The Girl Who Lives in a Bubble

The other day I found myself questioning whether I lived in a bubble or not. What is ‘living in a bubble?’ Well, for those of you who don’t know (and clearly have a bubble of your own), it is when you are living in your own little world and have no idea what is going on around you.

I have usually been pretty open to everything around me. I am an extremely curious person, yet the other day while at a group interview I felt a little left out. Everyone around me was talking about something that I was not familiar with: Jersey Shore. A plague that has traveled from the hallways of 10 West, crept down the street into 150 Tremont and went against the one way traffic until it reached Miller. I am sure the Hyatt and Holiday Inn are infected as well.

Thankfully my bubble has kept this horrible, horrible ‘thing’ out of my life. 'Is this protection good or bad?' I asked myself. Here was a show, uniting a group of Suffolk Students who had just met each other. They made Jersey Shore references and talked about the characters as if they were old friends of theirs. So, had my bubble protected me, or just made me an outcast in a social setting, depriving me of having something in common with this group of students? That’s not all folks.

My bubble, (which I believe when shielding me from the pointless MTV culture can be a good thing), can also be a bad thing. Not being born in this country has placed me in an automatic American-Childhood-Proof bubble. I have not watched "The Wizard of Oz". (and yes I am aware it is a classic) I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the first time this year.

Although I have been in this country enough time to be considered a citizen, my ACP bubble kept me from many things. Games of wiffle Ball? A cabbage patch kid? Frosty the Snowman? Apple Picking? Humpty-Dumpty? Nope, sorry. I don't know much about the things that belong to the American 90’s kids from the time they were born up until 1999.

So, although my bubble at times doesn't allow me to understand some of the culture of this country the way kids of my generation do, it helps out. It helps out when a group of girls (or guys) are talking about having a pointless, but extremely famous TV show, during which time I can hide inside of my bubble completely ignorant to the references they make.

My bubble, which I believe is not too small, and not too big, has a great filter system when it comes to things like pointless and tasteless media. It no longer allows Lil’ Wayne songs, one-hit rappers, pop culture magazines and the many shows about the flavor of love, or loving ray-j or rocking the love, and whatever it is this time. At times, it sucks out a lot of the fun which a lot of people seem to have having things in common that my bubble lacks.

So at the end of the day is my bubble making me miss out, or am I better off?