Advice to Incoming College Students

"Where do you go to school?" "Portland state"
"Do you live downtown?" "No I live at home" "Oh to save money?"

While it's easiest for me to just reply with a yes, the main reason I live at home and commute to Portland State each day is not because of the outrageous housing costs (however, that's an added bonus). The main reason I chose to stay at home and attend PSU is because of my family. I'm so fortunate to have the relationships I do with my parents and brother. Our family operates as a unit and when one piece of the unit is missing, the whole thing feels off. When picturing college, I couldn't see myself living (at least) two hours away from my parents, my brother, my dogs, my big bed, and the city I've grown up in. People would always speak of this "college experience" they couldn't wait to have but nothing about waking up 10 minutes before class because I'd been out all night sounded appealing to me.

What did sound appealing to me was being able to go home every night to a home-cooked meal after watching my brother's baseball game and then getting into a nice big comfy bed in a room I have all to myself. I could definitely picture myself attending classes during the day downtown and then retreating to the suburbs at night.

I've been doing this for almost two years now and it couldn't be a more perfect set-up. I'm still able to get involved at PSU with a dance team, sorority life, and as an orientation leader, all while spending quality time with my parents throughout this collegiate journey.

Every person's situation is different. Some don't have to think about money when going to college and can ultimately go wherever they please. Others rely solely on scholarships and without them, education is out of the question. For me, I'm somewhere in the middle. No matter what a person's situation is, I think it's important that people keep an open mind and realize that just because someone is doing college in a different way than you, doesn't mean it's a wrong way to do it. It just works best for them and their needs. Who cares, really, as long as they are getting educated.

My advice to incoming college students is to not throw this idea out so quickly. I understand I'm in a rare group of people that are close with their parents and enjoy their parents company. But if you are a part of this rare group too, consider staying at home. I promise you'll have some great experiences at PSU. It's what you make of it.

Same-sex Couples in Television

Note: I wrote this for a media consumption journal for a media literacy class but wanted to blog about it as well so if it sounds a bit formal, that is why.

This past week I’ve noticed something in multiple forms of media I watch that has started to bother me. It’s not necessarily in the media itself, but rather the publicity of the media. The issue I’m struggling with deals with same-sex couples in the media. There have been instances in the media lately that show same-sex couples in an incredibly positive light and show how normal it is for the parents of the family to be gay. However, what I’ve started noticing, analyzing, and become frustrated about is the fact that the media has to take that inclusion of gay people and talk about it nonstop.

In the Disney channel show Good Luck Charlie the young daughter, Charlie, of the main family is going to have a play-date. When her friend Taylor’s parents arrive to drop her off for the play-date, Charlie’s parents discover Taylor’s parents are two women. Charlie’s parents don’t act too shocked and the producers make this inclusion seamless. However, after that episode aired, I logged into Facebook and saw post after post of the clip from the show. I think it’s great what Disney did with this and the way they handled it was very professional. The media, though, took the clip and talked about it’s significance over and over again.

This type of publicity creates a barrier between what is “normal” (a heterosexual couple as the parents of the family) and what is “strange” or “different” (a homosexual couple as parents). [As a side note, I think we can all agree that two Caucasian, heterosexual people is no longer the “norm” in America for parents anyway. But for this example we’ll call that the “norm”.] As soon as something in television is done controversially different, people in the media feel the need to talk about it again and again to point out the fact that something was done differently. This might be acceptable with certain issues, but because this is a very important political issue in our country right now, it can dramatically change the perspective people have on the issue.

If the media and people in our society just left the issue alone and acted as if nothing strange had happened, that same-sex couples were just expected as part of a show about families, there wouldn’t be such a divide between what is considered “normal” and what is “strange.” If we can break down that divide, nothing would be considered “stranger than” on a scale in comparison to something similar, yet more “normal.” We would instead have a society that valued the differences among people and families, rather than shaming them for their lifestyle and biology.

We’ve arrived at a point in media that requires we touch on multiple issues in every show in order to remain “politically correct.” While this is polite and may seem like the right thing to do, viewers can see right through what producers are attempting to do. For example, I enjoy watching the show The Fosters for the creative plot line and interesting characters. However, I get frustrated sometimes when the characters or story seems to be placed in the show just “because they had to” put them there. Shows are most entertaining when they break the PC rules; maybe not for everyone, but I guess to me I’m more entertained with parodies of real life versus a boring show trying hard to include all different types of people and make it seem as normal as possible. Certain personality traits should be included where it’s necessary but not every possible trait needs to be included in one episode of a television show.