Be Unique, Be Orange
Posted March 21st, 2013 by warnbrit“Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” -Orson Welles
When you walk around Corvallis Oregon, whether it’s around downtown or around campus everywhere you look there are banners, flags, stickers, posters showing school spirit. I walked down Monroe Avenue yesterday and lost count at how many Oregon State University decals there were in shop and restaurant windows. Orange is all around us, even when we least expect it. Even when I have traveled outside of the state and country no less there were people who commented on my OSU sweatshirt or beaver gear.
To me Oregon State is a privilege. My parents would have preferred that I go to a community college before jumping into a 4 year university, however I refused. I wanted the experience of walking around a college town and seeing people on game day and making friends I never would have met had I not come to OSU. There are so many opportunities I never would of gotten the chance to participate in. By deciding to go Orange and coming to OSU I had the opportunity to experience dorm life, join a sorority, join the DAMchic magazine team, live on my own, and find a major that I love as opposed to just picking one that sounds interesting and go to Las Vegas for the MAGIC Fashion Trade Show.
Whether you are a future student, current student, faculty, alumni, fan, or just a Corvallis resident you are Orange. To be Orange means to have personal growth. In participating in anything OSU you are Orange. When I think of people who are ‘Orange’ I think of people who are unique, responsible, respectful, honest and hard working.
Being a part of the Oregon State community is both a privilege and an opportunity to “find yourself” and become a unique individual. Obtaining a degree, going to sports events, participating in campus activities somewhat define who you are as a person. It is known that no set of fingerprints are exactly alike, well the same goes for being Orange. What you participate in, major in, where you come from all make a unique person. Even if you find someone who participates in everything you do, does this mean you are not unique? Being unique is an important value to have because without it you cannot grow as a person. Anyone thinking of jumping on the “Orange” wagon and attending Oregon State is already making the choice to become Orange and unique.
I am in my junior year of college and have 3 years of class experience and still I find it’s hard to stand out when I go to interviews. At the moment I am having to find an internship for the summer and in order to stand out to the company representatives you have to shine. I have found that in order to shine you have to be unique and create a profile showing that you are different then other applicants and make your application and resume sparkle. By participating in a large range of activities and clubs, jobs and designing your own major you start to build a written picture of yourself that stands out.
By taking the action to be unique you have to step outside your comfort zone and explore new things in order to more forward in life. Introduce yourself to the people in your dorm, sit next to someone new in class, go to information meetings for a club your interested in. By leaving the comfort of your box you will be able to further your knowledge in not only your education but in your personal experiences. One of my favorite quotes is “Better to ask forgiveness then permission.” You don’t want to look back on your life and wonder “what if?”
Our experiences while being Orange may vary depending on the role in the Orange community, whether you’re a student, teacher or fan but even if the experiences are different you can still hold the value of uniqueness. I like the fact that there are no boundaries when it comes to being unique. You don’t have to meet certain standards to be unique and you can determine how much you want to stand out. In school we learn lots of things; mathematics, science, English, and history. What we are not taught we learn through life experiences; how to write checks, have proper table manners, and what is acceptable in social settings. What we are not forced to learn we can choose what we do want to learn.
Elementary, Middle and High school was just a stepping-stone for college. Grades K-12 gave us a box; this box is already 1/3 full with knowledge from school and little things we learned growing up. Now Oregon State helps us to fill the rest of the box. There are clubs, societies, events, jobs, and a whole community of diverse people just like you who came with their boxes ready to continue to fill up the boxes they came with. Choosing to be Orange brought us together, and now we venture out, ready to decide what we want to fill the box with. This box we will carry with us through life, sure something’s we may toss out in a few years or we may make room for new things in the box. But we will never forget what is in the box because the things in the box make us unique and help us shine.
