Authentic Orange

Submitted by Christian Nomi

Does being a student at Oregon State make you authentic? To truly dive into, and understand this question we must first define what it means to be authentic. Authenticity in my eyes, is a way for an individual to not be oppressed by societal views or opinions and to live freely to push towards ones goals and ambitions. In terms of “Being Orange,” it’s all about discovering who you are as a person as you push towards your goal of graduation. College is a new unexplored territory for most freshman who for the first time in their lives, feel free. But as we grow as human beings and individuals we are all threatened by outside forces and obstacles.

The pressures of peers in college is a serious obstacle and guide to finding one’s own self. In essence college is about finding oneself, but you can get trapped into what Nietzsche calls the herd instinct (Lecture, 5-5-15). This in turn removes the authenticity from oneself towards the following of others which is not freedom.  Listening and following others opinions, all though not always wrong, is not a strong way to live authentically because you are not making your own decisions in life. This also follows Kierkegaard’s Crowd theory which talks about how all dedication goes to a single individual (Lecture, 5-5-15).  Groups are made up of all kinds of individuals with their own goals yet to be realized in a decentralized pattern. Often times this weakens the responsibility of the individual and puts it on the group or leader. These theories often hold true in college environments where often time’s students feel lost and feel like they have nowhere to go. This leads individuals to join groups or organizations such as Fraternities, Sports teams, or clubs on campus. But in the end is it necessarily a bad thing in affects to authenticity?

In the end you make choices for a reason. Joining a group or organization doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t be authentic to yourself. In fact, you can grow from these groups and gain a lot of important experiences out of them. The key that you have to realize is who you are is a result of your actions and nobody else’s (Lecture, 5-21-15). Therefore joining groups or student organizations can show “Being Orange” and authentic to one’s self as long as the student has the awareness to understand not to sit idly by but to be active. And I don’t mean active in the physical way but rather in a humanistic way. You must be able to understand your values over those of social, economic, or political pressures for conformity (Lecture, 5-19-2015). By clearly defining your values and goals you can breakdown conformity while building yourself into a more authentic individual. In the words of Simone de Beauvoir “any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.” (Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity).