Authentic Orange

Submitted by Jordan Quesenberry

The Guide to an Authentic Life

 “Throughout the longest era of humanity, There was nothing more frightful then feeling single. Being alone, perceiving as a single person, neither obeying nor ruling, constituting an individual – That was no pleasure then, but a punishment; one was condemned ‘to being individual’… In this respect we have reversed our attitude most of all” (Nietzsche, Herd, pg. 117)

–Friedrich Nietzsche

Being Real With Yourself

Authenticity is all about being real, true, genuine, and most importantly being real with yourself. The definition of authenticity consists of choosing in a way which reflects the nature of itself as both transcendence and facticity. Being real with yourself is an extremely important part of our existence. It is a part of the first existential theme, Existence precedes essence. Which means what you are is a result of your choices. (Lecture, 5/21/15) Choosing to come to Oregon State University was my first step into becoming authentically orange. I had to be real with myself and understand that I wanted to go to Oregon State for me and no one else. Choosing was my first step to authenticity in my new found orange lifestyle.

The Struggle

My struggle with truly becoming and living orange arouse very early, before I even got to school. I was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and all my life I and my father have been huge fans of the University of Oregon. The struggle was not if I could cope with leaving the school I had supported all my life, but if my father could handle me going to not just a different school, but the rival of his beloved ducks. By making this decision I went through what Sartre would consider the third existential theme, Humanism; in doing this I was pursuing my own identity and finding meaning through the oppositions I faced. (Lecture, 5/21/15) I had to continually remind myself that I was not doing this for him, but I was doing this for myself, and I am able to live authentically orange because I know that every morning when I walk around campus with the new friends I have made, I feel at home and I know that I made the right decision.

Constantly Living Orange

In order to constantly live authentically Orange, you have to consistently be true to yourself and honest about who you are and who you are not. When you are pretending to be someone else or do things that you know you wouldn’t do, it begins to get into denying our transcendence or our facticity. You have to be totally honest with yourself and not do things just because you aren’t entirely sure what to do, and someone else is encouraging it because that would be considered denying facticity. (Lecture, 6/2/15) In a more school specific example, if you are known to procrastinate and spend time doing things you shouldn’t be doing in order to avoid those tough school assignments, and you say to yourself something along the lines of, “I’ll just make sure that NEXT TIME I study sooner and get it done way beforehand” that would be denying transcendence. I do my best to stay authentically orange because I know that I have an issue with procrastination, but I don’t tell myself that next time I will make a complete 360 degree change, but what I do is do little pieces at a time but just start early.

Remembering Who You Are

            Being authentically orange doesn’t start or end when you are in school. Striving to be an authentic individual of society is extremely important to living a meaningful, happy life, and Nietzsche emphasizes in his Eternal Recurrence. (Lecture, 6/2/15) He does this by saying, if you were condemned to live the same life over and over again, would you be happy and praise the god, or be furious and scorn the demon. Remembering who you are will help you to always be authentic, and remembering who I am and what values I hold most dear is something that helps me to live authentically orange in my community, no matter what struggles face me.