I’m in the Florida Keys lying next to a palm tree but I’m a little homesick for New Jersey. I’m used to a life that is more fast paced, high-energy, and involves more sweating in nightclubs than laying in lawn chairs. I’ve enjoyed my trip but it blows my mind that on the same coast as my hometown, I can feel like I’m in another world. The scenery looks different, the attitudes have changed, and I especially don’t recognize any of the artistic culture. I started to realize when I passed mailboxes shaped like fish just how much our surroundings affect the way we express ourselves. Living in a community that is focused on beaches, fishing, and rum, means that all of the art galleries we pass - and there are a lot of them - mirror the lifestyle that the inhabitants are living. I come from a place where art is often interactive and abstract, so when I keep running into painted signs that say, “It’s five o’ clock somewhere!”, it’s hard to see the appeal. When I see clocks depicting fish heads with open mouths, I’m disturbed. My friends and I agreed that outside of the ocean, the only place that fish belong is rolled up into a piece of sushi - not on a pendant, a Christmas tree ornament, and certainly not as mailbox décor.
But there is something else that the artwork says around here - that people are happy. I laugh when I see canvasses reading “party like a pirate, drunk and naked” and I assume that when Key West-ers come to New York and see galleries showcasing boxes of pills as artistic expression they wonder how we tri-state folk got to be so uptight and miserable.
“We love it down in the Keys!”, every person I meet says. Strangers wave hello when they pass me. I’ve been offered a ride twice in 2 days. That would never happen in New York and not just because New Yorkers dont drive. All of the pelican drawings and glass-blown dolphins partially tell me shitty taste, but also tell me that people here love the life that they live and would never trade it for a Jersey Beach house.
-Alysia Slocum
So it may just be me, but is anyone else in that awkward “limbo” between being up to your ears in work and having literally nothing to do? Every single friend of mine that’s home on break has the same things to say: “Oh, no job has called back to hire me.” “I’m sleeping all day because I’ve already watched seventeen seasons of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix.” And the ever popular “Get me the fuck out of this house, I’m going to scream, everything in this town closes at 9 PM.”
It seems that although we wait impatiently for spring semester to come to a close and our ever-so-precious “free time” to be restored to us, once we actually get home for the summer we really just don’t know what to do with ourselves. Sure, we all have plans to work and play and do a million and one things, but ultimately things never seem to go according to plan. First, the job you wanted doesn’t want temporary employees. Then, you get a job working for minimum wage scooping up dog shit and you’re forced to either quit it or perpetually smell like ass. And of course, since all of your friends are in the same boat, it becomes impossible to schedule times to hang out and do all those “awesome plans” you anticipated while working around twenty shitty work schedules and the obvious lack of things to do after a certain time of night.
Let’s face it: college summers are rough. We love having the time off but hate it just as much. We love the comforts of home and old familiar faces but hate being so far away from college life and all that it affords us. And right now, we’re stuck in a “limbo” during which we’re getting ourselves situated and our schedules in order, all the while dreading that warm summer day when we legitimately have to get out of bed at a reasonable time of day and go be “real people.”
So take it day-by-day, appreciate the limbo (to continue with the metaphor), and enjoy the free time before it’s inevitably sucked away from you (likely in the next few weeks or sooner). And once that free time is taken away by menial labor and, if you’re me, hours behind a bar and watching various people’s pets and children, I can almost guarantee that a little part of you, no matter how tiny it may be, will be wishing and hoping that the state of limbo could return again.
Oh, and make sure you catch up on Grey’s. Netflix is calling your name.
-Amanda Matteo
For the first music post of the summer I thought about making a playlist to unwind to, or maybe share the collection of awesome songs I’ve been road tripping to the beach to with my windows down, finals a memory already long forgotten. But as I haven’t even had the chance to do those things yet, I decided against it.
Instead I’m leaving you with one song: “Carpet of the Sun” by Renaissance, that my dad suggested I listen to after treating him to Florence and the Machine’s, “Seven Devils,” on my first day back in South Jersey.
I haven’t decided whether or not I adore Annie Haslam’s vocals, or if I need to be slightly more intoxicated (or perhaps in another decade) to enjoy them thoroughly. Regardless, this song is the perfect cheesy soundtrack to the ideal weather we’ve been having, and is hopefully one that I’ll be able to keep coming back to all summer.
“Come into the day
Feel the sunshine warmth around you
Sounds from far away
Music of the love that found you
The seed that you plant today
Tomorrow will be a tree
And living goes on this way
It’s all part of you and me.”
- Kelly Barton
More from California!
Photos from the Jean Paul exhibit at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco
My friends and I decided to head out west as soon as the semester ended to see what California had to offer. When one of my friends, from Kenya, suggested that we visit Laguna Beach, I automatically responded, “Oh we used to have a show with that name here.”
“All the shows in the United States are named after places,” my other friend laughed. “Laguna Beach, Jersey Shore, Housewives of Atlanta….” I thought about it and realized that she was right. The U.S. is obsessed with places but more specifically, reality shows based in places. I wondered about the rise in reality television and what it is that we, as viewers, get out of programs with a shitty script and a witless cast. Even I can’t stop myself from pausing on Khloe and Lamar when flipping through channels, but why do I care?
Perhaps we enjoy the multidimensional aspect of reality television. Instead of a 30-minute segment that leave us hanging until the next week, shows like Keeping up with the Khardasians and Ice loves Coco feed our modern needs to be constantly stimulated. Now we can listen to their song debuts on the radio, we can see their outfits at red carpet events, and we can cross our fingers at the chance of running into them one day. There is more to look forward to with reality stars because they do real-life ridiculous things instead of imaginary ridiculous things. In the end, they give us more bang for our buck and become such a part of our daily lives that talking about Snooki and Lauren Conrad is like talking about girls that you go to school with. They send real tweets and prove true that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
- Alysia Slocum
As it often goes after the first week of being home for the summer, I miss being in New Brunswick. But in the last few weeks of residing at school, all I wanted was to be in my house with my family. There’s a certain something about each place that makes me feel at home. And, strangely enough, it’s a little disturbing in a way that it shouldn’t be.
Unfortunately, I have developed a sort of home identity crisis. A home-dentity crisis, for lack of better words. I can’t accept the way my mother got upset every time I told her that I was heading back “home,” rather than to my dorm room. Rutgers truly has become a second home for me. A welcoming meal from Brower, occasionally brown tap water, a roof that might cause me cancer over my head – I’ve got the basics at Rutgers, albeit sketchy. I know my way around New Brunswick just as well as I know my way around the roads of my town. I can probably recommend more eateries to the average tourist in “Little Manhattan” than I can in Plainsboro. (But, let’s be honest, nobody comes to Plainsboro anyway. Only a handful of people know where the place is, I can’t be expected to be prepared for tourists.)
But I’m not so Harry Potter-esque in my feelings towards Rutgers, as I’m quite fond of my “actual” home. It’s a cute little piece of the rash known as suburbia that is found blotchily spread through New Jersey. I love the wide-laned roads, the adorable strip malls with lovely local restaurants to spare, the neatly organized abundance of green lawns, and of course, my house and everyone in it. This place is where I’ve spent exactly ten years of my life – a most crucial ten years. It would be a shame to not consider it my home, just because something exciting and different comes along.
Harry Potter had it easy; the Dursleys treated him like shit. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by people who love me and care about me in both places. I like to see myself, and maybe many other students, as more of a Hermione Granger. I love my parents and my quiet little suburban lifestyle, but I also always look forward to the adventures and this new life that being at school naturally brings to me. Although, I admittedly don’t want to have to erase my parents’ memories, so I won’t take this analogy that far.
In the end, this polygamous and slightly tumultuous relationship with Rutgers and Plainsboro got me thinking that I’ll always have two homes. I’ll just have to embrace the fact that I get to be a part of two worlds. Wherever my family is, that’s home. But wherever I build a life of my own, that’s home, too.
- Pooja Kolluri
A Weekend at Tai’s
There are about five hundred billion million students at Rutgers, most of which (unfortunately) I will never meet. During the sometimes-too-long bus rides from campus to campus, I often look around at people that I may never see again, wondering who they are and what they do. Thus, I decided to make my first summer post completely selfish in the hope that anyone reading/seeing it will perhaps understand a little bit more about me and/or even provoke a much welcomed “hello.” Via iPhone, here’s what a typical weekend looks like for me.
Enjoy.
<3,
Tai
p.s. The Rutgers Review rocks socks.
by Amanda Matteo
So the semester is over, and I’m sitting here reading all the newspaper articles I didn’t have time to read during finals week. I’m reflecting on all that happened in that short period of time, and, more specifically, on a simple statement made by our President just a few days ago.
Anyone with two ears and some form of communication with the outside world has most likely heard of Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage. If you haven’t, I really think you should consider moving out from under that rock; it’s not only crushing you, but it’s making you entirely oblivious to the outside world. That said, it’s so important that we recognize these moments and reflect upon them, regardless of our political, religious, etcetera affiliations and our views on the particular situation at hand.
How fucking awesome is it that a politician (a real, honest-to-goodness politician from the White House) is actually taking a stance on something? Not only that, but a stance on an extremely divisive issue that could just as easily kill his campaign as it could strengthen it. It is a beautiful thing when we, for once, can see beyond the “politics” of a politician’s motives and see instead an actual person with real opinions, speaking out in the face of opposition and admitting to a change of heart.
To be the first President of the United States to openly support same-sex marriage is probably the ballsiest thing that can be done, given the current political climate and its seemingly-irrelevant separation between church and state. In the face of an impending election, Obama made a risky decision. This decision, however, is what sets him apart from his Republican competition: he is a real, evolving human being that truly serves as a representation of his people. He puts the well-being of his people before his own political motives and strategies, and that is something that anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, can back.
I applaud our President for making a bold moral judgment and for admitting to a change of heart that, for many, will improve their lives forever. The tides, they are a’changing, and I for one am beyond excited to see where they can take us.
Anonymous asked: Do I have to be part of the Rutgers Review to submit stuff?
We typically only receive submissions from our own staff/writers; however, we’re never against publishing pieces from other Rutgers students. Drop us an email at therutgersreview@gmail.com and we’ll be glad to take a look!
