Ramp-Lit&Soc-SecondReponse

After reading the third chapter, I believe I can relate to some of what Nathan is saying. The first thing that stuck out in my mind is the RA's. At Penn State, I had to go to summer session. Even though University Park is a huge campus, the majority of students where in the one designated area of dorms. In those dorms, my building held the most people. Every floor had at least 80 people. My RA was a sweet girl who always tried to get events going in the idea of a community. I know she had a Vegas night, complete with poker, a blackjack table, and snacks. She constantly had movie nights in her own dorm, and there was always something going on down at the quad. Unfortunately, not a lot of people went to these events. I didn't go myself. I barely left my room, but when I did, I noticed what Nathan noticed.. most of the girls already had their groups on the floor. They weren't really interested in making tons of new friends. As for the ethnicity thing? That didn't really apply to my floor. There were girls of all different ethnicities, everyone was friends.

The eating thing was also something I could relate to. It took about two months into my fall semester for me to actually go to the commons and eat by myself. I didn't have any friends there aside from my roommate and she was always doing sorority stuff. I ate alone, but being the observer I am, I noticed all the different groups that ate in the commons. There were your basic people who eat alone. Then the sports groups. Say lacrosse just got done with practice, all the guys would come and eat together. The same goes for basketball and pretty much any other sport. There were just groups of regular friends. The thing I don't agree with in Nathan's reading is the whole taking dinner back to your room with you. I know plenty of people did it, but the majority seemed to eat lunch in the commons with their friends. I saw maybe 10 people a sitting take food back to their dorm. I think dinner is just a great time to socialize with people about your day.

In the end, Nathan made some good points and I agree with most of what she said. College has to somewhat be a community, but you cannot force people to be in one if they don't want to.