Don't assume invincibility
The Traveler Editorial Board
Issue date: 3/27/09 Section: Opinion
Few people like to think about disaster or disease - and college students, in particular, notoriously think they are impervious to danger. Invulnerable to tragedy. Immune to illness. What's the word again? Oh, yeah. Invincible.
We've heard people say it so many times we start to discount it.
"No way we think we're invincible," we say to ourselves. We know how rarely we score eight hours of sleep. We keep tabs on the number of classes we've skipped - and realize, to our chagrin, that that number is higher than the balance of our bank accounts. We exaggerate in editorials.
Invincible? Hardly.
But, in the end, to assume invincibility is not to pretend you play by the rules. Most college students know they don't. Binge drinking, reckless driving, shacking, sexing, skipping - no college student can really think these behaviors are responsible, let alone ideal.
Even primarily positive habits - like searching for internships or applying for awards - can become detrimental in college students who obsess about their ambitions to the point of selfishness. And we'd venture to guess those students, too, sense they're breaking some rule - in this case, the rule of balance.
No, to assume invincibility is not to pretend you play by the rules. To assume invincibility is to think you can break the rules and never have to pay the consequences. And, most of the time, you (kind of) can. Maybe you gain a little bit of weight or live in perpetual exhaustion - but you're still alive and healthy.
Tragedies are the anomalies - when they probably should be ubiquities. But, if there's one thing students can learn from the tragedy that yesterday befell one of their peers, it's this: we're really not as invincible as we imagine.
We've heard people say it so many times we start to discount it.
"No way we think we're invincible," we say to ourselves. We know how rarely we score eight hours of sleep. We keep tabs on the number of classes we've skipped - and realize, to our chagrin, that that number is higher than the balance of our bank accounts. We exaggerate in editorials.
Invincible? Hardly.
But, in the end, to assume invincibility is not to pretend you play by the rules. Most college students know they don't. Binge drinking, reckless driving, shacking, sexing, skipping - no college student can really think these behaviors are responsible, let alone ideal.
Even primarily positive habits - like searching for internships or applying for awards - can become detrimental in college students who obsess about their ambitions to the point of selfishness. And we'd venture to guess those students, too, sense they're breaking some rule - in this case, the rule of balance.
No, to assume invincibility is not to pretend you play by the rules. To assume invincibility is to think you can break the rules and never have to pay the consequences. And, most of the time, you (kind of) can. Maybe you gain a little bit of weight or live in perpetual exhaustion - but you're still alive and healthy.
Tragedies are the anomalies - when they probably should be ubiquities. But, if there's one thing students can learn from the tragedy that yesterday befell one of their peers, it's this: we're really not as invincible as we imagine.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Greg Karber
posted 3/27/09 @ 6:30 PM CST
Including "sexing" and "shacking" in a list of bad behaviors (alongside "binge drinking" and "reckless driving") is both puritanical and preposterous and probably provides proper proof of the paper's preference for alliteration over astute advocation. (Continued…)
Jeremy
posted 3/28/09 @ 9:01 AM CST
Alliteration is a time honored and tested proof in and of itself.
Example: Work harder students.
This holds no weight.
Example 2: Stop slackin', sleepin', and sluffin'. (Continued…)
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