In high school, we were told we could be “anyone we wanted to be” in college. We were told it was full of endless possibilities and thousands of new people whom we could call “friends.” I was excited for the fresh start, for the ability to make a name for myself.
I was going to major in biological engineering but have fun at the same time. I was going to be independent and live how I wanted to because my parents lived four hours away. Well, my assumptions about college daily life were not entirely correct, as I am sure the majority of my readers can attest.
Yes, college is a new and exciting place but, for the most part, the people are similar to those we knew in high school; there are just more of them.
There are three months between high school graduation and the first class of freshman year at college. That’s not a lot of time for teenagers to mature into the young adults they think they’re expected to be at college.
The truth is college is filled with immature teenagers and young adults just trying to make sense of this place. We do not have it all figured out, and I think it is time to stop acting like we do.
I’ll be the first one to admit I judge people by first impressions, which is almost always aesthetics. We walk the Drill Field everyday and see hundreds of new faces every time.
Surely I am not the only one passing judgment on my fellow Bulldogs as we share the same campus, day after day. It does not stop at the Drill Field or even on campus. We choose whom we hang out with, who gets included and who does not and who is considered “cool” or “hot” based on the pre-conceived notions we have gained from the media.
For a group of independent, young adults looking to forge our own paths in life, we surely do rely on other people for self-validation.
My point in all of this rambling is not to incite a campus-wide revolution (although it would be awesome to see my bust somewhere on campus in the future).
If just a few of you reading this decide being a member of the MSU family is more important than one’s clothing or social status, then maybe, just maybe, we can start to change the way we act toward one another.
I’m no saint (except when I root for the black and gold boys), but I have this annoying ability to see all of the things I am doing wrong, even as I do them. I recognize every time I roll my eyes at someone on campus just because he or she does not look like me or when I am speaking ill of one of my “friends” behind his or her back.
Not everyone who attends MSU is going to be “cool” in the way each of us separately define it. However, all of us have something to contribute to the success of this university, and everyone’s time and talents are valuable in some way.
In fact, I reason the truly “cool” individuals are the ones who see others for what they can be, instead of who the media defines them as.
After all, what is the benefit of labels and social definitions other than a feeling of superiority?
Seriously, it is time to grow away from our childish ways and turn college into what we were told it could be: an opportunity to grow and become anyone you want to, no matter who that is.
If we are all truly Bulldogs, then everything else will fall into place.
Ben Leiker is a junior majoring in communication. He can be contacted at
[email protected].