4 tips to live authentically at OSU

Submitted By Sean Prior

Be yourself. Words I have heard many times from my mother growing up. As a kid you don’t think much more into that thought. As a junior in college I can think a little deeper now. It brings up a question, who is myself? What would Sean Prior do? How does one be authentic? When in the situation, do I do what my mom said I should do, or do I make my own judgement call and find out for myself. There is a moment of ambiguity. Do I act upon how I was told to handle a situation and let that define me? I think I’m going to experiment and decide what I would do after I’ve a trial run. I think that to be an authentic OSU student is to guide your choices and invest your time based on your wants with input from many un-invested guides. Here are my four tips how to live authentically

Human Reality is Ontologically Ambiguous (PP 4-9-15, 17/22).  Based on Sartre’s reading we have two thoughts. One is Being-in-itself, which is the facticity of the situation. And Being –for-itself is the transcendence of the situation. The facticity is why you are in college and how you got here. Tip #1 Do what you enjoy doing, but in some sense you must conform to the school standards. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m here because neither of my parents went to college so I grew up with the expectation of going to college because based on their life experience it was needed to make more money. Now who was I to say no to this as a naïve high schooler?  Once I got here I was free from them. Now everything was my choice, what to study, when to go to bed, what to do all night. My freedom and consciousness said to have fun and ignore responsibility. But the facticity of the situation was that I had committed to paying lots of money and going to class. You can’t stay in school and be free if you aren’t passing classes. Sartre compares us to Ontological Centaurs (pp 4-9-15 19/22.) Being in situation, to be successful you must manage your Transcendence with your Facticity and balance them so that you stay happy but also keep afloat among school expectations.

Tip #2 Find friends that let you be you, and sometimes doing something you want to do, alone, is more satisfying than pretending to like something. “Do what you must, come what may.” (The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir 1947.)  I like this because it is impossible to find someone who is going to do life exactly like you. If you want to sleep all day spend the wee hours of the morning at the library and drink the weekend away. Go for it. You are sure to meet people along the way. Compartmentalize your friend groups and know who to call to do what.

Tip #3 Be the Hero of your own Story and achieve your goals. We recall the myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Sisyphus is condemned to rolling a rock up the mountain only to have it roll back down. But see him as the Absurd Hero. He reaches his goal every day. Can you say that about yourself? It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it.

Tip #4 Do everything with an intention of bringing happiness. No one likes to be sad, angry, or upset. I can honestly say I don’t. Think about Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence (pp 6-2-15 12/17.) If you knew you had to live your life out again numerous times without change how would you live it, knowing that you are writing the script as you read this? Would you change your ways and be more optimistic and worry less. I think so. In the You tube series 8-bit titled Time is a Flat Circle? (Nietzsche + Mega Man) Nietzsche’s schemed up a person who is strong enough to deal with the hardships and remain with a positive outlook on life. One who can do this is called an Ubermensch. That is what you must aspire to.

My final words are use these tips or not, I don’t care, it really doesn’t affect me, but please be yourself.