Aside from being slightly older and on the opposite side of Grounds, I found new-school-year
Charlottesville to be almost exactly as I left it: the people are charming, the architecture impressive and the weather predictably unpredictable. One thing that is not the same, however, is that many of the people I had known have now graduated, and as a result, many more are coming in whom I’ve never met before.
Of course, I have barely even started my second year, so even the idea of someone younger than me on Grounds requires some getting used to. But as I observed the hoards of hall-units walking over to Grounds for Discussion, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had been quite as prepared as the first-years in these crowds seemed to be. And I mean prepared, because making its way across the courtyard of Alderman Library was a sea of floral sundresses, Ray-Ban aviators, button-up shirts and Sperry Top-Siders. All this, and it’s not even rush yet.
People say that first-years are easy to spot, which makes them easier to avoid, but as much as I could think back to my lanyard and tight-backpack days — not even twelve months ago — I could not remember anything being as organized and uniform as what I was seeing. There were, of course, football games, Foxfield and several other events that would call for a certain “style,” but in this case there was no such occasion, unless you count the opening of Newcomb N2 as pearl-worthy.
This is not to clump the “first-year” demographic into a unique species to be studied and observed, but my friends and I agreed that the new behavior was different than what we had been used to seeing. The traveling in packs, the awkward introductions and the exploration of Grounds were all parts of the first-year experience, yet yesterday alerted me to what I think may be a greater issue when it comes to students at the University: the unofficially preppy “image” of what it means to study here.
It could just be in my mind, but combined with personal understanding and the archetypes set by John Hughes and American Pie films, it seemed to me like high school and college offered two different rights-of-passage: the former being to “fit-in,” and the latter to “find one’s self.” While this is a sweeping generalization which omits a number of behavioral factors, I feel like there is a certain truth to it. Why, then, does it seem like the newcomers have been encouraged to do just the opposite?
Different schools have different unofficial “images,” some rooted in location and others in history. Here at the University, there’s no doubt that both location and history have molded us into a unique cultural establishment, and rising from that establishment are the origins of our “preppy” look. As a student and a first-year not too long ago, I admit that I quite enjoyed the look and still do, but what I loved even more about the University is that it didn’t force me to take part in the look.
What concerns me, though, is that most of the underclassmen I saw yesterday were not given the chance to decide. And as students of the University, it is important that we encourage individualism before we welcome newcomers to join the ways of what’s “traditional” and “standard.” While I am confident that the current first-years will soon settle into their own ways and no longer be a spectacle to upperclassmen, in the mean time, I invite all students first-year and beyond to experience the University in its best form: through a style and point of view — Ray-ban or not — that you construct for yourself.
Denise Taylor is an opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at d.taylor@cavalierdaily.com.
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