LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND....

This is the 50th Anniversary of the founding of New College here in Sarasota. This is one of the top rated public colleges in America every year. The school is very competitive and rumor has it that their graduates do well in life. The typical New College Student is "unusual" in manner and appearance, among other things, gender identity being a big one.

Last night at a function at the school campus, I took a trip to find a rest room and entered one of their historic buildings. I scanned for Men, Women, Family or other familiar terms but found only Restroom. There was a short line waiting to get in. The man in front of me had been waiting a while and I struck up a conversation with him by asking whether someone had ascertained if the Restroom were indeed occupied. He said "Yes it was". I remarked on the gender neutral sign and he replied that on campus, the employees often refer to this as "Gender undecided." The implication of this is that many students are not readily identifiable as male, or female, gay, straight, animal, vegetable, mineral, whatever. They are that alternative. We got a taste of that alternativism as we sat in a heated tent surrounded by what looked like the cast of "Twilight" the movie. This gender indecision may be a transient one amongst the student body with an eventual choice being made once the real world was entered and the hallowed halls and bongs of college are left behind. Many of the graduates and present students are gay and lesbian which as Jerry Seinfeld often said "Not that that is a bad thing." I make no judgement on chosen sexuality within this blog post. I am suggesting that if you don't have time to drive to Fantasy Fest in Key West, you can visit this campus.

But then again, who am I to preach conformity. I probably would have fit in great here at New College when I was 17. By fitting in I mean "not fitting in." And that is the whole point. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and dressed in all black from head to toe and wearing ballet slippers, It has made all the difference.