Authentic Orange

Submitted by Hannah Hinshaw
There are over 7 billion people on this planet and there is not one person out of those 7 billion that are exactly like you. You are all unique, different, and authentic. Authenticity is the way in which you are true to yourself and your personality. All of us here at Oregon State have a common goal at the end of our 4 years, to graduate. That however is not the concern, the question is how are you going to walk to Reser in your caps and gowns knowing that you are exactly who we want to be? Being Authentic isn’t a hobby or a life choice, it’s something that’s already in you but needs to come out and see the world.
From the moment you got accepted to Oregon State your future was changed, your minds altered, and your lives pushed in a new direction. You had to figure out what you were going to be. They make you pick a category from a drop down list of things like Engineering, Education, and Business. Your entire future with just the click of a button. Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega stated this with the idea of causa sui to the second power, (“Man has no nature” pg. 155, and lecture 4-5-15). This is determining what a person shall be. At Oregon State you have the struggles of making sure you are on the right path. In order to be authentic, you shouldn’t think about who you should be, but rather who you are now, that in turn will help you find who you should be. If you aren’t living the life you want, and expressing your thoughts and ideas there is no way you will find out who you will be, because that will never be the authentic you.
With that being said, existences precedes essence, this is existential theme number 1 (Lecture 4-14-15). Understanding that “your essence” or nature is a result of your choice. In college there are tons of choices that you have to make and each one is helping you become who you are. Finding your essence could be taking a class with a friend that is outside of your major, or deciding to study abroad because it’s something you’ve always wanted to try. Your essence is that thing that makes you special. Sometimes making the hard decisions like staying in to study instead of hanging out with friend’s shows you that you can be a hard worker. Certain decisions make you understand yourself and why you do things. It all helps you become an authentic beaver.
College is stressful on everyone, there are thousands of students walking around campus and sitting in the same lecture hall as you. You all have different stories but you are all in the same place. This can connect with Heideggers thoughts of “being-in-the-world” and the Greek word Dasein which means “being there” (Lecture 4-16-15). Each person is there, sitting in that old wooden chair that is so uncomfortable that our desk chairs in our dorms sound like a better place to be sitting. In college you can feel lost in a sea of people who are striving for similar objectives, so being there, and being you, are completely different. You can sit there and pretend to listen like every other student or you can figure out if this is something you are interested in learning about, is it something that could benefit you in the future? For some it may and for others it may not, the point is that doing what everybody else is doing isn’t going to get you where you want to be. To be an authentic beaver you need to be in the world but under your rules, not anybody else’s.
Authenticity, who you are. The way you’re living your life right now in this moment. Being an authentic beaver can be difficult, you need to think about who you are right now and decide if you are on the right path to who you are going to be. You should understand that “your essence” isn’t something to be afraid of but something to embrace because it is yours and nobody else has it or can take it from you. You should now that being in the world is a gift, we don’t let gifts sit on the counter we pick them up and use them to our advantage, we make something of them. Making something of ourselves while going through the struggles of college and finding our way is what it means to be an authentic beaver.

Submitted By Taylor Ireland

Authenticity is uniqueness, genuine, real, veritable, and most importantly, being true to one’s self. People strive all of their lives in search of what makes them special. How do you become true to yourself, without knowing who you are? The first step in order to be true to yourself, especially while in Beaver Nation, is the third theme of existentialism; Humanism. Individuals, or “Beavers” are focused on the pursuit of freedom and identity. They search for their own opinions and values on politics, social conformity and their own virtues (Lecture 5-7-15). A true and authentic Beaver searches during their, hopefully four years of college, to find out what makes them so unique. While we are all one Beaver Nation, we all have separate identities, which is what makes us authentic.

As we search for our identity here at Oregon State University, we are also among tens of thousands of other students with the same goal. This agrees with the philosopher Heidegger, and his theory on “The They”. As we walk to our classes with our headphones in, every face a blur as we walk by, we see a larger picture. This is called “The They”. While we think we are the ones unique and separate from “The They”, we are actually a part of it just as much as everyone else is. The other students are there with you, all with the same goal in mind. In Heidegger’s reading, he states that “Others are encountered environmentally” (Heidegger, Being and Time pg. 225). As we walk by these blurry faces, it is in the environment of Oregon State’s campus. From a larger a scale, everyone here at Oregon State, is a small part of an even bigger “The They” which is the entire world. Every Beaver is an everyday mode of being, finding their own identity in an even bigger “The They”.

While we are all part of “The They”, we must also consider the fact of how we look through other’s eyes. Every true Beaver has experienced tour groups consisting of parents and hopefully future Beavers walking past you; a sleep deprived, hungry, hungover, college student trying to get past this small group of “The They” to make it to class. I feel like an animal trapped in a glass cage at the zoo. This brings us to the philosophical  statement, Being for Others (Lecture 5-5-15). In your eyes, the tour group is turning you into an object. Which can be somewhat alienating, for you, a person in search of their own identity to be turned into just another object for that group. This is one of the many obstacles you must overcome as you embark on the journey to be an authentic Beaver. While it may seem like you are being objectified, every other fellow Beaver feels the same way and it ends up being one of the many obstacles you overcome.

As the world progresses, somethings end up being more important than it was twenty years ago, maybe because of social norms, or because it did not even exist. One of these important things that relates to being a true Beaver, is the Facebook page, “Things Overheard at OSU”. While this may seem petty, it correlates perfectly to Kierkegaard’s theory of The Crowd (Lecture 5-5-15). He states that the crowd is one driving force that persuades decisions and it weakens the responsibility of others as the bigger the crowd is, the less important one person is. “Things Overheard at OSU” is a perfect example of this because with the crowd on that page, approximately 15,000 members, each Beaver has less of an impact on the larger crowd. When one post gets over 500 likes and a lot of support, if one Beaver feels opposite of others, they can (and usually) receive a lot of hate for their opinion, because it does not follow the crowd. This is just another obstacle one faces while you attempt to be an authentic OSU student. While you may not always agree with the crowd because it is “untruth” as Kierkegaard states, the crowd is too powerful to face as a single individual.

Finally, every college student, let alone a Beaver faces procrastination. While some cases are more extreme, we all deny transcendence by procrastinating. (Lecture 5-26-15). This is in Sartre’s perspective, that we keep denying and denying starting the simplest of tasks. This is another obstacle we face, and will always be a challenge. The second part of procrastination is the “I’ll start sooner next time” phase. Which is also denying transcendence, because you never really do start earlier next time. It is the same repetitive task over and over of procrastination, sort of like Sisyphus, repeating the same task over and over. This, to me, is one of the hardest obstacles of being a Beaver in search of identity and authenticity. While it may not ever be conquered, it alone will not stop your commitment to being a unique Beaver.

Ultimately, while there are many obstacles and steps of being an authentic and true Beaver, the identity you find in the end is worth all of the time and effort. Hopefully, as I am still continuing through the process of being my very own, authentic Beaver.