Remaking Meg

RE_____. Fill in the blank however you desire. Reunite with someone. Redesign a space. Rethink a math problem. Rejuvenate your skin. Restore a painting. Reconfigure the settings. Redefine the meaning.

written by Adrienne Bechtel

When we rethink a situation we have to look back at what was already there, identify the problem and adjust to achieve what was originally intended.

In order to advance, that step back is necessary. Reinvention of our past ultimately leads to re-creation of ourselves and a step forward. But what does this redefinition look like when we actually put it in motion?

Miami University freshman Meg Rimer is outspoken, honest, loyal and earnest. After being her roommate for the last nine months, I can honestly say that I have never had a friendship as true as the one I share with her.

One of my favorite things about Rimer is that she forces me to be honest about how I feel. When I’m upset about something I have trouble hiding it, but I don’t always confront the actual issue. During our first semester living together, I was bitter about a falling out with high school friends, and it was obvious I was acting cold. She confronted me and said, “If we’re going to live in this room together we need to be honest with each other. If I did something or if something is going on that affects that, you need to tell me.” She hadn’t done anything wrong, of course, but it shocked me how right she was about the way I was acting. She knew something was troubling me and that I needed to talk about it. She forced me to break the barrier that was holding me back. Rimer is a fierce friend; not only does she always stand up for herself, but she also stands up for the people she cares about.

I quickly learned that she is the kind of person who says what she means and means what she says. I also learned that Rimer takes pride in exhibiting this quality because she wasn’t always so outspoken.

“My boyfriend and I broke up, I cut 14 inches off my hair and changed my name from Meghan to Meg,” she said.

These outward changes were just a reflection of the inner changes she made as she left high school.

“I’ve changed the way I view life,” she said. “I was nervous to do and say things— I never spoke my mind. I said what I thought someone wanted to hear as opposed to what I believed.”

Coming to college, Rimer wanted to dissociate from the reputation she had in high school. “I was known as the ‘nice girl,’” she said, explaining that it wasn’t a bad thing, but that it was based on an identity that wasn’t true to who she really is now. “I’m trying to be an honest, truthful person.”

College gives young adults the ability to redesign themselves

College gives young adults the ability to redesign themselves not only because they’re in a new environment surrounded by people who don’t know their past, but also because they’re being forced to undergo monumental changes and challenges independently, away from the comforts of home. With these arduous challenges comes the opportunity to grow and learn.

It’s easy to be frustrated when you mess up or things don’t go your way. Everyone knows what it feels like to have to restart and rethink where you went wrong. Whether it’s your own fault or not, it’s easy to feel defeated.

“I stopped looking at it like that and stopped being mad at the world and started viewing it as: I’m going to take this and I’m going to grow from it. No matter the circumstances,” Rimer explained.

Often times, however, the changing identities of new college students don’t necessarily exhibit new traits.

“To put it simply, I was scared,” Rimer said. “Scared to break rules, scared to speak my mind. But fundamentally, I’m still the same person. The people I’m closest to knew how I thought about life, but now the rest of the world sees that, too. I’m not afraid to be how I want [to be].”

I asked her if embodying these new traits was difficult because so many people from her high school go to Miami. She explained, “They see me as someone else than my friends now do, but I choose to make it what I want.”

“Miami is big enough that I have the opportunity to make tons of new friendships, and to be this new person which I love,” she continued. “In my biology class alone, I have the opportunity to form 200 new relationships different from any relationship I had in high school.”

“In college, no one knows who you are,” she further explained. “In high school everyone knows who you are and your reputation, but here I have a blank slate. I’m able to reinvent myself. I will be the person I want to be and not the person I should be.”

Rimer remade herself. Taking cues from her past, she redirected her future. Even though we may have to look back before continuing forward, it is important to recognize that it is all in the name of progress.

SO FILL IN THE BLANK. WHAT WILL YOU RE______?