April 18, 2004
Tragedy of the Commons
I have never used suitcases and duffel bags as much as I have this year. Between college visits, breaks, Northwestern still counts in the year, and house sitting, my policy of never unpacking is actually starting to make sense.
I am not sure if that is a good thing. Not my whole unpacking thing, that is just pure laziness. And there's only so much room on the floor, right? But the fact that I really do not need to unpack too much, that's a little funny.
I am leaning so heavily towards Smith that it is becoming extremely important that Syracuse boost my ego in ways I do not deserve. Shit, how can I even consider turning down all they're offering me? I am more officially than ever a spoiled brat.
The whole packing thought came up because I am going to be house/dog/cat sitting again in a month. I am not quite as excited about it as I was last time, but it's close. I absolutely love their animals and god knows I need to walk around more. What is even better is that by that time I will be done or close to done with all school things, most teachers give up after AP exams and I think my Calc teacher is forced to give up by the end of May.
The other crazy thing about turning down Syracuse is I am not sure if I will continue with journalism, other than fixing up Smith's Sophian, afterwards. In a lot of ways I think that journalism really is the only option for me, my current state of indifference towards it has more to do with the fact that I still do not know what to write about for my fluff piece.
Plus I really want to write some kind of satire or something on the tragedy of the commons, but I need it to be school related and I am struggling on coming up with a textbook example. If I could somehow incorporate it into lunchroom behavior, aka the commons of my school, it would be all kinds of ironic and funny to me. I really do not care that no one else would get just how damn clever I am, besides a few teachers.
My first thought was the whole mentality of "I might as well not pick up my trash because no one else does", but we did a whole issue last year about vandalism and everything else, which I am still sick of, so no.
Following that thought I considered homophobia, which I may still carry on except for the fact that it does not make logical sense for the individual to do it, though it does fit the whole nonsense on a large scale factor. The other problem with that is I cannot quote anyone, even in jest most likely since so many people have problems with understanding satire, so the piece would be extremely flat because I would have to rely on examples and that is not anywhere close to being funny.
I really do want to do an article on my school's conscious and unconscious homophobia, though, even though it probably is a more politically correct high school than many. But that does not mean we cannot do better. Maybe there is something in that, something where each person does their part and on a large scale it does not matter or it makes no sense.
Love,
Mandy