but I really thought I could make a difference in subsidising postsecondary in some fashion or another. “Maria Neumann saves our schools” really has a nice ring to it . . . but real life is never so simple. That’s what I get for letting my optimism blind me to reality, huh? I can still try to make those pushes but it’ll end with me thrown out of this chair before it gets anywhere, with someone more compliant put in my place. 

It always just goes back to money in the end. Those with money want to keep it, so they do everything they can to maintain the status quo. Hell, I’m not innocent in that respect either, sure I put in the work to get here but my family is the definition of “old money.” I’ve always had that leg up but I’ve never felt the weight of it like I do now. I just feel like I’m stuck in this nasty zero-sum game, and its so much worse when I recognise one of father’s old friends coming by to give me a “friendly” reminder about staying in my lane “where I belong” and “leaving the trash in the trash.” People aren’t trash, they’re human beings! How can I make them see that? Is it so wrong to want to help other people who simply weren’t born as lucky as I was? Naïve, naïve, naïve. What could I even do at this point? 

I suppose the question answers itself, really. I can’t do much, but I have to try something or else me being here is pointless. It’ll have to be small things, I can’t push too far to fast, but I need to act and in the worst case scenario I can argue that its for optics. People like father and his “friends” are too old and too stubborn to change their minds, there really isn’t a quick and easy fix to this toxic elitism permeating through the whole system. I’m glad I used this old thing, it really helped kill my panic and organise my thoughts. I’ll hide it away for now I suppose, Lord knows I’ve not got an easy road ahead of me but at least I can see the path now.