The Mike Snyder Blog

"The Mike Snyder Blog" is a Tufts Observer production about seeing. By pointing out absurdities and gaps in human behavior, challenging popularly held belief systems, and observing the ways seemingly unrelated situations in life are joined at the hip, this blog seeks to explore life’s ordinary events and detect their extraordinary implications.

For the Fall of 2007 the blog will focus exclusively on my time abroad in Morocco, made possible by SIT Study Abroad and approved by Tufts. However, I'll try to keep the same watchful eye and critical writing style. Hey, why not shake things up wherever I go? :)

The person doing the seeing—at least he thinks—is a sophomore at Tufts University majoring in American Studies. He loves snowboarding, relativity, good conversation, and Boston architecture. Mike’s friends would like to rename his blog to “I Kick Puppies” because of his occasionally vicious writing style. Outside of print, his warmth and curiosity lead them to believe that he is a puppy at heart.

Contact: Michael.Snyder@tufts.edu
A Tufts Observer production
January 28, 2007

Anybody who has read my column is all too familiar with the above phrase. I remember sitting in Dewick one day listening to nearby students discuss the future of my major. They jokingly placed bets as to whether I would major in English, Philosophy, or something more arbitrary, like Women’s Studies.

Mike Snyder, LA ’09, is actually majoring in this. Surprised? At a school where the most popular anticipated major among incoming students is International Relations (often combined as a double major with Economics or a foreign language), it seems counter-intuitive that I would pick something so close to home.

Check out today’s feature News article in the Observer. Want to bet that the writers of the offensive Christmas carol, “O Come All Ye Black Folk,” never took a comprehensive course on race in America? I almost guarantee it. Nor will the vast majority of Primary Source members have sat through a course on, say, the immigrant experience or Asian-American culture.

Therein lies the problem. A lack of education. A lack of understanding. While some of my classmates push for immediate expulsion of the Source writers or a speedy de-funding of the magazine, others—like Professor Lisa Coleman and TCU Senator Mitch Robinson—realize that straight-out punishment is not an appropriate response. Rather than persecute the Source writers, educate them.

Imagine you wake up one morning and have absolutely no idea who you are. You crawl out of the covers to find yourself in a room you’ve never been in before, staring at hands you’ve never used before. You have no idea who these attractive looking people are on your wall posters—U2? Johnny Depp?—and at a nearby window, you stare out at a view of an awesome cityscape you can only visualize in dreams.

This is what happened to Doug Bruce, a New Yorker who experienced total retrograde amnesia in 2003 when riding on the subway one afternoon. He lost every memory he ever had about himself--including his childhood memories. The documentary Unknown White Male explores Bruce’s post-amnesia life and the difficult of process of his reuniting with friends and family, who are all complete strangers to him.

My hair dresser is somewhat of a philosopher, and one day while he was cutting my hair, he told me his version of the three types of people in the world.

The first is what he calls the Creators. These are the movers and shakers, the perfectionists, the people who push things forward and change things up. They are also leaders, activists, risk-takers, and goal-setters. At a university setting, this manifests in many forms. Somebody who strives for a high GPA with visions of a good Grad School is a Creator. So is the Peace and Justice Studies major who travels to Central America twice a year to conduct research. Same goes for the hardworking and inspiring captain of a sports team.

The second is what my hair dresser calls the Watchers. These are the people on the sidelines, observing events and tracking outcomes. They generally don’t like the limelight and wish to stay detached. They don’t change things up, but open themselves up to change. They may have goals, but are less interested in fulfilling them than watching other people try and fulfill theirs.