A true community
Jen Janes, Opinions Editor
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Perspectives
Since I first began writing for The Highlander, my ideas about community have changed somewhat.
For those of you who don't ever bother to read The Highlander mission statement posted in every single issue (yes, you know I mean you), it tells us that this publication is meant to be "a forum of ideas" for the entire Regis community.
Sometimes I am unsure whether my idea of community changed because of my own growth, or because it had to change in order for me to adapt.
A year ago, I knew only one community: myself. All that stuff about contributing to the larger picture, about communicating to and for my peers, meant absolutely nothing to me.
I was one of the only people I respected, and my opinion was the only one that mattered. I did not even care enough to satirize or parody the community. In essence, everything I wrote was like a personal experience essay, only way better (as if that could be difficult).
Perhaps my learning curve is much lower than a good deal of the rest of yours, but it has taken me until my last couple of years to find a niche in this community. And now that I have, I feel the quivering birth of a single urge: to make fun of it. Yes, I finally care enough about the Regis community to criticize, undermine, contradict, parody, and satirize aspects of our community which I think are undesirable, either in my weekly column, or in the brand-new Squishy Avocado.
But despite my 180, despite my candor and my confessions, it has been brought to my attention via campus gossip that some of our august faculty do not approve of my stance on the personal experience essay. "How odd," I have wondered to myself for the last two weeks, "that anyone should take issue with my personal experience of the personal experience essay, when the criteria for judging personal experiences are, well…non-existent." Is that not, my dearest pedagogues, the whole point of the assignment?
Do not be angry with me, oh Bearers of the Torch of Learning; you may rest assured that I only say these things out of love. I say them out of love for you, the community, and for my own and others' educational experience, to say nothing of the fact that I distinctly remember writing that the personal experience essay that incorporates texts and ideas is acceptable. If I did not care about the nature of the essays I must write, I would not bother bringing to light their deficiencies. In fact, if I did not care, I would probably not bother to write them at all. I write your assigned essays no matter how inane I may or may not find them, and that is why I care.
For those of you who don't ever bother to read The Highlander mission statement posted in every single issue (yes, you know I mean you), it tells us that this publication is meant to be "a forum of ideas" for the entire Regis community.
Sometimes I am unsure whether my idea of community changed because of my own growth, or because it had to change in order for me to adapt.
A year ago, I knew only one community: myself. All that stuff about contributing to the larger picture, about communicating to and for my peers, meant absolutely nothing to me.
I was one of the only people I respected, and my opinion was the only one that mattered. I did not even care enough to satirize or parody the community. In essence, everything I wrote was like a personal experience essay, only way better (as if that could be difficult).
Perhaps my learning curve is much lower than a good deal of the rest of yours, but it has taken me until my last couple of years to find a niche in this community. And now that I have, I feel the quivering birth of a single urge: to make fun of it. Yes, I finally care enough about the Regis community to criticize, undermine, contradict, parody, and satirize aspects of our community which I think are undesirable, either in my weekly column, or in the brand-new Squishy Avocado.
But despite my 180, despite my candor and my confessions, it has been brought to my attention via campus gossip that some of our august faculty do not approve of my stance on the personal experience essay. "How odd," I have wondered to myself for the last two weeks, "that anyone should take issue with my personal experience of the personal experience essay, when the criteria for judging personal experiences are, well…non-existent." Is that not, my dearest pedagogues, the whole point of the assignment?
Do not be angry with me, oh Bearers of the Torch of Learning; you may rest assured that I only say these things out of love. I say them out of love for you, the community, and for my own and others' educational experience, to say nothing of the fact that I distinctly remember writing that the personal experience essay that incorporates texts and ideas is acceptable. If I did not care about the nature of the essays I must write, I would not bother bringing to light their deficiencies. In fact, if I did not care, I would probably not bother to write them at all. I write your assigned essays no matter how inane I may or may not find them, and that is why I care.
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