“You put your left foot in …”

It’s the common link that bonds grandparents and toddlers alike. It has been a staple at weddings and junior high dances before the Macarena was even a glimmer in its writer’s eye. Yes, it’s the “Hokey Pokey” and, according to a recent article in The Des Moines Register, it’s the most popular dance in Iowa.

I can see that. No other tune so perfectly sums up Iowa life. How else could you describe the pointy-toed-boot-wearing, rusty-cars-in-the-yard, so-close-to-Missouri-that-it’s-scary life in southern Iowa, but with the word “hokey?” And I challenge anyone to come up with a better term than “pokey” to describe the state’s roadways during the summer, when every other vehicle is a John Deere.

(Actually, I’m just kidding about that first part. I have nothing against southern Iowans, but, you have to admit, the similarities are eerie.)

Seriously, though, I think that the “Hokey Pokey” should be adopted as the anthem of life at Iowa State. I can hear the chants now:

“You put your applications in…

You take loans out…

You hand your answer sheet in…

And get midterms all about…

You do so much , but it seems

Like you’re just turning yourself around…

But, that’s what it’s all about!”

If you stop and think about it, the song tends to epitomize student life. For the first years of our lives, we are told what we have to do to conform. If we choose to go against the grain, we risk looking like a fool, not to mention running the risk of getting knocked in the head by everyone else’s right foot.

Then we come to college. Suddenly, the circle of dancers gets much bigger, and the pace gets a bit more frenzied.

We are all individual beings, but we are expected to function in unison with a number of others who may or may not be like us. If all goes smoothly, the “dance” plays out like a well-choreographed ballet — no one gets hurt, everyone has a smile plastered across his face, and all is well.

We don’t question what we’re doing. We just go along with the rest of the bunch, because, “That’s what it’s all about!”

But, what if someone doesn’t hear the same tune as the others? What if he or she doesn’t like to dance? What if someone questions why the only song he hears is one that dictates when to move?

Suddenly, campus isn’t quite as idyllic as the promotional brochures made it out to be. Suddenly, someone is stepping out of the merrily sheltered dancing circle, and trying to talk above the hypnotizing tune.

And the DJs don’t like it.

They criticize these people, call them “deviant,” and tell the rest of us to pay no attention to them. “Ignore it and it will go away,” they tell us.

The masses keep dancing, putting their hineys in like there’s no tomorrow.

And so it continues, the majority doing as it is told, with a few stepping outside of the circle to make their own music. Slowly, a few more start to dance to this different tune … and a few more … and a few more.

These separatists have one common point, one question that they keep raising: “What is it all about? Actually, what is ‘it’?”

They ask the other dancers, but they have no answer. They ask the DJs but they won’t listen. Finally, those who have gone out on their own realize that their questions won’t be resolved, because there is no set, final answer.

You see, “it” is different for everyone. Everyone has his own reason for doing things, be it for money, charity, self-betterment, whatever.

These so-called “deviants,” the ones the powers-that-be scorned, are actually the ones making the right moves. They have realized that they have to do things for themselves; they should act not because it’s the “proper” or “expected” thing to do, but because it’s what they WANT to do.

Unfortunately, even then some things are done for all the wrong reasons.

Recently, I was talking with a friend who was thinking about writing for the Daily next fall. She said that while she might not really have the time or desire to do a lot “it would sure look good on a resume.” I have heard that same line from people when they talk about joining clubs, having a part-time job or volunteering for the soup kitchen.

The trouble with these people is that while they think they’re doing what they want to do, they actually still have that song blaring in their heads. They are doing these things because it’s what they’ve been told they have to do in order to look good.

On the other side of the coin, there are those of us who do things simply for the pure joy of doing them. These are the people who have fully shaken off the blinders and headphones they were given by well-meaning parents who thought they were helping us along. These people are the ones on whom you can count. They’re the reliable, helpful ones who genuinely enjoy life, and who don’t see it all just as a quest for that office with the view.

So I ask you, which type of dancer are you? Are you still in the circle, doing the same thing day in and day out, going through the motions simply because it’s what you’ve always done, and because you’re afraid of what might lie beyond the dance floor?

Or have you really stopped dancing that same old tune? Are you living the kind of life you want to live? It’s your life, are you happy with it?

It’s never too late to make a change; maybe it’s time for more of us to request another song.

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Holly Benton is a sophomore in animal science from Early.