Make Your Home Among Strangers, this year’s Common Read, offers the reader a bit of friendly advice. This title urges the reader to take an opportunity to open their life up, to get to know people, and reach outside their comfort zone. Who are these strangers? These are the people you’ll enter college with, meet, and even live with! College is a step into the unknown, which we assure you, is not as scary as it sounds. To go to college is to make your home among strangers, it is to start a new stage of your life.
The urging tone of the title suggests taking a profound leap of faith or a journey into the unfamiliar. The title, of course, is derived from Lizet’s story, but is based in a universally applicable idea: we could all gain something from living with people we do not know, in a place that is foreign to us. At the beginning of my first year at UMass, I was hesitant to live in a dorm, to put myself out there and share a space with countless other people that I did not even know. To this day many of the people living in my hall, who were once strangers, are my closest friends. I did not come from a place unlike UMass or from particularly far away, meaning this transition was not a total culture shock. However, the advice that Jennine Capo Crucet relays in her title still rang true. Everyone stands to benefit from immersing themselves in new communities because such environments are conducive to learning and meeting new people. Plus, it’s a ton of fun!
Then, you may wonder, why does Lizet struggle with her experience at Rawlings College? Her difficulties would make this advice seem like a generally bad idea, but she did press on through challenges to accomplish her goals. Lizet did eventually proceed to graduate school, an option that you all will have as well. The idea is not that living with strangers instantly improves your life. Wouldn’t that be nice? What Jennine Capo Crucet is trying to convey is that there is more out there than what you already know, especially in this context, where college will open your eyes to communities and ideas you may have never heard of.
Written by Daniel Beckley, a recent graduate of UMass Amherst with a degree in English, Communication, and Public Policy.