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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2001)
Friday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com COLLEGE: enjoy it or get out DIARY OF A MALCONTENT MICHAEL J. KLECKNER I have to say, all occasional whining aside, I’m really pret ty happy with my education at the University so far. I’ve found my major courses, in journalism and philosophy, to be generally on target and rewarding. In the places where I felt the curriculum wasn’t what I expected or wanted, I was often able to do extra work or tailor 'an assignment to fit my academic desires. In the extracurricular sphere, the University has offered plenty of opportunities, even if I haven’t participated a lot. There’s really only one thing that continues to make me all puffed up with indignation. Or maybe it con tinues to depress me. The least sat isfying aspect of my college career has been die remarkable sense of ennui I’ve seen in my fellow stu dents. Ennui (pronounced ON WEE), for those of you who have never been inspired to learn the word, comes from the French circa 1732, and it means “a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction,” ac cording to my Webster’s Dictionary. Perhaps it’s a little dramatic to use “ennui” to describe today’s col lege students. It would certainly be a generalization to say that all stu dents are bored and dissatisfied. There are some high achievers out there, and they can read this col umn and sympathize with me. But a healthy percentage of the stu dents I sit in classes with seem as if they would really rather not be bothered. I have to ask, what’s up with this crap? This is an institution of high er learning. Yes, it’s imperfect, but it is attempting to follow a fine tra dition of creating the mentally elite. I’m perhaps a little old-fash ioned about this, but I believe there is a difference between having job skills (god forbid that’s all college is for) and being a civic-minded, well-rounded citizen. Unfortunately, it seems like many of the kids I have to put up with in classes couldn’t care less about be ing a citizen or thinking about or interacting with the social discourse. The attitude instead is, “Well, I can slog through this class and the next, and then I’ll have my degree and I can get a good job, and the worthwhile part of life will come later.” This attitude does n’t work, and it’s pathetic. Years ago, when I graduated from high school and was living in the Big Apple, all eager and excited to begin studying acting at New York University, I had an epiphany, of sorts. My high school friends and I were miserable. New York was un pleasant, the daily grind of city life was more like a high-powered, in dustrial-strength food processor, and we desperately wanted to feel like something we were doing was fulfilling. After a long weekend of drinking coffee and talking and yelling and cry ing, we decided to get out. College in New York wasn’t for us at that time. We didn’t want to spend years of our lives hoping the fulfillment would come someday. What a waste, we thought. ) ■ Shouldn’t people be doing things that make them feel ful filled today, right now? I realized that if I put off a sense of con tentment in my life until after college, it wouldn’t end there. I would get an entry level job and have to put off contentment even longer. Once I moved up the ladder and had more respon sibility, I would still be waiting for that ex citement, that joie de vivre (another contri bution from the French, this time from 1889, mean ing a “buoyant enjoyment of life”). Ultimately, satisfaction would nev er come, because we would always be living in anticipation of it and never working to make it happen now. I hate to sound like the old man who scolds the youngsters for liv ing poorly, but guess what? I’m old er than you and I know better. If you spend every day thinking your classes are drudgery, you will have a job that feels like drudgery. You will have a life that feels like drudg Giovanni Salimena Emerald ery. Maybe when you’re old and re tired, you’ll finally find life fulfill ing. That’s not too likely, actually. My guess is you’ll end up middle aged and pathetic, like the guy in “American Beauty. ” What a waste. My motives for writing this are not to get everyone to drop out. The University needs its tuition dollars. But for students who mope and whine their way through classes, I have this to say: Get out! Stop wast ing my time and money. Stop hold ing back the learning by asking stu pid questions because you were too lazy to read the assignment. Stop acting like spoiled brats who think they deserve a cakewalk through college and a cakewalk through their careers and a cakewalk through life. You don’t deserve it. You have to earn it. I’m sure the above rant doesn’t apply to most of the students on campus. Really. And the soft side of the rant is that it would be in the best interests of the dissatisfied stu dents to get out. Go play and party and live life for a while. Come back when you’re interested in some thing. Because the funny part is, if one does live in the moment, and ex pects fulfillment now, and actually works to realize that fulfillment, things are easier and more reward ing at the same time. Life doesn’t have to be drudgery. Thinking and being engaged in the world around us are fun, if one has the knowledge to understand the world and criti cally evaluate it. And then ennui can be simply a fun affectation to put on. Combined with an educa tion, a sense of elitism and a black turtleneck, ennui can actually be a satisfying part of life. Michael J. Kleckner is the editorial editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. He can be reached at opededi tor@journalist.com. Letters to the editor Candidates with the right stuff I am writing in an effort to share my opinion about the upcoming ASUO elections. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to learn that Nil da Brooklyn and Joy Nair are run ning for ASUO Executive. These two women provide the insight and experience that are necessary for a successful governing student body. They will create an environment in which all students can excel by working with the surrounding com munity, as well as with state legis lators and campus administration to make higher education accessi ble to all. Nilda and Joy will also work to protect student control of student fees so that all programs continue to be regulated by and for the students. I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I hope that by the time the election rolls around, everyone remembers that Nilda and Joy are the candidates with the experience and leadership to establish a student government that works for the good of all stu dents. Megan Hughes freshman pre-journalism
