Stereotypes

Today it was made clear to me why stereotypes exist. Most specifically, why stereotypes about CU-Boulder exist--and that is because they are true. Let me begin my day for you. This morning I went to a group advisor meeting to finally declare PRE-COMM. I sit down with four other students (most likely freshmen) in awkward silence until one fellow says something brilliant like, "So, uh, do we just sit here?" I couldn't help but reply to such a remark with anything but bitter sarcasm and contempt. "Um--YEAH." And I continued reading. Then the advisor comes in and begins explaining the COMM major to us, how to declare, and so on. The gentleman on my right says that he doesn't really know anything about COMM but he doesn't want to be the Open Option major anymore (yes, he called it a major) because he can't get into the Journalism classes and its bull shit. The advisor is baffled. Before she can collect her thoughts to come up with a response that will make sense to this confused student another guy asks her for a pen. She says, "You don't have a pen? This is a meeting, why don't you have a pen?" And he explains, "I don't have my backpack," as if that is supposed to fill in the missing blanks. So then I look around and realize that NO ONE has a backpack with them. In fact, no one even bothered to change out of sweats. Okay, so I realize it was 8:30 in the AM, but seriously. Who doesn't bring anything with them to a major declaration meeting? How did these people manage to turn in an application to even be admitted into this supposedly world-class institution? I can't believe I am declaring the same major as them--it doesn't say much about me. Actually, I do blame myself, and the rest of the fine Orientation Leadership Team that managed to let fools like this slip through the cracks last summer. (PS--As if I didn't feel stupid enough at this meeting, I found out tonight that my roommate Julie is going to graduate next December. This means that she will graduate from all of college in 2.5 years and start her masters before I even begin my major).

Okay so I got over the meeting. I try to pretend that people like that are the minority here at CU, not the majority. But the rest of the day suggests that this is not the case. In my speech class today we gave our informative speeches. These are to be well-researched, cited speeches, professionally delivered. My topic was about Guide Dogs for the Blind, with a full history and overview of the service it has done in America. I am expecting similarly interesting and intelligent topics, but once again the students of CU followed through with their duty of maintaining our reputation: speech 1- adderall, speech 2- how to get rich, speech 3- how to survive an avalanche when back-country snowboarding, speech 4-how to make homemade beer (with a full demonstration), speech 5- what a girl wants from her man, speech 6- the history of condoms, and speech 7- obesity. Well, I think we pretty much covered it all. The previous 7 topics are an all-inclusive collection of everything the 19-year-old CU student values.

I am very happy to say that I do everything I can to remove myself from this majority, including--oh like--hold down a job and make my own money, go to class every day, carry on conversations that don't include anything about inches of powder at Breck' last weekend, keep up on the Darfur crisis instead of the Jessica and Nick crisis, and maintain a basic knowledge of how to graduate and seek a career.

But this is getting too tangential. If you've made it this far let me apologize for my previous comments. I am off to continue defying the stereotypes that have come to embody CU..... I'm going to study