August also marks the beginning of back to school for many schools, with a whole different twist this summer. Many schools are not having live in-person classes, and those that have limitations and limited schedules. I would hate to be a high school or elementary school student in the circumstances, but college students are probably missing out on some of the best times of their lives, the college experience. Even without the drinking and partying and usual college experience, I managed to have a memorable college experience of playing basketball at the gym daily, underground poker games in students' apartments, and hanging out with my dorm mates and building camaraderie. The colleges also have a tough challenge, as they miss out on a lot of revenue from getting undergrads to live on campus if they close off the resident halls and have all classes on video, but if they do open the resident halls they risk a Covid outbreak at their hands at the resident halls, with the headline "X University suffering through rampant outbreak." NC State University (the Wolfpack) seem to have chosen the latter in a selection between 2 unsavory dishes, as yesterday a bunch of students started moving in on campus and groups of students started wandering around campus, games of spikeball (new game with the ball and trampoline) breaking out on the quad (I hope they wipe down those balls periodically). Sure I miss the feeling of getting back on campus every August and re-acclimating to the campus environment and wouldn't want to miss out on that, but at what cost this year? Really don't want the college year to be like Major League Baseball, which is facing the risk of having to shut down the season just a week and a half after opening due to outbreaks on multiple teams (Miami and most recently St. Louis.
A Netflix subscription has been a little luxurious but helpful in discovering some new shows like "Love on the Spectrum," an Australian reality show (but not really a reality show, more like a documentary) about people with autism and Asberger's dating and overcoming their social challenges due to being on various points of the spectrum. I'd love if more people watched this show than the beautiful but shallow drama that happens on the Bachelor; Love on the Spectrum features people who would normally never be given any attention, but these people still exist and are important parts of our society. I feel for their inability to grasp some certain social cues, but also root for them when they figure something out and blurt out their inner thoughts and goals and aspirations of having a family and experiencing love, something that they might not be able to achieve because of the negative connotations we put on people who are different than the "mainstream" ideas and in a society where everybody tries to advance up the social ladder, and few try to lend a hand down to the people at lower ends of the ladder. The people in Love on the Spectrum share their insecurities and lament about never being liked or not being popular and not having people care for them, and I realize that being a part of these people's lives would make much more of an impact to them than trying to fit into the cool crowd and make a minimal impact on people who are already popular, where they can just swat you away like a fly. I knew a friend in middle school and through high school who very evidently was on the spectrum and severe enough to be noticeable, and I always felt queasy for some reason that other kids at school would pick on him and tease him because of who he was, and looking back I regret not having the gumption and understanding of the situation to stand up to people who were doing that, because I was also afraid of being ostracized and attacked by the mob. (Kind of similar to the dilemma we have on social media and in the cancel culture/ call-out culture, we see other people being attacked by the call-out mob but we aren't brave enough to call out the call-outers for fear of being called out/cancelled ourselves). It's a shame. But works like Love on the Spectrum are an important look into the daily lives of people who aren't all that dissimilar from me, just with a bit of difficulty being social, but having more pure motives than "normal" people like me who have a clearer understanding of social cues and how interactions work but live in fear. It's pretty inspirational.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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