Redirection

So with some guidance from my peers last week, I’ve honed in on what it is I need to do with my blog – redirect! The smattering of ideas floating around is pretty indicative of someone of the Millenial generation – but with a little direction, I am making progress in what I feel is the right direction: what people don’t like about the millenials, and more specifically, Vanderbilt students.

Breaking the stereotypes that society has created for us – and the stereotypes that we have for each other – won’t be easy. To start building my case for the defense of the Vandy students, I first had to find out what exactly we stood accused of. Getting the facts straight was going to be important, because I knew the state (Nashville) was going to come out with some very strong opening remarks.

I started out subtly, browsing racks in stores, or ordering something from a bar. Casually, in what I perceived to be a very undercover, black and white film noir kind of way, I would inquire, “Do y’all get a lot of Vandy students in here?” The responses were universally yes, with varying degrees of confusion as to why I was asking. (I knew they would all be yes; my inner defense lawyer/detective picked the spots carefully.) The answers to me next question, however, were somewhat more varied: “What do you think about the Vandy kids?” 

“I mean, I guess they’re fine.”

“Vanderbilt students aren’t as spoiled as people think.”

“Can I say they are the worst?” (Me: ouch.)

“I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but they are pretty much good for one thing and that’s their credit cards.”

Fair enough. Their answers were ones that I probably could have deduced on my own. In my four years here, I’ve seen Vanderbilt students get in screaming matches with cab drivers, not tip on expensive dinners and just be generally rude to people who are serving them.

It was at this point after these initial remarks that I wanted to start immediately defending, but refuting the feelings of my interviewees would have functioned to achieve the opposite of what I was trying to do: prove that we’re not brats. I bit my tongue and inquired further: “Why do you think that?”

At this point, I got the stinkeye from one or two people who were starting to become suspicious of my now less than sneaky questioning, but there was one bartender who summed up the charges, and galvanized for me what I hope to disprove in my blog:

“I don’t think any of the Vanderbilt kids are bad people; I just think they don’t know what it’s like to be in the real world.”

Now there was something I could work with! No I can’t prove why we’re not the worst, because if someone feels so strongly that we are the worst, there probably isn’t much I can say to make them not feel that way. However, perhaps for those people on the fence, I can do something to show them that Vanderbilt students, and people of my own generation, are more than just a bunch of entitled, self-centered ne’er-do-wells.  We do have heart, we do have substance, and it’s going to be my job to represent them in this trial of the century. I’ll have to do my homework, get some key character witnesses, but I think I can make a case for us. We have our vices, we make mistakes, but we’re human – we can’t be summed up in a sentence as cookie cutter people. I’m out to find those people who breaking the collective mold, and prove to the world that Vanderbilt, and the millenials, are more than we seem.