after today’s class, during which the second batch of groups presented their case competition recommendations, we had to take the last five minutes to vote for which group we thought should go on to compete for our class against the other classes. and although part of me says, “who really wants to go on to have to present again in some sort of competition against other senior classes?” of course there is another part of me and all of my groupmates that says “we want to be the best.” that’s only natural.

and we were the best, i’d say. we were really entertaining, much more so than any other group, several times over. maybe some of our jokes were bordering on offensive, but we are adults, and it wasn’t by any means raunchy or immature. everyone liked ours the best, and everyone laughed. and our ideas were solid as well, the professor admitted that to us later.

of course, not before he took a second before the voting to basically say, “i know that group was the best but don’t vote for them,” because one of our 20 slides had a joke on it that said, “if you bleach your hair, everyone will like you.” we saw it, as did our audience, as a jab at greek life on campus and general southern california valley-girl fashion sense. it was well-received by the class as sarcastic humor. however the professor was apparently not pleased at all by this particular joke, and thought it could be easily construed as racist — given the presentation was on how to get more college students to shop at the local “ethnic” grocery store to increase its revenue — by suggesting that everyone just wants to be white.

now apart from being shocked that someone would get that idea from us, and sure, a tiny bit embarrassed that i hadn’t really thought of it that way even in a precautionary sense (which i think is because i’m far more prejudiced against bleached-blond airheads than i am racist in any way), i was mostly disappointed that something like that would make him decide we were not to be considered when picking the best group in class. and we asked around. everyone was going to vote for us.

i’m not sure if the lesson is to be more politically correct and/or don’t ever take risks, but i’m a little disheartened, i have to say. but then again, he did admit openly that we were going to win if he didn’t intervene, and he had to admit that beneath our cynicism we had a really strong presentation and good business recommendations, so it’s nothing to be entirely unhappy about.

but it’s just so in line with everything i already feel about my curriculum, and its tendency to strangle any life out of us and make us all strive to be average, that i have to hold onto some bitterness anyway if only because it’s so perfectly validating.

i have to call my mom now because i told her i would two days ago and i didn’t.

[now hearing this: cursive – domestica. i’m telling you, last night’s amoeba trip was one of the best i’ve ever made. plus a free poster for their one-year anniversary in hollywood! they’re so good, i just love that place.]