On someone else’s name

I’m pretty sure I’ve turned into an old lady. It’s almost half an hour into Sunday and I’m already tired. I need to stop posting when I’m tired, but I’ve got something on my mind, internet, and it’s just begging to be shared with the world. Given my propensity to complain, it should come as no surprise that this is going to be a mini-rant of sorts. The topic: name brands. But this isn’t about the usual clothing or shoe brands, oh no – this is about college campuses.

I went to a high school where it was pretty much UC or bust, and it irks me as much now as it did during college application/commitment time last year. An institution of higher learning is much more than its name. Now, I’m not just saying that because I’ve encountered some people don’t follow NCAA basketball or even some who feel that any Bay Area institution without UC, State, Santa Clara, or Stanford in its name is not worth knowing. No, this runs much deeper than that. It’s the idea that some people are so closed-minded that they can’t even fathom anything beyond the surface of a good name. People are more than their names. Books are more than their covers.

Cue Reading Rainbow. “But you don’t have to take my word for it…”