Throughout my four years at Brandeis I've grown accustomed to pointing out that students here like to complain a lot.
Let's be honest: It's not just the complaining. There is also the cynicism, skepticism and, sometimes, sarcasm that goes along with it. And, after four years I can safely say that I hope the student body never changes. Because all that complaining and cynicism makes our school so special.I'm not being sarcastic or trying to be funny. The reality is that as I look back on my four years here, I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be cynically hopeful --I've enjoyed a community which has built itself around its ability to notice flaw where it really exists, a community which has built itself around real ideas and real issues, as opposed to facades of faux pep.

See for me, Brandeis has never been a peppy school. I can't really imagine us painting our faces blue, and kicking the crap out of anyone who happened to wear an opposing color. That just isn't us. And I don't believe that we are missing something.

When I look back at Brandeis, the best moments have not been filled with uniform "school spirit," and loud yelling, but with introspection and analysis of Brandeis as a place. Now, I don't mean that my best moments here have necessarily been ones with solemn discussion in an academic setting,. What I mean is the times when I have really felt like a part of a community were during the most unexpected events -- usually involving lots of complaining on the part of my fellow students.

I don't believe that you can ever manufacture a community. No matter how many "community-building" events you hold, no matter how much you try to sugar-coat the Brandeis reality, no matter how much you pretend that nothing is wrong - you can't force people to like and respect each other. A community grows organically not out of collective pep, but out of collective complaining -- only then can you figure out what is wrong enough to make it better. Complaining inevitably brings people together. On a small scale, everyone has made friends over really bad classes. On a larger scale, only when you complain can you find people who see the same flaws in society that you do.
I hope Brandeis never changes. I hope this school never becomes this place of faux connections built over a general desire to beat Tufts in a sport or other random showings of really irritating pep.
To me, the Brandeis student body is unique because of our ability to see our flaws, complain and self-deprecate -- that's what makes us special. I hope the Brandeis student body can "bond" and form communities over initiatives such as the Kraft boycott, rather than pep rallies.

So, as I conclude my last column for the Justice, I would like to encourage all Brandeis students to keep on complaining; complain about the food, complain about the long walk from Grad, complain about complaining and complain about every social ill -- no matter how small others may deem it. That, in my opinion, is the true Brandeis spirit, and that is the only way to ever make a true community.

And, I hope my graduating class keeps on complaining wherever we may be next year.

-- Yanna Krupnikov '02
submits a column to the Justice