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Sunday, July 30, 2006

Of schools and cliques

(Thanks to Gloria for this entry.)

I attend the University of Texas at Dallas. You may not have heard of it, but it's a good school. No, wait, it's a GREAT school with wonderful professors and equipped with state-of-the-art technology. In my opinion, the school doesn't determine the quality of the students as much as the students determine the quality of the school. If people can't be proud of their school, how can they make it a good school? When asked where I go to school, I emphasize the "DALLAS" part. "No, it's not the one in Austin, it's the one in Dallas. It has even higher average SAT scores than Austin, and many students actually choose it over Austin." Just because people haven't heard of it doesn't mean I have to be ashamed of it. If I don't help spread the word, how would others be aware of it?? If I look down on my own school, of course others will look down on it.

UTD may not be the perfect school but I'm proud I went there (and still going). We may have a geeky mascot, the "Comet", but personally I think it's cooler than a silly mascot, like a dancing bear (no offense to those from schools with dancing bear mascots!)

Gloria mentioned that one good thing about UTD is that the people here are "color blind", compared to her experience back in high school. I think such segregation happens everywhere, but is especially prominent during the high school period. It's not just about color. People are trying to "find themselves" and obtain a sense of identity and it can be a high priority for teens and consume their lives (although they might not realize that or see it that way). By belonging to a group/clique, you can identify with something. To take it a step further, you exclude those that are not able to identify with the group. UTD has an advantage in the sense that many students are older and more mature and won't play such games. (although that's changing since the average age is getting lower and lower every year.)

When I was in high school and the first year of college (in Singapore), I was never really part of a specific group. I have one or two really close friends and that's it. We don't consider ourselves as part of some clique (plus my two best friends and I are in 3 different schools!) I did hang out occasionally with the librarians, the computer geeks, the band geeks, the cool gang (even though some girls in there are bitchy, there are a few that can be just as geeky as me although they try not to show it)... to others it may seem that I don't have a sense of self. Maybe I was just thick skinned (perhaps not realizing that some of the groups didn't want me there). Maybe I don't know who I am. But I know who I'm NOT: I'm not a one-dimensional person. I don't need a group to define who I am. Maybe it helps that I'm a loner - I'm usually leaving people out instead of the other way around.

For me, it's more about individual friends than group of friends. Even for Big6, I don't see you girls as a group of friends I have. I see 5 individually wonderful and special persons that I'm lucky enough to befriend.

cybette wrote this at 04:36 PM
Comments

puahahahahaa!

this is a topic that we can sit down and talk hours about! but right now i only have....less than 4 hours of sleep left (and it took me 4 days just to finish the second part of the story...it's a record!!!)

but it's funny though. my second part of the story is basically talking about what you were talking about here. in the third part i'll focus more on why UTD is a little more "color blind". not only are people more mature in college, i think high schoolers are forced to get out of their comfort zones (and away from the little circles), so they are forced to think independently and act independently. very often people only acted a certain way during high school because of peer pressure (also because we needed the assurance from our peers).

it takes a great deal of courage to actually BE who you are, especially during high school. i didn't have that self-assurance back then (and i'm not all THAT sure about who i am yet :P).

ok...i definitely need to go to bed...

Posted by Gloria -- July 31, 2006 11:51 AM