The Rant
Michael Sampson
Issue date: 2/23/10 Section: Opinion
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"My name is Michael Sampson. I played football in high school as well as one year of college. I lift weights for an hour and a half, 5 days a week, and am currently in prep for my first bodybuilding competition. I'm a muscle head."
Why the contrasting characteristics of myself? How can I like reading Michael Eric Dyson books but also lifting weights? How can a geek play football or a muscle head enjoy philosophy?
Simply because I am none of those.
I am fortunate enough to be friends with a very smart and unique woman. Her favorite color is pink and she is unlike any one I have ever met. What is the career she plans on flourishing in? Is it art, poetry, or possibly something super creative? No, it is accounting.
When she first told me her major, I wondered why accounting? It seems so mundane. Quite simply, she chooses accounting because she truly is unique. She fits no category and no stereotype.
One of the issues I notice everyday is that everyone wishes to be just like every one else. Everyone wishes to force some one into a category. He or she must be a geek or other unproductive caricatures.
Humans are social creatures and as a result of that, people tend to mold their own personalities around those stereotypes. They lose their individuality and in the process produce a society full of insecure individuals who all look alike. They all dress alike, they all talk a like and every one is just alike.
Society now seems determined on making everyone act like clones of each other. For example; someone starts by saying it's cool to like a brand of music, then everyone likes it. Someone then says it's cool to wear Nikes; everyone then has to have a pair. Pure conformity at its finest I mean, where is the originality and ingenuity?
What makes my friend a special person is that she cares less about what others think. Her major is accounting because she enjoys math. That may seem uncool to the average person but the average person is indeed a conformist.
The average person is uninteresting and judges based on the norms of current societal trends. The average person cares deeply about what "the in-crowd" thinks. My friend, she isn't average. Nowhere near it.
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