'Real wor Id' meets the real world

AMANDA SNOW STAFFWRJTER

If only your job at the design agency could be like Grace's on "Will and Grace" where everybody is joking around all day long. If only your fellow workers could be as gorgeous as Alexis Davis, Ned Ashton and A.J. Quartermaine on "General Hospital."

Today's generation of college to career students have been brainwashed by television and other media paraphernalia to believe that life is easy.

What happens when "The Real World" meets the really real world? What happens when people, who have grown up watching hours upon hours of TY, finally get a peek at what real, grown-up jobs are going to be like as they go off to college? What did they find out about TV's version of grown-up jobs?

"I think it makes life look too easy," Wayne MaCdowell, freshman business and marketing major, said. His friend Dave Ehrlich, sophomore English and communications major, said he hates shows like "Joe Millionaire" because, "it makes people want to lie."

MacDowell tells his stories of television influence and how TV almost failed him twice. "I watched 'The X-Files' for years, wanting to be in the FBI. Then I got a chance to sit in on an actual FBI investigation and it really sucked. That's when I found out how boring the FBI really was," MacDowell said. He continued to tell how, later, he was watching "Studio 54: Behind the Music" and how it made him want to run a punk club after seeing how cool it was to be the manager of a music/dance club. What they did not show was the hard technicalities behind such a position. "Nonetheless, I wanted to own a club and still do." Macdowell said.

Still proving how TV makes life look easy, Ehrlich then told his story of lost hope. "I saw 'Indiana Jones' when I was young and thought it was cool that archeologists got to carry around whips and kick ass to get the treasure. Oh how I was misled. Damn Indiana Jones!" he said. It was short and sweet but had a point, which was that he had discovered archeology was not very exciting at all.

Stories of hope were also told. Jose Jalandoni, senior English and communications major, told his story of hope with his dream and goal for the future which is based on a show called "Law and Order."

Jalandoni said, "I watch 'Law and Order' whenever I can and, for a long time, I wanted to become a criminal lawyer because of that show." He said he had changed his mind when he came to college and found out about communications. He said, "I still want to study law, though, but in terms of business law, not crime."

Other stories of hope start out at childhood. Haven McMickle, junior psychology major, is a prime example of this wonderful experience. She went from that little girl who adored "She-Ra," the cartoon heroine who saved the world to keep the peace, on to modeling her life values after this intriguing cartoon character by becoming an anti-war activist. A pacifist, McMickle loves to help out wherever she can and is always ready to give a hug, needed or not.

McMickle tells of another interesting television inspiration that she managed to pursue for a little while. "The 'Snorks' (another cartoon) made me want to be a scuba diver. So I took scuba diving lessons until I was 13 years old." Her reason for scuba diving? She was under the impression that she would be able to find deep-sea creatures like the little mermaid, the snorks and other fun creatures found in the oceans of fairyland. But who is to say they are not really there? That is what McMickle wanted to find out but she has yet to do so.

The next student was also inspired by cartoons but in a different way. Jennelle Battle, junior marketing major, told how she was inspired by cartoons to become a fashion designer. "All those cute little skirts and outfits worn by Rainbow Bright and Jem! I always wanted to dress like them," Battle said, "I liked Daisy Smurf too, but I always wondered why she was the only female." She went on to say how those cute outfits had inspired her to become a fashion designer so that she could be the one to make the nice clothes and possibly wear them for herself. Then she decided that marketing would be a better place to help get her into the designer business.

The final student interviewed was Meisha Forbes, junior business and human relations major. She said that from the time she was little she was attracted to the singers on television. She was inspired by singers Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston on MTV