My Middle Class Lens: Peer Pressure And College Field Trips

Movies like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani do a good job of highlighting the fun of college trips. However, this one-sided narration is not impartial in nature. The glory of a college field trip is an overused narration. Along with the adrenaline rush, and fleeting joy, this 'quintessential college experience' also comes with the complementary burden of peer pressure, bothersome financial expenditure, and the necessity to conform to the herd mentality.

The emotions I'm about to narrate are subjective as no two people are bound to have the same experience. However, you might be able to relate to some of these emotions if you found yourself to be a little different from the crowd.

Suggested Reading: My Middle Class Lens: Social Media Pressure Of Not Repeating Clothes

My College Field Trip Experience

Some syllabuses have a college field trip enrolled in their semester system. This was a marked assignment for our semester.

I'm not aware of how it works for other colleges, but for my class, students had the option of completing their assignments from their hometown.

However, our college failed to inform us that students could choose to complete the assignment from their hometown rather than pay for an expensive college trip.

We were rushed for our consent on the trip and the train tickets were booked by the faculty. There was a certain amount quoted for the trip which did not sit well with all students. Additionally, a proper break up of the trip amount was not given to the students. Students who did not wish to go were in a dilemma.

However, there were a few students who made the gamble and did not give in their names for the trip. If you believed that politics only existed in the workplace, you were in for the same shock as me.

Students going on the trip started pressuring students not going to make it to the trip. This was because if the going numbers were not in a majority or at least half, the trip as a batch would be suspended.

Faculty members started individually asking students why they would not be making it. Don't get me wrong, it's natural for a teaching staff to do that. But what did not sit well with me is their narration of me missing out if I chose not to go.

I was told being with my batchmates was something I'd miss and that I'd still think about that batch trip years later. But why does someone else get to decide what I'll miss? And how can someone else be confident of what I'll miss? I do not take people at word value regardless of their position. Despite the argument of them having gone through being my age, they're not the same people as me. So it's a granted that despite being faculty members, their experiences and mine would differ.

I mostly like keeping to myself in college because I don't feel like other people resonate with my mindset. I find most people superficial and unable to rise to my standards. Knowing myself, I knew pretty well that I could not miss the company I already assessed as poor. I disliked the sense of FOMO being imposed by the faculty and the students going on those that chose not to.

When the train tickets were booked, our faculty member met us as a class to finalise the topics. It was then disclosed that people who chose to stay in their hometowns could work on a topic of their hometown.

I was appalled at this news and remember following the faculty member out of the class and asking them why they refrained from disclosing the same earlier. After an unconvincing response, they chose to ignore my presence.

I immediately withdrew my name and was lucky enough to have my ticket amount reimbursed owing to my good timing. But as a result of backing out, I was repeatedly asked by my batchmates why I cancelled my trip at the last moment. I firmly replied that my reason is private. I could tell from their disapproving glances that my response or my actions did not please them. One of the students even made a joke to the faculty member about how I should not be reimbursed the full ticket amount because I withdrew at the last moment. This affronted me.

I did not come from money. Knowing exactly where my money is going, that is the breakdown of the trip was important to me. I did not like asking my mother to spend her hard-earned money on my college field trip that I was not even interested in going to in the first place. For some students, the amount of money being asked was justified because they were comfortable asking their parents for their share. For others, it wasn't a fair deal. Even though we studied together as a class, each of us comes from a different financial background. Therefore, affordability is different amount for each of us. 

I noticed the insensitivity with which those making it to college field trips would deliberately broach the trip topic in front of someone not going. Out of basic courtesy, someone invited to a party someone did not go to, would usually refrain from talking about the party in front of them. This was not the case here.

Months rolled by and the time for the college field trip started nearing. An instance of an unfortunate landslide hit the newspaper headlines which occurred at the trip destination. The newspaper also deemed the place unsafe for visits for some time. There was chaos among the students going. A lot of them dropped out at the last minute.

One of them dared to voice her opinion of unsafe travel in a team meeting with the faculty. She was rudely snubbed and shown her place for speaking her mind.

Students going, started coercing those not going to reconsider their consent despite news of the landslide. The trip happened with only a handful of students not even close to half the strength of the class. Students had been paying monthly instalments for the trip amount. None of their amounts have been reimbursed even partly despite the promise of the amount reaching them within a month.

Sometimes not coming from money makes me disheartened. However, I see people my age showing off their parent's money that they did not even earn by themselves. I observe that a lot of these people do not care about managing their finances. They’ll never feel an urge as strongly as mine to stand on their own two feet as I do. That is when I realise my middle-class background happens to be my trump card if used well.

The views expressed are the author's own.