Do change your do

I hate Clay Aiken. \nEver since that emaciated, little twit reared his pale, weird-lookin' face on "American Idol," people have been ... well ... mistaking me for him. Apparently, our hair is identical. At the state fair last year, an obese woman wearing a multicolored muumuu was determined I was the real Aiken and asked if I would take a picture with her. After agreeing, she began worshiping me, offering up her elephant ear as a sacrificial martyr.\nTo this woman, Aiken was Jesus. Jesus with fabulously frosted tips. \nThe next day, I decided to cut my hair to diminish the chance of a similar occurrence happening again. That's probably the best aspect of hair: By simply changing it, you can completely alter your appearance. \nCurl it. Kink it. Gel it. Braid it. Color it. Cut it. People change their hair all the time. But why is it that although people are easily changeable externally, people are so stubborn to change internally? \nWe change numerous things everyday: our clothes, our oil -- hell, we even make change for a dollar. So why can't we apply this same "change mentality" to bigger aspects of our lives?\nTo evaluate this fear of change, we can examine three typical areas of hesitation involving college students: corn walls, chemistry and Catholicism.\nFor me, selecting a college wasn't easy. I wanted desperately to go out of state, to experience a life beyond corn walls; however, my fear of change ultimately pushed me to IU. Frankly, I knew if I went out of state, I'd miss my mom too much. Not necessarily just my mom (it's not like I'm still breast-feeding or anything), but I would miss the comfort of home. \nDon't get me wrong. I love Bloomington. I embrace the IU trident and mammoth squirrels with open arms. Yet I still wonder what my life would have been like had I had the courage to move. Just as changing my hair gave my follicles a new look, by changing my environment, I might have given my life the same thing.\nOnce we finally choose a college, we are faced with yet another difficult decision: changing the major. Every student inevitably grapples with this, fearing that if they switch their chemistry major, they'll wind up clipping toenails professionally for the rest of their lives. \nThe majority of people who graduate end up with a career that is totally different from their major, though. Take my parents, for instance. My mom majored in elementary education, my father majored in optometry, and they both ended up being drug dealers. OK, business owners, but you get my point. Your major does not necessarily determine your life -- you do.\nPerhaps the most fearful change of all, however, is emotional change. Sometimes we become so trapped in our mentality of what we consider "normal," we are unable to accept alternative, societal ideals. Case in point: homosexuality. Many people are still uncomfortable with gay relations, primarily the traditional, older generations of Catholics, who refuse to expand their definition of love.\nThese people remain steadfastly ignorant for the same reason that some redneck, beer-bellied, OshKosh B'gosh-wearing idiots still rally for the Ku Klux Klan: fear. What these people don't realize is your attitude is like your underwear: If you don't keep changing it, it will eventually become stagnant and disgusting. And these people have some funk-nasty britches.\nChange is important for everyone. In the literal sense, change can help you pay a parking meter. In the figurative sense, change can change the world.\nWe all change our hair frequently. Dying it. Cutting it to avoid looking like Clay Aiken. Perhaps even giving it a perm. \nBut isn't it time we gave our lives a perm as well?