ughhhhh undergrads

wow. even though not that long ago i was one of them, i have recently started to despise undergraduates. maybe it's the influence of spending all of my time for the past two and a half months around bitter, jaded fourth year grad students who just want to get out of here to start their careers. but it's definitely rubbing off on me. it's 11 at night, and a gaggle of them (undergrads) just walked outside my apartment in search of some party (my apartment building backs on a street that is home to many of the fraternity houses) (lucky me). and just hearing their asinine conversation was driving me crazy. nevermind the fact that it's 11, and, sorry undergrads, some of us actually have to be at work early tomorrow morning, and don't get to spend the day nursing a hangover. (not that that means i'm going to sleep anytime soon). or maybe i'm just bitter that my carefree undergrad days are over, and now that i've been thrown into this new grown-up world i'm yearning for my cal poly days. hmmmmmmmm. too much psychoanalysis for one evening.

but i know i'm gonna miss cal poly. i kinda took it for granted being in a small town going to a (relatively) small school. ucla is a whole different beast. and it's about to get ugly. school's gonna start and this town and campus are gonna be packed. it's also amazing to me how much animosity there is towards the undergrads here, from both graduate students and professors alike. it seems like everyone resents the undergrads, and the time and energy they require. when, in reality, without the undergrads we wouldn't be here. i wouldn't have a job, and i sure as hell wouldn't be getting money to be going to school. yet it seems that to be a true grad student you have to see the undergrads as almost less-than-human. maybe it's just the same way that seniors in high school view the freshman: they're young, obnoxious, and have no idea what they're talking about.

i guess maybe grad school is just an extension of the same power dynamic that is seen played out over and over in life. first in high school with the seniors and freshman, then in college with upperclassmen and lowerclassmen, and now in grad school with grad students and undergrads. maybe it's just something about our society where we feel the need to place ourselves in a hierarchy so we know where we stand and can feel superior over another group of people. maybe we're all just elitests at heart, and believe that the group we happen to belong to is the best group ever. whoa whoa, didn't i say no more psychoanalysis? geez, i don't even listen to myself.

well, i guess i'll just have to accept the facts of life. (and no, not the birds and the bees facts) (and not the show about mrs. garrett and the adolescent girls living with her, either). the fact that lions will always feel like they are the kings of the jungle, and that grad students will always feel like they rule the world.

Posted by *erin* | 11:11 PM