Privileged: A Closer Look.

It's incredible that my last post was entitled "Privileged," because oh boy I am truly seeing what that means. College life has been great so far, granted I've made it through dozens of awkward mingling events and conversations, it has been great!

I am so fortunate to be a part of an amazing group of students in my Freshman Seminar (FSEM) course called Youth Cultures. From the very first day we met we discussed a lot of topics that we are thought to keep quiet about. We opened up about judgement, inequality on all levels, "natural" versus "nurtured" preference, and then privilege--what it means to have it, and the responsibility that holds. It is one of those things that we do (sometimes) acknowledge we have, but fail to really comprehend its depth.

At our first meeting our group discussed how it has seemingly become American culture to believe that a lot of what we have is earned. We fight for our freedom, we work hard to build a name for ourselves in society and provide for our children, and even put all of our beings into earning that scholarship or promotion. Ultimately, we work hard so that we might become privileged. Because of this, often times we do become offended when we are told that we have such privilege.

We can talk and debate about such topics all day long, but when it comes down to it, that's all just talk. As my FSEM group has the opportunity to do much service learning this quarter, we are venturing out downtown and really getting closer looks at youth, homelessness, violence, culture, and art. The different organizations we have visited so far are really a step into reality, and embracing it all is rather difficult. It's one of those things that we often times feel pity for, but then turn around and return to our discussion about our love of vanilla soy lattes (it's the whole "About a Life" philosophy). Although we may think that we are consumed in our own little lives because they are so busy and stressful, sometimes the real reason is that it is just easier to not have to think about such things. It's the idea of "Why burden ourselves with someone else's burden?"

As I walked into a center for homeless teenage youth that was the first thing that came to mind, that word. As I sat up in my dorm at 3 am trying to teach myself to build a schedule for registration the next morning (because my three hours of class time was spent in a technology service center) I could only think of the same thing:

Privileged.

The bottom line is that we're privileged. Can't deny it in any way. The question is what will you do with it?