Authentic Orange

Submitted by Kelsey McCall

Student Events and Activities center instigated an idea on the Oregon State campus to unite its students and represent each student’s individuality, while creating a place of acceptance for them as well. Oregon State has a diverse population of students, not just with race, ethnicity, or sexual identification. In fact, Oregon State has a diverse level of involvement from students as well as a variety of student voices on campus. The slogan, “Be Beaver Bold” was originally created in hopes for getting all of these different students to be the best versions of themselves and to accept their peers the way they are as well.

I would argue the Be Beaver Bold slogan endorses being authentic to oneself. That is to say, Be Beaver Bold endorses the idea of acting as yourself and to be no one but your true self. In this, the idea of acceptance is created based on the notion that if everyone is acting as the truest version of themselves, they will seek acceptance in their truest form. If everyone is seeking acceptance in their truest form, we will all grow to accept the truest form of one another and, in turn, Oregon State community will grow. Anyone can be Beaver Bold by acting upon the idea of being the most authentic version of themselves. Students are not fully living and, in fact, acting in bad faith, if they are not being themselves and living authentically (Lecture, 5/26/25).

Becoming an individual in a community of over twenty five thousand students proves to be difficult. Clubs and groups help resolve this sense of not belonging for some, but for others it makes them feel more isolated than before. For many it is unnerving to fall into the herd like mentality of simply going to class every day, eating, doing homework, going to sleep and doing it all again the next day. They wish to be different and defy the herd-like mentality. “Morality is herd instinct in the individual” (Nietzsche, The Gay Science, pg. 116). The moral of the Be Beaver Bold campaign is to give students an outlet to channel the change they want to see at Oregon State into a reality and in turn promote them to act in good faith.

Students on a day to day basis act in bad faith, or in other words they are not living as the truest version of themselves, and are instead acting as something they are not (lecture, 5/28/2015). A student on Oregon State’s campus may find themselves forced to assume the roles and responsibilities of a full time student and they talk to teachers and their peers as if they are only a student. Any given student is not, in fact, just a student, and by assuming the role of only being a student in that moment, they are denying their transcendence by ignoring all that they are aside from their student role.

Perhaps in being a student, one will simultaneously deny their facticity, by ignoring their previous feelings and pretending they don’t exist as they become uncertain of what they seek (lecture, 5/28/2015). This could be shown in the example of a student living in a residence hall being peer pressured to drink alcohol. The student is denying their facticity by saying yes to the pressure when they originally didn’t intend to partake in those activities, but ignored their original feelings because of the events that transpired (lecture, 5/28/2015).

The idea of being the best version of yourself stems from the notion of being bold and standing out as who you are, whether that means throwing on an orange shirt to represent Beaver Nation, or putting on your best attitude in hopes to brighten someone’s day. As displayed in class, the truest form of oneself is quirky, unique, and different from student to student, but the acceptance of their truest form is what truly counts towards developing the authenticity of the Be Beaver Bold campaign and living “Authentically Orange”.

Submitted by: Madilynn Gerritsen

To be authentic means being true to yourself. Doing what you want to do and living your live in accordance to your happiness and fulfillment. To me, authenticity means being happy; doing what you believe in and not caring about what other people do or say. It means recognizing your uniqueness and what makes you, you. Authenticity can mean different things for different people. As for philosophers like Heidegger, he saw authenticity as looking at your live in a different light, to think about our unavoidable death and realizing if you are making the right decisions. As for Nietzsche, he saw authenticity as not conforming to society and the unjust herd that pushes you in a direction that might not be what you intended, but it might be easy. For Kierkegaard, the meaning to life and truth was through god, and through finding those truths and meaning, authenticity will become a part of you.

As a student at OSU, becoming an individual in the community may be challenging because as Kierkegaard said, you become part of a crowd (lecture 5/5/15). You’re just another face in a lecture hall or stadium. Maybe you just go to the bar or a sports game because that’s what the crowd or your friends are doing. Being authentic in these situations may be difficult for some. One thing that I would encourage is to think. Think about what is going on. Think about how you feel. Think about if what you’re doing is what you actually want to do. Recognize your feelings, beliefs, and morals.

Take a step back. Slow down and look at the bigger picture. There is a concept known as da-sein, or thrown projection (lecture 4/16/15). Throwness meaning we are thrown into the world as it was before we got there. Things we do, tasks, values, beliefs, etc., are thrown at us and we are expected to catch them. Meanwhile, we forget being because of all the things being thrown at us. We lose ourselves and we become absorbed by them, for example, social media. I encourage everyone to take a step back. Put down your phones and technology and take a look at the world around you. People are becoming lost in technology, when they need to be open to reality to see your projection of how you could be living. Da sein; be in the moment.

Lastly, there are pressures from all over directing us in one-way or another. These pressures could be social, political, or economic. These pressures effect how we express our freedom. Freedom is one of the main concepts of the third existential theme, humanism that we discussed in lecture (lecture 5/7/15). One of the main points of this theme is the pursuit of freedom and identity, which is important for finding yourself and becoming authentic. As a college student, it is important to explore your freedom while you still have it before you take on more commitments and responsibilities of being an adult (lecture 5/26/15). I encourage everyone to embrace your youth and freedom. Go out and explore. You have the freedom to do almost anything with your lives, so find your passion and what you love and hold on those things.

To me, being authentic is a huge part of being happy. Following your heart and beliefs can make your life more rewarding and authentic. Think about the way you’re living and the way you feel. If you’re not happy, change something. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Are you where you want to be? Are you exploring your freedom, or are you trapped in routine like in Kafka’s metamorphosis (Kafka’s Metamorphosis)? Gregor was working at a job he hates to support people who didn’t appreciate him. He went through a change, but not a change of the self, a change of the body. If you are living inauthentically and are not happy, make a change of the self.

Submitted by: Brooke Jordan

Authenticity as defined by Vocabulary.com is, “a word that means something is genuine or real”. For a person to be authentic means they are true to oneself when making decisions and taking certain actions in everyday life. Staying true to oneself can be particularly hard when one is unsure of who they even are. The Oregon State Community thrives off of diversity and uniqueness. For a student to successfully,”be orange”, they must be authentic. One can achieve authenticity within the realm of the OSU community with just three helpful steps. The first includes using one’s freedom to submerge one’s self into the community by joining clubs, playing intramural sports, meeting new people, going to different events, etc. This allows a person to discover where their interests, likes, and dislikes lie. This allows for the diversity and uniqueness within the OSU community and to become “orange”.You begin to find yourself when you use the freedom, granted to every human, to expose yourself to new things and people. These decisions are much more important because a you are making them on your own, without higher authorities making them for you, that is not freedom (Lecture 5/26). Beauvoir stated, “he must assume his freedom and not flee it by a constructive movement: one does not exist without doing something; and also by a negative movement which rejects oppression for oneself and others” (Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, the conclusion second paragraph). Beauvoir means that without the use of freedom, one is wasting their life. After all, the only thing you aren’t free to do is make the decision to not be free (Lecture, 5/21). The second step of becoming “orange”, is not relying on forms of bad faith, this includes not denying transcendence. An example of denying transcendence would be, a student who spends their time on social media when they should be studying for an important exam that is coming up. Instead, they wait until the very last minute to start studying, when most would think this moment is too late. The student then tells their friend,”It’s okay, I always work better under pressure anyways”. This would be a form of denying transcendence because the student is denying their ability to change the habit of procrastination, they are not taking responsibility when able to start their studying (Lecture 6/2). Denying transcendence is very easy to do when one is morphing to those around them to make friends or fit in. However, in the OSU community if everyone were to start acting like their neighbor, it would lack its diversity. By doing what you want and doing things they way you want to, the individual becomes, “orange”. The third and final step to becoming “orange” is not relying another form of bad faith, this would be not denying facticity. An example of this would be if another student who has a large history of procrastination, says to his roommate, “I will start sooner next time”. This is a form of denying facticity because by just saying you will change something, doesn’t mean anything. The only way to truly change something, if you desire to, would be through taking actions and certain procedures to get there (Lecture, 6/2). Denying one’s facticity leaves the OSU community with no true knowledge of who the individual really is. The process of becoming authentic can be a very grueling, yet a very fulfilling process. A person is the sum of what they have done with their freedom (Lecture, 5/21). Denying transcendence and facticity, allows no room for expressing who a person really is as an individual. It takes away from the diversity and uniqueness the OSU community strives for. When someone finally becomes authentic, that is when they will authentically, “be orange”.

Kylie Titus

Philosophy 150

Final Exam

Authenticity in my opinion is defined as one still being able to be themselves and expressing who they are while still being absorbed in everyday life and experiences. Being able to be authentic is an important part of becoming an individual and growing as a person. The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvior states in the first paragraph that, “since the individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others” It is hard to be oneself when it is so easily to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and not letting that influence you, but who you are as an individual is only determined by your actions and how you see the world and your peers.

Becoming an individual today’s society is very difficult. Everyone has such high expectations of everyone. Even if one does something a little bit out of the ordinary or doesn’t follow a certain trend, they will get ridiculed and judged and be thought of as “weird” or “different”. Especially with the use of social media, if somebody posts something that bothers someone else or just seems like something weird to post, everybody starts to talk badly about the person that posted it and associates a certain judgment right away with that individual. People are expected to follow society and do as they are told. What even is considered normal anyway? No one really has a way of knowing; everyone just feels the need to follow everybody else. If a person expresses who they are and stands out in anyway at all, people just judge and talk smack. They expect everyone to be normal and follow “society’s rules” while trying to become successful because if they don’t, they will go nowhere in life. I am guilty of judging others as well and I am not proud of that, but I also know that I have been judged myself for wanting to do certain things or wearing certain clothing. Being authentic here at Oregon State is easy for some people and others not so much. We have a very diverse campus so I see a lot of cultured people wearing different clothing and expressing who they are as individuals and I think that is awesome. Many others however just play follow the leader.

Many of the themes covered in class have to do with being authentic. The existential theme number 1 is Existence precedes essence. This talks about how you become who you make yourself to be. What you are is a result of your actions and thoughts, (5-12-15 ppt). Everyone has a different view of certain people. If its one thing I have learned, its that not to take things personally because whatever someone says to you or how one may act towards you is because of who they are, not who you are. The Look: other objectifies who you are by watching you and listening to you. 1^st person is being for itself and being in itself while 3^rd person is being in itself or object. (5-5-15 ppt). Are we all just objects or subjects? What does our existence really mean? Its up to us to make a meaningful life and being authentic is a big part of that. We all have the freedom to create and choose are own values (5-26-15 ppt). Existential theme number 3 is humanism, which is an individual focused philosophy and the pursuit of identity and freedom and our values and meaning in opposed to social, political and economic pressure for conformity. (5-10-15 ppt). There is so much pressure in the social, political and economical world to be perfect and live up to everyone’s expectations. But humanism in my opinion is known to focus on being your own individual and having your own identity and freedom. Kierkegaard states that the crowd is untruth, which makes the individual unrepentant and irresponsible. (5-5-15 ppt). This means that when following the crowd and trying to satisfy everyone’s needs and wants while ignoring our own values and beliefs one might lose ones authentic self. I feel as if being orange means you are standing out as who you want to be while everyone else who just sticks with what they know and follows everyone is just a boring gray. Being orange is the true color of authenticity.

Submitted by Jenna Nilsen

Oregon State University students are all part of one large community. This community is known as the “Oregon State” community, or, the “Orange” community. What students do as a whole, defines the community. But what they do individually, defines them as individuals. One would hope that each and every student would live authentically for themselves, even within such an enormous group. To live authentically, is when a person lives, while remaining true to their own character, spirit, and freedom of choices, despite any societal pressures, which attempt to persuade them to do otherwise.

To be an individual, people first have to realize, or become aware of, their own individuality. This can be one of the first obstacles in becoming an individual, because, as people ‘grow up’, they also have to learn how to become an individual (Lecture 11, 5/5/15). It is after this realization, that people are officially “condemned to be free” (Lecture 17, 5/26/15). They can choose to conform to the majority of society, or they can choose to challenge it. With this decision, people choose to either ‘be for themself’, or to ‘be for others’. In other words, people choose to be who they want to be, or who society tells them they should be. However, to live authentically would mean that one would mainly ‘be for themself’, despite potentially being judged, with however that applies to them.

Another obstacle that people often face is feeling as though they are just “part of a herd” (Lecture 11, 5/5/15). In other words, they are the same as everybody else around them. Almost all students at Oregon State University go to class every day, do their homework, dress in similar fashion trends, and act in a similar, somewhat reserved manner while walking the campus. This could potentially give some people the feeling of just “blending in” with everyone around them. While people often feel a strong need to be a part of a group, it is also still possible to express individuality within a group. It is a choice whether or not someone decides, or attempts to, blend in. The key for authenticity, is for people to discover, and embrace, what makes them different than everyone around them. What makes their rock, much like that of Sisyphus, different from everyone else’s? (Lecture 2, 4/7/15). However, standing out also comes with greater responsibility (Lecture 11, 5/5/15). It is the responsibility of people having to own who they are, and what makes them different.

People often avoid, or hide from, who they truly are, in order to ‘fit in’ with others around them. These people who choose to run from their true selves, are considered to be of bad faith (Lecture 18, 5/28/15). They have bad faith by trying to resolve any tension within their existence, with conformity. These people deny their own transcendence, or in other words, who they really are, or want to be. They are in denial with themselves, have yet to find their individuality, and do not want to accept the responsibility that comes with being an individual.

To be “authentically orange”, is choosing to live a specific lifestyle within the Oregon State community. It is individuals choosing to do what speaks to them the most, despite what any other students choose. Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “If a voice speaks to me, it is only I who must decide whether or not the voice I hear is that of an angel” (Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism). In relation to Oregon State students, they are all faced with their own freedom. It is only they who can choose to live an authentic life, or to not. It is only they who can decide whether the voice that speaks to them, telling them who they truly are, is that “of an angel”, or that which should be ignored.