Are colleges clique'ish?

h_thealogian
Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:28:43 +0000

It does depend on the school, but what I’ve noticed is that cliques tend to form out of people’s natural fear of learning something new.

Ironically, a college can actually remove that fear. Some of the schools I’ve seen caused people to gather friends from all walks of life; all that was required was that you had SOMETHING in common with that person, be it a love of theater, or a passion for Russian literature, or a need to be intensely Democratic.

Yet at the same time, you might realize that the person you’re friends with is a Republican, and loves theater, or perfers Eurypides over Tolstoy, but voted for Al Gore last election.

The one thing that draws you to a person doesn’t mean that all your interests will be alike.

It’s actually a very cool thing, because then you wind up meeting people who have a wide variety of interests, and because they share one or two of YOUR interests, you learn about new things from them, and in so learning, you cease to fear the newness of it all.

It’s part of growing up, and it’s actually a lot of fun to experience.