This just in: there’s a whole world out there
By Arlie Martin
Senior Opinion Writer
The “Asbury Bubble.” I have heard this terminology since day one of freshman year. It took no time at all for me to understand why it was used and I bought into the mentality that Asbury is separated from the rest of the world. It seemed that the melting pot of students from different backgrounds armed with technology ranging from smartphones to tablets to computers could do nothing to bring this campus back in touch with reality.
Then I realized that there is nothing wrong with the campus, the rules or the people that are here. The problem is that we, the students, have created the bubble. We separate ourselves by instinct because we believe that that is what happens when you pick up and move to a small town and live in a place that probably has more rules than when you were in high school.
This has led us to a place where we feel entitled. We feel like the administration owes us because “they” have cut us off, when in reality, Wilmore is not so different from where most of us grew up.
At Asbury, we have just as much access to information as we do anywhere else. I know, I know, Forescout is a pain and websense blocks us from getting on Victoria’s Secret. But let’s be real, does the Victoria Secret website really tell you what is going on in the real world – the world in which people don’t actually look like that or dress like that on any sort of regular basis. There are nightly runs to Taco Bell, signaling that civilization as we know it is not too far away from us. We have access to social media on which the New York Times and the BBC post full articles about current events that are conveniently summarized in headlines on your newsfeed. You don’t even have to read the full articles.
My point is that Asbury isn’t lacking in world perspective. We, the students, simply ignore it because we have decided to cut ourselves off. We choose to whine incessantly because so and so says leggings are immodest, or we cry “Satan!” because someone is causing you to reassess your personal habits and character. In the grand scheme of the world, who cares? I can tell you who doesn’t, the homeless, the hungry, the abused. Why, on a campus that is dedicated to Christ, do we find so few community servants?
Because we have decided that we are not a part of that world. We are on our own and have our own problems inside this bubble. The only way to get rid it is to make it burst from the inside out.
You want to get in touch with the world? Volunteer. Don’t have a car? Not a problem. Asbury students regularly mentor and volunteer at the Providence School just a few blocks away from campus. There are groups of students that go into downtown Lexington and talk to the homeless doing ministry among the same people to whom Christ came and ministered.
Those options not for you? OK, Asbury has an entire department dedicated to community service with notebooks full of opportunities. Get up and ask to help! Get involved in the world outside of Asbury.
Or please, keep the hypocritical cries of indecency loud. Let the hatred of the cafeteria continue to burn. Demand better grades for less work. Fight the system. Because someone has to keep this self-righteous bubble from popping.