The Senior Struggle: Good Grief

I was a senior in high school for the 2008 election, not yet old enough to vote, but nonetheless completely absorbed by politics. This was partly due to the required government class I was taking for graduation, and partly to the fact that Saturday Night Live was once again hilarious. I remember how no one held back their opinion in that government class; we were college-bound teenagers who thought we could intelligently articulate our political stances without provoking an all-out brawl.

Four years later, not much has really changed. The opinions of my graduating class are ever the more adamant and consistent. However, the sterile classroom setting has been replaced by social media and our vocabulary is less imitative and a bit more mature.

November 6th was still infinitely entertaining. I stayed up entirely too late combing through social media and watching live-streams, while precocious status updates flagrantly filled up my news feed, as more and more states were called for President Obama. I was drunk from all the white whine.

The only suitable weapon for combatting post-election grief. | Photo by Kelly Felsberg

Nothing was more humorous than witnessing media-savy Republicans trying to manipulate the common liberal trope of moving to Canada, or some other liberal country. Instead, please insert your choice of tropical island, or country mistakenly perceived as less liberal than the United States to this hyperbolic claim.

Even more absurd was the claim that President Obama’s re-election would guarantee their unemployment come May, as if the President personally mandated liberal arts degrees for everyone. It’s honestly more absurd than finding out I have conservative friends on this liberal campus. (Where have you been hiding all this time?)

Remember that episode of Scrubs when Elliot’s political opinions expose her pariah-hood? Elliot says something snide about liberals and Turk gasps, “Oh my god, Elliot, you’re one of them aren’t you?” She’s proud of it, too. Although it’s romantically advantageous for her, Elliot is not ashamed to be Republican.

I don’t really think there’s much for the modern Republican to be ashamed of, except, of course, those so-far-right politicians who think they can redefine rape. The modern conservative valued the economy over social issues this past election and I understand why; the limited time left inside the safe, college campus bubble is equally as terrifying as the ambiguity of the world post-grad. (Will I have to live with my parents? Will I disappear from human existence? Is there an afterlife?)

I find this ambiguity terribly exciting at the same time because society no longer dictates my next move. (And, in fact, it never will.) At the same time, I think the class of 2013 is well-prepared for graduation because, clearly, we are so politically aware and engaged. While these statuses are certainly unnerving at times, it’s still good to know that Facebook has a pulse amidst so much numbing media. These political grievances will always be more welcome than any mundane updates about the weather.

About Kelly Felsberg

Kelly is a senior English major and copy editor for The Quad. She only writes with Sharpie pens.

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