Who is Really Cool?

      UMBC students, like typical young adults, need to show their independence, or coolness, to the rest of the world.The modern youth culture has largely accepted the practice of applying permanent tattoos and many consider body piercings a way of wearing jewelry. The students at UMBC choose, however, to temper enthusiastic outward demonstration of their individuality.
      A stroll on the Boardwalk in Ocean City presents a bevy of tattoos, piercings, and outrageous  hairdos and clothing styles as signs of coolness in today's generation. As one negotiates the sidewalks, paths, and other gathering places on campus, few obvious statements of individuality are seen. A discrete piercing or a fragment of a tattoo may be observed, but one rarely sees a student with a display of multiple tattoos, piercings, or other statements of personal differences.       

Andy Warhol Tattoo

      This dichotomy causes one to wonder: Why the difference? Could it be the demographics of the student body? Does it make a difference if one is White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, or Latino? Could it be that the students here have already solved some of the important questions about their personal maturity and are comfortable with themselves? Could it be that the UMBC population realizes that the overt display of personal choices is really not a demonstration of revolt against the establishment, but instead is a statement that represents something different? Are the students here focused on career paths where such displays are not readily accepted and do not want to hinder their chances of landing their first post- graduate job?

      One could answer that it may be part of one or many of the above reasons. The students here are more focused, more self aware, and more confident than the typical young person on the Boardwalk. You do find many individual differences here in dress, hairdo, and other personal outward statements. The students here do not wear the "uniform" that the purveyors of cool are pushing. I believe that this makes the students here "cooler" than the Boardwalk crowd.
     But this is just one old man's opinion.

Word count- 344