Harrison George

I never thought that my last semester in college could be so difficult. It’s not the workload that is hurting me, or the juggling of class, work and my club activities. Those things are all challenging in their own way, but what is really throwing me for a loop is the content of my classes.

As a senior sociology major I am forced to examine every single one of my views on how the world operates on a daily basis. My classes are all based on viewing everyday subject matter from a new perspective.

For example, I am in Sociology of Death and Dying. The class focuses on how society views the process of growing older and dying, and how we react to the natural occurrence of life and death. This class forces me to analyze my own private opinions on death and how it affects me.

Like most normal people I try to avoid thinking about death, either my own or that of my family, whenever possible. This class pushes it to the fore-font of my attention.

I’m also in class entitled Social Deviance. This class has taught me an incredible lesson. From this class I have gathered there is no real universal “right or “wrong” in life; all values are relative based on their specific society or culture.

So anything I might consider to be wrong, weird, or in any way deviant is merely a product of my culture and time period.

Confusing? Try taking 15 hours of this a week – it’ll make your head swim.

The point is that in the last two months alone I have felt my values and world views, things I hold very dear to my heart, begin to mold and shift, and I can see that my outlook on life is currently undergoing a monumental transformation.

But as scary as it is to have your proverbial rug pulled out from under you, I have to remind myself that is exactly why I came to college in the first place. I am here to have my values and opinions tested, and I am prepared to change them if they can’t be defended.

College should be that time in our lives where we are the most open-minded to new ideas. We are away from our parents, our biggest social influencers growing up. And we are still a few years away from joining the “real” world, where we are expected to have our opinions in line. Now is the time we should be testing and experimenting, and be willing to make changes if that’s what the situation calls for.

I welcome you all to willfully step outside your comfort zones while in college and try embracing ideas radical to your own. If you try this, there are only two feasible outcomes – you view both sides of an issue, decide you still agree with your initial opinion, and walk away that much more secure in your beliefs, or you decide there is more logic found in the alternate viewpoint, and you walk away with a more open mind.

Either way, putting your views and opinions to the test will only make you more comfortable in the end with the way you feel, and will help you the next time you feel the need to explain yourself to an ideological opponent who questions you.

I feel as though my values are under a constant attack on a daily basis. But once I get over the feelings of involuntary defensiveness that comes with having strong opinions, and agree to see the issue from the widest perspective possible, I am able to appreciate what college can really do for the mind.

I hope that all students are able to appreciate the college experience in that way.

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