Underneath Those Flip-Flops

Sliding on my flip-flops I continue to throw on my hoodie and walk out of my house into the nearly freezing temperatures outside. Back in Scotia I would have never been caught wearing flip-flops in these temperatures. The blindly hot summer days you spot me in flip-flops, sure, but not late fall. There is something about New Paltz that becomes a part of you.

Realizing what I have just done, before entering Tommy C’s Deli for the finest egg sandwich money can buy, I stare down at my feet. I think, what the hell I am doing. Thoughts of my mother scolding me for such an unwise choice run through my head, though, she is not in New Paltz. While I have been in New Paltz I feel I have explored and refined my own identity. Who I am as a person and what matters to me is becoming more clear.

On campus during the fall semester there was a countless amount of people wearing flip-flops. This was something I have never really experienced before. Where I am from (Schenectady County, NY) people just don’t do that; at least not in these massive hoards. Slowly, even subconsciously, I started to say to myself, “Hey, why don’t you just throw on your flip-flops too.” This surely was a lot faster than putting shoes on, so progressively I began to wear them more and more until I almost wore them every day.

That was when I realized I too had become immersed in the culture of New Paltz. It is odd when you notice an environmental change in yourself. I begin to question if this is really me, or am I just becoming something I am not. Thinking now, yes, I think this is me. This is just a part of me I never saw.

Sure, wearing flip-flops is not that big of a deal, but I could feel the bigger picture. All the talk of how environment does affect people, especially in youth, does seem to have some substance. Whether or not you want to admit it, your environment does make who you are.

In New Paltz there is a sense of liberalism and free spiritedness. Maybe, not quite the same as Woodstock, but a scaled down and college built community type. With this liberal aura is actually a strong conservative backbone. This is becoming more and more evident to me as time goes on. Not really a Republican kind of conservative, but more of the Libertarian flavor. Discovering this struck me as odd. I hoped to find, maybe wished, to see a bunch of bleeding heart liberals that even far surpassed me in my liberalism. This was not the case.

Possibly I'm not looking in the right places. The liberals could be somewhere, but I have yet to find just where their nitch is. In some ways this conservative undertone has made me an even more left liberal. I know what I believe in and I know what I want, well, as much as a 21-year-old college student can.

With snow on the ground and the winter chill sweeping into my lungs, I have decided to put the flip-flops aside for some much needed rest. Although, once the scents of spring start to fill the air I know they will come right back out.