Ordinary: commonplace, unexceptional; customary, usual, normal (Webster's Dictionary).
College is about meeting new people, exploring new ideas and doing new and different things. Why is it that when I decided to come to Ohio University all the way from Buffalo, N.Y., I thought I would experience new things beyond the average high school experience? More than halfway through my third year here, I have realized numerous things. The stereotypical picture of OU is correct as the ideological college campus -brick walkways and buildings, big green lawns and trees... the list goes on. The second thing I have realized is that OU is completely ordinary. And completely high school.
After seeing American Beauty in high school, I had an epiphany. This movie has had a lasting effect on my life, at least to this point. In one part, some character says that there is nothing worse than being ordinary. To me, this was a revelation. I realized I had to step outside of the UGG box. Since this point, I have had a self-realization goal of never being ordinary. But, since coming to this campus, I feel that this campus bleeds ordinary-ity. Walking down the street, it is obvious to the average viewer that the majority of OU students have zero creativity and have failed to take advantage of our democratic freedoms. To me, battling the ordinary has started with the most simple element: appearance. I wear EMS, not North Face. I bought my fuzzy winter boots in Italy, not Australia (or any type of knock-off from Australia, though I once thought that UGGs couldn't get much worse -until they became generic.) I retired my Vera Bradley I had had forever last spring when I lost count of the number of girls with the same one in one day. And please, to all you sisters
family ties are cool. But matching haircuts aren't.
Appearance is the most elemental way of expressing yourself -it's freedom of expression without words. But yet, the ability of students on this campus to be creative is so lacking it is almost unbelievable. Where does this strange desire to fit in come from? To be trendy? Just because Ashlee Simpson is rich, she still lacks talent and fashion sense... actually she lacks all of the senses available to human beings, but that's another topic. Why would anyone ever want to be a carbon copy of someone else? If you know, please fill me in. Now, I realize what some people may be thinking. I am some weird person who is completely against anything new or trendsetting. But no, I'm not. I just like to be a little more original. I like flair. This cookie-cutter phenomenon is not only my own theory. My older sister came to visit me this weekend. We went Uptown to wander into a few stores, and she asked me, Why does everyone look the same? I merely shrugged and said, I dunno; it's Athens. I still don't have an answer. But I do know where all of the independent-thinking and originality-driven people have gone -drowning somewhere in the sea of North Face fleece, UGG Boots, Natty Light cans, Vera Bradley bags, way-too-short ruffled skirt things with the mandatory two-sizes-too-small fit and whatever else this campus has gone crazy about at the time.
Do something different. Do something out of the ordinary -maybe even extraordinary. And P.S., UGG boots aren't cool. They weren't cool last year. The fake UGGs just take a horrific fashion statement down another level. Australians don't even like UGGs, and their country produced them in the first place. And skirt girls -I don't like seeing your butt cheeks. Most people don't.
-Chrissy Lane, a junior journalism major, is The Post's state senior writer. Send her an e-mail at christine.lane@ohiou.edu. 17
Archives
The Post Editorial Board
