Same Stuff, Different Campus

The week of the Utah-BYU game brings out a lot of smack-talk. On all levels. Football, religion, academics. And there’s always a big effort to differentiate the schools. One is more ‘intellectual’ than the other, one is cooler, one is rated higher, one is more scenic…blah, blah, blah.
Having spent a couple of hours on each campus this week ‘ as I have many times before ‘ it dawned on me that Utah and BYU are unfailingly similar.
It’s COLLEGE!
They’re all similar.
That’s not to say there aren’t differences. At Utah you see beards, cigarettes, long hair. Still, that doesn’t make BYU all that much different. Here’s what you see at pretty much all campuses: grass, trees, brick, ivy, bikes, tweed, iPods, skateboards, tee shirts that say ‘Dunder-Mifflin,’ message boards, fund-raisers for the underprivileged, fountains, parking congestion, overpriced food, backpacks, flip-flops, jeans, sweatshirts and ball caps.
Colleges vary some in their demographics, but they all have pretty much the same atmosphere: students walking around looking worried, professors walking around looking thoughtful. Places where you study a lot about the outside world but aren’t really in it.
The University of Wyoming feels like USC, which feels like Tennessee, which feels like Washington, which feels like Georgia Tech, which feels like Arizona.
It all sort of reminds me of when I was in high school. I thought wearing shabby jeans, beat-up sneakers and an army jacket made me look individualistic.
Actually, I looked just like everyone else.