MAGAZINE - Dolphin.upenn.edu - University of Pennsylvania

Clichés don’t bother me as much as
the next guy. In high school, and
even college, we are taught that clichés
are bad. Wikipedia tells us that a
cliché is “overused to the point of losing
its intended force or novelty, especially
when at some time it was considered
distinctively forceful or novel.
The term is most likely to be used in
a negative context.” (I cite Wikipedia
because I can — no teacher is going
to deduct points from me here.) I am
not saying that we should use the term
“pretty as a picture” more or that there
should always be an evil twin, but I do
think we shouldn’t discard something
just because we’ve heard it a few times
before.
We all fancy our lives to be different
and unique from everyone else’s;
we were taught at a young age that
we are all “special.” The truth is that
we are not. All lives are generally the
same: we’re born, we have a childhood,
we go to school, we work, we
retire, and then we die. We all get out
of bed in the morning and go to sleep
at night; we all brush our teeth, eat,
shower, and shit. Along the way we
have experiences — the experiences
are universal, but they are important
to us. We experience happiness, we
That’s so cliché
But does it really matter?
One Penn Dude: Rambles et Al.
experience loss, we experience love,
and we experience grief. These experiences
have been around forever, but
they never get old.
Looking back to my childhood,
it’s funny to see how people played
along. “Mom, I lost my crayons. I
lost my crayons!” “I’m so sorry, honey.
We’ll get you new crayons tomorrow.”
When we’re little we think everything
is a big deal, and the people around us
indulge us. They agree — it is a big
deal. Now that we’re older, we don’t
get so much sympathy. When someone
breaks up with their boyfriend or
girlfriend it is as if their life is shattered,
but we know it is not. We’ve
seen it time and time again; they’ll
get over it and move on. Even when
someone loses a parent, it breaks our
heart, but we know that their world
will continue. We’ve seen other people
go through the same thing and we’ve
heard other stories — we have proof.
There is a book my mother once
told me about (hi, mom!), but the
name escapes me. It is about the stages
of life and how they are similar for
all of us. I think the aim of the book is
to teach you how to navigate life, but
I am more concerned with the breakdown.
In our teens we all feel insecure,
in our twenties we are afraid of growing
up, in our thirties we are scared
that our life is not heading where we
want it to, and so on. I’d imagine that
once we hit sixty we all wonder if the
life we led was one to be proud of, and
after that we worry about dying.
My point is this: even though the
same things happen over and over
again, that does not make them insignificant.
If your grandmother moves
into your house because she can no
longer take care of herself, if you think
you might be failing out of school, or
if your friend just died, I still want to
hear about it. You can talk about it,
make a movie, or write a book; I’ll
listen, watch, or read. Everything
that happens to me is important, so
everything that happens to you must
have meaning. It doesn’t matter if it
sounds “cliché.” Share your story, and
don’t let anyone tell you not to. And if
you’re really stuck, tell me – I’ll listen.
I think my email is in the lower righthand
corner. FC
The author of this column wishes to
remain anonymous. You may write to him
at OnePennDude@gmail.
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FIRST CALL MARCH 24, 2008 7