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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Column: Tiffany Lew

I am a living contradiction. I may intend to do one thing, but the exact opposite will occur. I may think I can get up 10 minutes before class starts and arrive on time, but the bus schedule tells me otherwise. I may say to myself that I will get this column done early, but here I am cramming this thing in while “studying” for midterms.

But, as college students, aren’t we all living contradictions?

You know, like that person who wears a t-shirt that claims she “loves nerds” but in reality, would likely refuse to actually date one, let alone be seen with one? (Well, maybe once, but she’d be caught dead at second glance.)

Or your friend who rolls his eyes and pokes fun at the “Crazy Twilight Fan Girls” while he secretly is one of them? (Trust me, he has a huge Edward Cullen poster stashed away in the back closet.)

And what about that roommate who claims she doesn’t really care about her appearance all that much, but spends half of her four-hour breaks at the ARC? (Albeit downing a venti caramel macchiato from Starbucks immediately after, but still.)

Or maybe that guy in your lit class who is an English major yet finds Wordsworth poems and Shakespeare to be quite … lame? (And, no, English scholars, I am not referring to actual limping poems. How is that even possible? I’m using the word as slang.)

I know, I know. Don’t you just hate the hypocrisy of it all?

Well, truth be told, I am all of the above things.

I claim to love nerds, but doubt I would ever really want to be with a real one (guys who study at the library the day before finals do not count.)

I’m obsessed with Harry Potter, yet I also have a Hot Topic Edward Cullen poster lying on my floor just itching to be put up.

I would like to think I don’t care much about my health or appearance, yet I usually make the effort to bike to the ARC from the opposite end of campus four times a week.

In short, I am a “Wish-I-could-care-less-about-my-appearance English major who doesn’t like poems yet loves Harry Potter and, yes, also Twilight.”

So whether I like to admit it or not, I am a part of the college culture. I’m part of this culture of contradictions. Idiosyncrasies. Hypocrisy. Yet I am also part of this culture of humor. Sarcasm. Wit. (Well, at least that’s what I tell myself to help me fall asleep at night.)

And that is what I hope to convey to all of my readers (however small that population likely is) this year.

I would like to think that I’m not a part of all this “silly nonsense,” but, of course, I will likely be a contributor to it all through these columns and so be it.

After all, I aspire to write superb weekly columns. Through my superior intellect and insight (no sarcasm intended) I intend to demonstrate to you all just how hilariously un-cool our “hip culture” is at times. (Do you really need to be wearing that oversized plaid shirt?)

C’mon, deep down we all know that we tend to do the dumbest things and justify our actions because “it’s cool and everyone else is doing it.”

We all know that 20 years from now when that first gray hair is sprouting out, we’ll all be laughing in disbelief at the younger, sillier versions of ourselves – the version that used an all-nighter to cram an entire quarter’s worth of material into one night because you decided to experience your first real party.

The things we do and follow as college students may, at times, be uncomfortable truths. As the saying goes, though, “It is what it is.”

So ultimately, my job isn’t just about highlighting things. It’s about bolding and underlining (imagine your professor doing all of that on one of your papers) whatever college oddities come hurling at us.

Hold on tight. Rather, just let go.

TIFFANY LEW would be ecstatic if more than her handful of friends read her column online. If you would like to help on her quest of shameless self-promotion, contact her at tjlew@ucdavis.edu.

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