Taste
Finals are over, you’ve arrived back home and you’re snuggled under a blanket whilst watching snow fall from the sky, glistening under the moonlight. What are you thinking about? In these moments, I find myself contemplating what it means to ‘be an individual’ – an abstract concept that has always puzzled my mind.
Recently, through the process of making new friends and settling into university life, I’ve been experiencing a strange urge to quickly decide on my taste in music, fashion and so on. I feel as though it is time for me to form an opinion on as many topics as I can think of just as a basis to making myself a more interesting person. Perhaps this was ignited when I was given the assignment to write a five page essay on ‘taste’ in History of Music, or maybe these thoughts are the result of a build up of doubt about what exactly it is that I’m doing studying a CAP course. Either way, living on campus which is swarming with young people flaunting their trendiest winter jackets was bound to make me question myself about my tastes. So why is it so important to focus on developing one’s taste? Well, in UBC, a place which is dominated by hipsters on longboards, I feel as though the idea of whether you are an individual or not leans towards the side of obscurity. In other words, the more unknown bands you listen to and the faster you fall into new fashion trends, the more connected you are to your own identity as somebody who is different from everyone else. Those of you who have studied popular culture and media will understand what I mean when I say that this all adds to your social and cultural capital. And those of you who don’t, well, think of the hours spent on YouTube finding a nice song as an investment into making yourself more unique.
Perhaps you care not for what others think of you, but this blog was written under the assumption that at the end of the day, everybody wants to be different and praised for their difference. Through the way that one holds oneself as well as through materialism, a depth to one’s personality can be put on display for the rest of the world to see. With this in mind, maybe it’s time to start saving up for that Aritzia sweater.