Diversity in Personality

It's strange and interesting coming to college and meeting people who are different from you.

Quite the revelation huh? I guess it doesn't sound all that groundbreaking, but over the past few months I've really come to appreciate having people around me that are completely different. And maybe that's a natural discovery that comes along with being a college freshman.

I think that in high school it was just not as easy, or acceptable to be different from the average student. Or maybe it just wasn't the right place to be different. That's not to say there weren't different people in high school, that's completely untrue, but I do think that one cannot truly express how unique they are unless they have different situations to express that uniqueness in. College happens to be the perfect proverbial "venue" for just this type of expression.

You see, people don't realize how little time they get to show off their individuality in high school; sure, there was always some time in school and some time outside of school where you could let people get to know you better, but after that, you went home. At college, you are always here. Barring going home for the weekend or holidays, or spending every second of your life in your dorm room, we spend just about every waking second (as few as there may be) with friends.

This means people are constantly interacting with one another, and with interaction comes one of two things: conformity, or diversity. College is a diverse place, and personalities range from the freaky to completely normal all the way to the quiet eccentric guys living in the next room over. I can't imagine struggling to show people who I am in high school anymore because it's so much easier now in college. Most people start to clearly define themselves in college, and they inevitably carry the things they learned about themselves there for the rest of their lives.

So with all of this comes an inevitable question/problem: what if we don't know who we are? That can be incredibly scary, and it can be magnified by all the confident people around us who look like they know exactly who they are. However, I always take comfort in the idea that there is no rule book, all of us are just sort of making it up as we go, and as much as everyone around us may look like they've 'got it all together', they are just as scared as we are, and I think that should be an encouragement to all of us.

So no matter who you are, or who you think you might be, you should always keep this in mind: everyone is just making it up as they go.

-Dave