joseph-85Well, the semester is in full swing.  Here at Oxy, midterm season is within a week of reaching its peak.  A Thursday night in the library is evidence of so much.  My friends were riotously dancing at a school-sponsored concert (RA-RA-RIOT) several weeks back, and intense glares from the herd of first years, horrified that any body could feel so comfortable with themselves, were directed at them.  Poor first years… 

The first few weeks of college is a bizarre time.  Everyone is put into a new environment and many of them still wanna be cool.  I would hope that there are very few people who pass the admissions office at Oxy who simply “don’t care.”  Caring, from my view of our popular culture, is naturally un-cool.  These poor First-Years (we do not call them freshmen) are still putting on the act in hopes for some social recognition they were denied in high school.

They are put into a situation which forces them to pretend to be best friends with these people they met only a few days ago.  You can see these blossoming friendships in the two guys that always eat together, with a changing array of kids who presumably live in their hall.  They have found what most of these people won’t for another couple months.  Their spontaneity excites some, while those who came from the rigidly status-conscious schools look on in befuddlement at these cardinal sinners, wondering why they can’t help but smirk and laugh along with the hyperbolic statements.  It’s good for these people to be here, and most of them will throw away the chains of a foolish social caste based on feigned apathy as its end.  If you don’t, then you’ll wanna transfer to another cog-maker, or Joe D. will give you a sneer next time you call someone you don’t know “weird.”

Ok, enough of that.