Just as Mae is a newcomer or “newbie” at The Circle, I am a newbie to the Penn State life. There are many new ideologies that come with Penn State life as well as with college life in general, such as the pressure to participate in drinking and partying. The parallel can be drawn when Mae attends a party her first day of work and drinks heavily, almost as if she is already assimilating to the social norms of The Circle.
Not only am I experiencing the social expectations that normal Penn State students experience, as a student athlete I am also learning how to be a “newbie” in the team environment. I’m not really sure how to tie Mae into the student athlete experience but i’m going to try anyway. One way to associate Mae to a student athlete would be looking at her friendship with Annie. Due to her prior relationship with a higher up person, there is a pressure to be the best she can be, which she succeeds in doing by having a high aggregate rating at the end of the week.
Going back to my personal experience as a student athlete at Penn State, I can relate to something other than just an Ideology. In the book, “Eamon Bailey presents a new technology called SeeChange that allows users to place tiny cameras anywhere they like and share the footage with others,” (Excerpt from The Circle). This SeeChange technology is presented with the slogan “All that happens must be known.” That slogan represents the team environment here at Penn State exceptionally well.
As a newbie on the fencing team, I am still learning the ropes however one thing that is abundantly clear early on is that the team knows EVERYTHING. No matter how small or big the thing is the team eventually finds out creating a “All that happens must be known” type of atmosphere.
First of all, I completley relate to the pressue of the partying/drinking atmosphere because it is everywhere you go. I agree that Mae also feels that pressure to “go with the flow” almost and follow suit to fit in with the rest of the Circlers. I think it is so cool that you are a student athlete, and I can imagine the difficulties you have when trying to keep up with the expectations. The reason I can imagine this is my sister is a senior here at Penn State. A lot of times I feel like Mae and her relationship with Annie. There is an expectation to do well and succeed. Mae almost finds her identity within Annie, being known as her friend and the way people react when they find out she is in close contact with someone like Annie. A lot of times I am introduced as “the little sister”, so I understand the pressure Mae feels in the Circle when trying to get a higher and higher aggregate.