Griffin Bruns

For as long as I've known, my interests have been an amalgamation of different stereotypes, like only my brain is Frankenstein. I've got the athletic interest of a jock, the video game interest of a textbook nerd, and the true crime interest of a 14 year-old girl. However, as I have aged, I have learned how each of those 3 interest are much more than elements of a large stereotype, but are actually entire identities on their own. Let me explain:

1) Cross Country: Unlike other sports, high school cross country is much more of a community than any other sport. While cross country does have a varsity and a JV, it doesn't cut any other people, instead dumping them into a category called 'open'. This makes cross country the best way to change people into being far more healthy for the rest of their lives because it introduces it as a community thing, rather than a pride thing, and it definitely made that change in me.

2) Video Games: I'm not going to sit here and pretend the main reason I like video games is not the fact that they are fun. That being said, there is an unintended result that comes from video games, a trait that it instills in those, by providing with the opposite; Control. Video games are, by their nature, an interactive medium, as a result, it gives it players a maximum amount of control. By giving it's players control over their fate for a short amount of time, it allows players to accept that life can't be control. We all need a sense of control in our lives, so video games took off because it provide kids and teens, who have little control over their lives, with a sense of control. I am now a more chill and accepting human being, because I get my sense of control from somewhere else.

3)True Crime: This was an interest I picked up in quarantine after watching one episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, and now I can't stop learning about true crime cases. True crime provides much more to a persons character than another reason to be called abnormal, as it forces us to accept many of the hard realities of life, one being, that life is short and could end at any time. This may sound dark to be coming from a teenager, but the fact is that it is important to know. Knowing that there is a fixed end after a certain amount of time makes it so people work harder to achieve success in endeavors the first time they do them, as they don't have the time for a second chance.