2008 Woodie Awards
OPINION: Different majors don't mean major differences
Rebecca Snape, Staff Writer
|
If I were to sit down at a Whitworth dining hall table of complete strangers, I guarantee the following questions would be asked to diffuse the all-consuming awkwardness: 1.) Where are you from? 2.) What dorm do you live in? and 3.) What is your major?
We use these questions to place each other into neat little boxes.
You live in BJ? Oh, when was the last time you slept? You're a Mac Man? How are those group showers?
Ballard, huh? You mean, the Nunnery?
Stereotyping each other by major is just as prevalent. We all know that music majors spend their entire lives locked in a practice room. They breathe Mendelssohn. They weep in minor keys.
Political science majors won't shut up about the upcoming elections and the 400-page research paper they seem to always have due. You can spot an art major from across campus - gallivanting about in a skirt worn over clay-encrusted jeans. Don't get too close though! They are probably high.
Elementary ed majors are excessively nice. Business majors are boring. Philosophy majors are argumentative.
Peace studies majors carry around baskets woven by impoverished African children to collect the blood seeping from their hippie-liberal hearts - and they are also probably high.
We need to put people in such boxes, to some extent. Our minds are constantly taking in information, and that information has to be categorized. We could not possibly get to know every person on this campus, so we take shortcuts.
But we have to realize that stereotypes are grand simplifications, and dangerous ones at that.
Take the "typical Whitworth student" stereotype, for example. Disdained by all (even those that fit the mold), this stereotype elicits an image of kids in Young Life sweatshirts, throwing a Frisbee across the Loop with their Bible study buddies, talking about how much they love their longboards or how much they hate "Saga food" because they are unaware of how privileged their cushioned upper-middle class lives really are.
They are probably theology majors.
They probably smoke hookah, but would never stoop so low as to puff on a cigarette.
They are waiting for their wedding day to have their first kiss, and they are ultra-excited about the awkward sex that will ensue.
Some of you hate this "typical Whitworth student." Some of you, at first glance, embody the ideal.
I have news for the both of you.
To the Latter: Some people at Whitworth drink alcohol. Some of them smoke sin-sticks, and some (even those not studying art or peace) smoke other things. Some of them do not believe in God. All of them are confused, whether they admit it or not, and all of them are searching for something beyond themselves.
This is not something found in a mass-produced tract.
This "something" they are looking for must be discovered through personal experience with the world around them, by feeling both the heights of the high and the painful depths of depravity.
There is no need to fear them or their ideas. They are people.
Get to know them.
Hating them or their lifestyle is not going to show them the error of their ways. You live by a philosophy of love. You have been redeemed by a perfect Creator in your pathetic human state and that Creator calls you to show such unqualified grace to the rest of His creation.
So try a little humility and give them a chance.
To the Former: Some people at Whitworth enjoy Frisbee. They love God and seek to live lives that are meaningful and moral. This is something to be admired, not scoffed at. They find peace in fellowship with like-minded others. They connect to God through (heaven forbid!) playing acoustic guitars. They enjoy being kind and warm to people around them, which you all too quickly pass off as a deceptive front.
They are confused, they wrestle with the mysteries of their tiny existence on this planet. They do not choose faith in God as an alternative to intellectual thought. They choose faith in God because God is more real to them than your cynical rhetoric or your substance-highs.
They are not perfect and they do not think they are. They are people. Get to know them.
Hating them or their lifestyle is not going to show them the error of their ways. You seek to be liberal and open-minded. You aspire daily to see the world from a new perspective. You live by a philosophy of love.
So try a little humility, please, and give them a chance.
Rebecca Snape is an opinions columnist and a junior majoring in English and peace studies. Contact her at rebecca.snape@whitworthian.com.
For this reason, The Whitworthian asks readers to be responsible and respectful in any comments posted. The responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not the whitworthian.com. Readers are also encouraged to report questionable comments by e-mailing editor@whitworthian.com.
Be the first to comment on this story