Kyle King

See the world, get to know yourself

On a whim this past summer, I took a job with a friend delivering and picking up Port-a-Potties.

It was a different, more manual type of labor than anything I had done before, and I met a lot of interesting people, many of whom lived paycheck to paycheck.

Expecting to learn something idealistic and romantic about the dignity of work and the role each citizen happily plays in the construction of a harmonious society, I was surprised by how miserable most of the employees were. Four were fired for drug use during the three months I was there, including my truck maintenance supervisor. Substance abuse was simply a way out of the routine and pressure with which they lived what they considered failed lives.

Despite all this, I still maintained my belief in social citizenship, one that was not shared with any of the full-time employees. I realized this was, in addition to my idealism, mostly because I was not faced with the routinization they were forced to confront. Some of these men, in order to make pension, literally had to put up with other people's crap for another 30 years.

Their socioeconomic position dictated their worldview. They disbelieved politicians promising lower-class economic reform; they disavowed the possibility of a benevolent Creator; and they disdained anyone who disagreed with their beliefs.

I glimpsed them as an outsider, and this critical reflection allowed me to make insights into my own social position. I am the product of a very specific upbringing: a two-parent, middle-class, publicly schooled family from a small town, not entirely unlike many of the students at Mercyhurst. My belief systems have been based around supporting or refuting the ways I was raised, as I deemed fit. I understand now that everyone else's belief systems are formed in much the same way, results of environment, heredity and perhaps chance.

This summer showed me why, now, as an atheistic existentialist, I feel as though I can have meaningful conversations with almost anyone I meet on the topic of beliefs. When I talk to people, I try to understand their own sociocultural uniqueness and find common ground from which to reach conciliation and a greater depth of understanding of 'humanness,' if you will. I believe humans have the free will to choose their own personal and subjective meanings of life, and I take the force in the universe many people refer to as God to be the power of human interconnectedness and potentiality. At the same time, I want to correct the misconceptions that atheism necessitates amorality and that all atheists believe religion is useless mythology.

I have never questioned my decision to come to a college run under the banner of the Sisters of Mercy. I have gained a deeper respect for others' social and moral values and learned to approach new experiences as opportunities to learn more about the world, whether through a unique summer job or hearing the speeches of presidential candidates, regardless of their positions. I possess a more vivacious spirit because of my quest to understand others and continually define and know myself. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

About Kyle King

Kyle King is a junior English major with minors in History and Philosophy. He's considering grad school with a goal of "teaching something, somewhere". His favorite aspect of Mercyhurst: its size - "I've been able to meet a lot of people and have close relationships with a number of students and professors. It's also allowed me to experiment and try a lot of different things instead of pinning me down and limiting the kinds of activities I can do."