Back in elementary school we were all told we are unique and special, and there was no one else like us in the world. Upon coming to Boston University, I have come to the realization that this is completely untrue.
When I was in grade school, people did not understand the name Quinne. I was called all sorts of things from “Queen” to “Gwenny.” It actually got worse as I got older. In middle school, a friend’s aunt saw my picture in the yearbook and asked my friend, “Who the hell is this girl Quinine?” I just hate it when people mistake me for the most effective treatment for malaria.
Come high school, I got very comfortable with being the only Quinne anyone had ever known. I clearly remember my surprise one snowy day sophomore year when an angry junior screamed, “QUINNE DAMNIT, STOP THROWING SNOW!” I whirled around, shocked and innocent, to see some stupid jerk rapid firing icy snowballs. Turns out, a guy named Matt Quinn was the tormentor of the random passersby.
My first day at BU freshman year I started talking to a girl on Comm. Ave. outside “Splash,” and she mentioned “Oh, I’m Quinn by the way.” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was humbled.
Another strange phenomenon I have noticed is what Seinfeld (actually, I believe he stole the term from Superman) calls Bizzaro people. For those who are obviously insane and don’t love Jerry, these are people who share an uncanny resemblance to someone you know. About once a week I see one of these Bizzaro people who looks like someone I know, and I start to say “Hi,” only to save myself from sure embarrassment at the last possible moment.
The other day someone told me they saw a Bizzaro Quinne eating in Warren Towers. Great. Yet another fatal blow to the delusions of being unique that those teachers pounded into my head. This crazy gal even had the same key chain I tempt fate with by wearing around my neck. I have to start hanging around Warren in hopes of catching a glimpse of this chick.
However, no other Quinnes or even Bizzaro Quinnes could prepare me for who my friends dubbed my Lifetwin. She so is eerily similar to me that they tell me I should eliminate her before she eliminates me, since there is obviously only room for one of us on this planet. I disagree. She and I are both psychology majors who are juniors because of AP credit and are scared to death of our rapidly approaching post-college future. We have similar interests, similar backgrounds and similar experiences. The craziness goes on and on, but I really love it.
I recently learned that humans share 99.9 percent of their genetic code with everyone else in the world. To me, this is proof enough that arrogant concepts such as racism, prejudice, ethnocentrism and any other isms used to make people feel better about themselves by looking down on others ultimately make no sense. We are all fundamentally alike!
BU is such a big school that you can not only find people with the same first and last names as you and people who look a frighteningly great deal like you, but people with ridiculously similar lives, interests and future plans. These are the makings of support groups, people!
Instead of questioning whether or not I am indeed a conformist that is no different from the masses, I’ve taken my sudden realization of similarity as a good thing. People who can identify with one another are more likely to be friendly, and who couldn’t use more friendly faces in this big urban sprawl of a university? BU is famous for being diverse with regards to the ethnic, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds of its students. Fear not. I bet we are all more alike than we would think.
Spectrum, in conjunction with the Student Union, has been campaigning for the next logical addition to BU’s non-discrimination policy to include the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals on campus. Why would we not want to give these individuals the respect and protection from discrimination that other minority groups on campus get?
Someone’s sexual orientation should not keep him from enjoying the same rights as everyone else. This seems so basic! The BU administration must heed this request. Every BU student should revel being who he or she is without fear of discrimination or ignorant hate.
Forget your prior notions of being “different,” being “better” or anything else your kindergarten teacher told you, except to not eat paste. We are all “special,” and just that .1 percent different enough to keep life from getting boring.
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