After much deliberation, the title of my column will be Subject to Change. No, that does not mean I have yet to decide on a name; that is the name. Accept it, hate it, do as you please. It is your mind, after all. As this is the first of a hopefully long line of columns to come, I’m sure you are bracing yourself for impact, seemingly quivering in your shoes as you wait for the inevitably long, drawn out and heart-filled monologue as to why this title spoke to me. Well, you’re welcome, there is no story, and if there was, it would not be worth telling. Life is subject to change, and so is this column.
What is worth mentioning however, is the sad, sorrowful tale of woe that is Suzy Lee Weiss. If you have managed to miss the notorious high school senior’s offensive, flippant and entitled letter to the editor, published in the Wall Street Journal, you have quite the shock coming. Suzy, a high school senior from Pittsburgh, after being wrongfully, or so she thinks, rejected from her top Ivy League college choices, decided that tweeting her woes, or putting them on Facebook, was just not enough. No, Suzy decides instead that it would be a good idea to offend thousands of people by whining about her rejection in a national publication, trying and failing to blame her lack of acceptance on her lack of diversity.
As she says in her letter, Suzy represents about as much diversity as a saltine cracker, not a problem in and of itself, but when she continues to lament about how her lack of diversity is the reason for her rejection along with her unwavering honesty by not creating fake charities, she steps on a few million toes.
With statements like, “I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would’ve happily come out of it” and “If it were up to me, I would’ve been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything,” Suzy does spectacular work in offending nearly every minority group she can bring to mind.
So let Suzy serve as a reminder to us all as she now serves one of the single most hated internet personas. As the semester reaches its breaking point and stress is at an all-time high, don’t be a Suzy. Do not blame your problems on others, or play the victim. Be mindful of what you say, post and tweet while under stress. You never know how quickly you can burn a million bridges and step on a million toes.
Column by Shannon MacAllister, Assistant Features Editor.