Contrary to the insinuation, in a private college, nothing is private.
A main reason why the movie Mean Girls is a cultural staple for our generation is because it so relevantly and accuratly depicts the circulation of drama—especially that of a small school.
Generally, before the frequent and drawn out talks with unfamiliar relatives at family gatherings concerning your plans for after high school, you know what you’re looking for in a college. A big part of the search revolves around location and size. My mom would remind me of how small my tiny-town-of-only-a-thousand-high-school-students was, and how, although college would be a little bigger, I would still virtually be seeing the same people everyday.
I shrugged her off because I was immediately drawn to the small-house-with-a-big-backyard feel that MC has, being located in the Bronx but right next to the 1 train. “I’ll stay out of trouble,” I teased, assuring her I didn’t mind the size.
“I heard she pushed Regina George in front of a bus”
After my controversial and heated breakup with my at-the-time boyfriend, the deep privacy of our relationship soon shot through the windows of every dorm room on campus right before winter break. Angry, he spread false rumors of our situation. I soon realized that the human nature to believe the story that is told the loudest, despite its true authenticity, is the unfortunate but natural way people tend to base their beliefs. With most of the student body assuming they knew the full story, I came back from winter break feeling like Cady Heron walking into the gym during the Burn Book assembly.
“Have you ever walked up to people and realized they were just talking about you? Have you ever had it happen 60 times in a row?”
His stories telephoned like forest fire to the gossip-hungry, and I walked through campus either getting looked at like a wounded puppy– or like I was Michael Vick. Of course, neither appropriately or accurately fitted the true circumstance.
However, as things were settling down, I realized a) the situation was passed off as yesterday’s news more quickly for “everyone” else, and b) my circumstance wasn’t foreign; our culture strives off of personal-life news getting stuck in the battered telephone game. However, if Amber could shake off making out with a hot dog, anything and everything is supposed to be shook off as well.
Yes, going to a small school means some parts of your college experiences may be, whether factually or fictitiously, a part of a week’s headlines– some people have nothing more entertaining to focus or care about. Yes, a lack of privacy comes with going to a smaller school– however, it is survivable. Nothing should get in the way of being successful and getting your future dream job; and at the end of the day, all you need is your close solid friendships (which are best made at a small school!)
“All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you”
No, everyone won’t vote for you for Spring Fling Queen, and that is just fine. Drama is hilariously unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and if Cady Heron felt she could “finally float in a school that used to be like a shark tank”, so can you.