Blog #2: Mushfaking

 Fake it Till you Make It!

I want to share with everyone about my freshmen year in college. After I graduated high school, I moved out of my house and attended UC Irvine for a while. For those who don’t know, in the past, I wasn’t always the confident guy I am today. I was an introverted and lazy kid who didn’t know anything of the world outside San Diego. And now I’m supposed to live out by myself in a new city!?

In order to live on my own and live out a fun and exciting college life, I had to adopt some new Discourses to get by. In his work, Literacy,Discourse, and Linguistics, James Paul Gee defines Discourse with a capital “D” as “a sort of ‘identity kit’ which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize” (Gee, 7). If I wanted the people I meet in this new school to accept me, I was going to have to quickly adapt and assimilate into their culture.

First, let’s talk about my home situation during college. I lived in a single room apartment a few miles away from campus. Not wanting to worry my family, I had to make them believe that I was responsible and independent on my own. When in actuality, I wasn’t. My place was always messy. Clothes on the floor, crumbs everywhere, and dirty dishes at my bedside. I didn’t know how to cook. My diet consisted of cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, top ramen, and Jack In The Box burgers. I managed to convince my folks about how I grocery shopped at the local Albertsons and got enough of the basic food groups: vegetables (lettuce), fruits (tomatoes), dairy(cheese), meat (patty) and grains (buns). It was on days that they visited that I had to tidy up the night before to welcome them to an always safe and clean environment, fit for a bright, young, healthy, responsible and independent, student. I thought that they wouldn’t buy it, but as I talked to them mentioning buzzwords like “separating the darks, colors, and whites” or “I eat three servings of dairy and five servingsof vegetables in my diet…” I managed to mushfake this Discourse of a responsible and independent individual.

Mushfake is a term James Paul Gee uses involving Discourses which means to “make do with something less when the real thing is not available.” In other words, flaunt small instances of knowledge, sayings, and behaviors belonging to a particular Discourse to convince others that you’ve adopted that Discourse. Fake it till you make it!  

Next, let’s talk about my social life in college. Disgusted of my introverted nature, I began to adopt a Discourse of a fun and outgoing individual to make friends and gain the acceptance of many clubs. The new school year meant the beginning of club activities. A friend I made in class invited me over to an engineering club (at the time I was an engineering major). I maintained my free-spirited persona throughout the club meeting and there an after event that followed. However, the event involved drinking at a senior member’s house and I am a straightedge nondrinker. I didn’t want to kill the happy vibe I had with my friend or the other members, nor did I want to be thrown out the “gates” of this new Discourse of mine. Instead of politely declining the event, I mushfaked the Discourse of an avid drinker and joined in (I was an idiot and immature back then, bear with me). I always kept my cup filled with either water or soda and laughed or jeered on cue with everyone else, all while wearing a dumb and goofy expression on my face that I practiced beforehand. I was able to get through the night completely sober, successfully convincing the rest of the club. As the school year had gone by, I would realize that drinking events for clubs and hangouts were quite commonplace. Fed up with it, I eventually ended my mushfaking, realizing I shouldn’t need it.

Its tiring to pretend to be someone you’re not. Being free is so much easier. There are times in life when mushfaking is necessary, like during a job interview or during a speech. My mushfaking was not one of those times however! But hey, you live and you learn!