Congratulations to Oakmont writing winners McKinley Chabot and Joe Carlucci for their awards in the annual Fitchburg State Writing Contest.  Chabot won 1st Place while Carlucci earned an Honorable Mention award. The writers were awarded their certificates and gift cards for the FSU Bookstore at a special ceremony on campus hosted by English Department professors Dr. Steven Edwards and Dr. Wendy Keyser.

The afternoon was also capped off by a reading by FSU student poets who will be published in the annual collection of Route 2.  Chabot’s winning piece will also be included in the publication. Thank you to Fitchburg State’s English Department – Oakmont students appreciate your recognition each spring.   COPIES OF WINNING ESSAYS ARE BELOW.

The Curse of the Straight Face

By McKinley Chabot

She walks into school wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Her hair is in a high ponytail, and she is silent until she gets to her class. People that pass her in the hallways don’t smile or look, they just keep staring straight ahead. It isn’t until she reaches the classroom that she starts talking. Her friends are in there, and they know what the deal is. 

That girl is me, and I can assure you, I’m not facing anything serious. There is no case of bullying, or mistreatment from my peers. I just look unapproachable, mean even. I have RBF, and we all know what that stands for. 

I don’t try to keep a straight face, it just happens. Whenever I’ve tried to lighten it up, I just look sick, awkward, or creepy. So I stick to the way my face is naturally set; cold, unwelcoming, and bored. 

My other problem is that I’m not a naturally outgoing person. Socializing is not my thing, so I talk to who I know and that’s about as far as I go. This also makes me seem like I jerk. I mean, if I don’t talk to someone, that must mean I hate them, right?

This is completely untrue. There are very few people that I truly dislike, and usually if I don’t talk to someone it’s because I’m nervous. What if they think I’m weird or dumb? What if they don’t want to talk to me? What if I’m below their standards?

 I met one of my best friends in sixth grade. We sat next to each other in music class, and we would both try to talk to each other whenever we got the chance. I was nervous, and she was too, so it took us months to hold an actual conversation with one another. The reward, however, was absolutely worth it. 

Later in our friendship, I learned that she thought I hated her because of my face. I then went through the process of telling her that it’s just how I look, and I don’t mean anything by it. On the inside, I really wanted to be friends with her, I just didn’t know how to show it. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the only instance of this case. Countless people have come up to me and said that they thought I hated them before we talked. My explanation is heard again, and the receiver laughs and smiles. I guess if I really want to clear the air, I just need to talk to every single person in my school. 

Some people have been so wary of me that they went through my friends to voice their opinion. A friend once said to me that somebody thought I hated them. I was horrified and shocked, and asked why they thought this way. My friend responded by saying that I would always give them a dirty look. Once again, I went through the explanation process. 

Of course, I don’t blame anyone for thinking this way. If someone looks unapproachable, I won’t talk to them either. I’ve made a straight face in the mirror before, and I agree with what everyone’s saying. It’s not on anyone else to correct this assumption; it’s on me. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you see an angry-looking girl with jeans and a sweatshirt on walking through the halls of Oakmont Regional High School, don’t be afraid of her. She’s not judging you one bit. She wants to be friends with you, her face just says otherwise. She’ll work on talking more, and she hopes that you’ll try and talk to her too.

Conforming to Non-Conformity

Joe Carlucci

Conversations between people who have just met often include the “favorites” questions. This could be as simple as asking someone what their favorite animal or color is and somehow, this makes us feel like we know them better. With how often these questions come up, we may even associate individuals with their favorite things. I often find myself having to defend my answer to the question of “what is your favorite ice cream flavor?” My answer has always been the same; my favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. The reaction I get usually tells me that I have been labeled. This label limits me to being seen the same way they see vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately for me, vanilla is seen to be plain and boring. 

This is largely due to how common of a flavor vanilla is. Vanillin, the organic compound responsible for the distinct taste of vanilla, is very easy to get. The access to vanillin is what makes vanilla ice cream as common as it is. The truth of the matter is that vanilla is as unique of a flavor as sherbet, strawberry, and chocolate. In fact, because vanilla is used as a base for many other flavors, those flavors are arguably less unique than vanilla. Nevertheless, the connotation of vanilla as “basic” or “plain” or “boring” has made its way into the New Oxford American Dictionary with vanilla sporting an adjective definition of “having no special or extra features; ordinary or standard.” Why should I be judged negatively based on my liking of something and a completely subjective evaluation of that thing? 

I think situations like this can be traced back to the counterculture movement where people avoided traditional ideas, even looking down on them. The counterculture movement allowed many people to abandon traditions that they did not personally agree with. Looking at the way our trend-oriented culture functions now, counterculture was the beginning of a herd mindset allowing masses of people to conform to a new set of ideals together, making them feel like they were going against conformity. In reality, they were just conforming to the idea of nonconformity and in the process, pulled those who truly valued certain traditions and practices into a culture that looks down upon things that may be classified as plain, bland, or “vanilla.” It is ironic that counterculture, in its quest to end conformity and revive individualism, actually causes conformity, just to a different set of ideals. By restricting beliefs centered around more traditional things, their goal of achieving individualism left people like me who love vanilla ice cream behind. 

In deciding to eat vanilla ice cream, I am holding more true to the intention behind counterculture than the toxic practice of conforming to nonconformity that counterculture has developed into; I am actually conserving individualism. In an effort to form a society that is more accepting of preference, counterculture has instilled hypercritical and judgmental tendencies that are making people feel the need to keep up with the latest trends rather than focus on what they actually like. This strict expectation of adherence to changes in nonconformity influences people’s daily choices like the music they listen to, the food they consume, how they present themselves to other people, and the list goes on. I myself have been a victim of counterculture. The music that used to play in my car was the music I was told to like, not the music I actually liked. The ice cream I ate was not my favorite flavor. Why should I spend my life prescribing to beliefs that are not my own? I am done letting others’ judgements of the things I like affect how I live my life. Now, if someone asks me what my favorite ice cream flavor is, I will say it proudly. I like vanilla ice cream and that does not define me as a person.