Picture a melting pot. You add the white chocolate and you add the dark chocolate, what do you get? You get a mixture of the two things coming together to become one. Now think of a salad bowl. You have the tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and everything else. Sure a campus is a mix of people all with their own personalities and styles coming together but think about your campus for a minute. There are the sports players, the artists, the busy students, and the rest. Now look deeper, all the sports players are wearing their shirts and carrying their backpacks both marked with their team. Then you have everyone else. For the majority everyone is wearing clothes along the same style line. While everyone may have their own flair there is still a general standard. We all look the same, talk the same and dress the same. Conformity. Schools are many many people coming together with the vast majority all conforming to the accepted norm.
I think back to my first year at school and how all my friends call me a redneck. I love wearing my flannels and my cameo, but unless I tie up my flannel then chances are I'm not wearing it around campus. (Thankfully they are coming into style though) The majority of girls at my school you will mostly see leggings with a slightly baggy sweater or sweatshirt. While I would love to go to class in my sweatpants and a cozy shirt, that's just not the culture here and we all know the looks girls would give. Without even realizing it girls all dress like one another and reinforce an unspoken sense of conformity. Focusing on guys now you really only see two or three looks. It's either the full sports team ensemble, joggers or khaki colored pants. Although there is nothing wrong with this, it just shows how we expect everyone to accept the way things are here and just go along with it because it's those who go against the norms that are judged.
There is nothing wrong with being a melting pot, I mean let's be honest who wouldn't pick chocolate fondue over a salad, but in some cases maybe a salad is better. Taste each bite for what it is with each individual flavor coming together to form a delectable bite.
