The Gainesville Community
by Emily Doidge, Jake Lewis, and Sarah Sada
by Emily Doidge, Jake Lewis, and Sarah Sada
When people think of Gainesville, they think of the Gator Nation. Gainesville, Florida stands out on the map as being home to one of the greatest schools in the state, one of the Southeast’s premier health systems, and multiple sports teams that walk away with national championship awards every year. Gainesville has been the home of star college athletes, whose names are known nationwide, and who continued on to inspire people on a professional level. Everywhere you go in Gainesville there is evidence of the Gator Nation: it is printed on signs, on work uniforms, pronounced from front yards, and office building windows, nearly every store in the area proudly sells Gator memorabilia. The entire city is frenzied on Saturdays by game day traffic and Gator fans. It is so easy to forget that Gainesville is more than just a college town. Real life happens here too. It is easy for students to become consumed by their affiliation with the Gator Nation. They spend their days on campus going to class, socializing, eating, and going to the gym, and their weekends are consumed by sporting events. They are easily caught up in the hype of game day and other university activities, forgetting that there is so much more to the community they live in.
There is a sort of diversity in Gainesville that most would not think existed based on what is portrayed to others through the media and university website; immediately if one searches through Google for images of Gainesville, they are bombarded with images of the Florida Gators and all things orange and blue. Walking just a few blocks away from the campus, one can find neighborhoods filled with families and individuals ranging from many cultural subdivisions. There are hundreds of homeless around midtown and downtown areas; “punks”, anarchists, gangsters and the like, “tagging” buildings with spray paint; gang rivalries between the neighborhoods of Sugarfoot and Tower Oaks.
While Gator Nation is beneficial to many people, it also blinds us to other aspects of the community. Consider what Gainesville might be like if the city’s obsession with Gator Nation were put aside. Donations might be made to help feed homeless people in the area instead of supporting the athletic association. What if instead of spending hours at a football game each Saturday university students spent some time tutoring grade school children in reading or math, or coaching Little League games.
The Gainesville community consists not only of students attending the University of Florida, but also people who may or may not live in the city of Gainesville whose lives have changed since being associated with the Gator Nation. The head coach of the University of Florida ice hockey team, Jay Pagett, grew up in Canada and currently lives in Jacksonville, where the Gators hockey team plays their home games. Jay played college hockey at Liberty University in Virginia and had no idea that someday he would be coaching the Gators. We used a short video of Jay at the ice rink talking about what it’s like to be a Gator even though he never actually attended or played for the school. Jay told us, “No matter who’s playing, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, they’re all playing for the Gators […] There’s a comradery with everybody, you know, once you’re a Gator, you’re a Gator, you’re stuck. I think that all the guys who show up here definitely play for Gators.” Jay admires the University of Florida’s ability to unite such a large group of people as a whole during sporting events, no matter what sport is being played. There was no specific filming technique used while capturing this footage since the video was taken quickly on a camera phone right after one of the hockey games. However, we think this short clip is effective because it shows how there are many more people than just UF students who truly care about this school, especially its athletic programs.
For our presentation, we agreed we needed a song to set the mood of the photo/video essay in order to help the audience understand the struggles some Gainesville residents go through every day while the University of Florida campus is bustling with energetic students. Many UF students wish to attain a respectable college degree and earn a lot of money in the future. However, there are tons of people living in Gainesville who may just be trying to get by each day. The song, “Swing Life Away” by Rise Against is about a group of people who are happy with the little things they have. The acoustic guitar is soft and pleasant for anybody to enjoy, so the song opens up to everyone in the audience in order to set this melancholy yet optimistic tone. Even if the audience doesn’t pay attention to the lyrics about love, teamwork, and the pursuit of happiness, the background music will keep the viewers interested in the presentation. If the photo/video essay is completely silent, with the exception of dialogue in the short video clips, the audience will get bored watching a slideshow of pictures. Hopefully the acoustic guitar will keep the viewers stimulated if they begin to lose interest in the images we used to present our visual argument.
This argument was visually represented by placing an image easily identifiable with the Gator Nation, such as the football team, The Swamp filled with fans on game day, and students on campus with contrasting images of people who try to live a normal life in Gainesville unattached to the University. Images fade into one another, and the juxtaposition of a stadium filled with adoring fans screaming support to their team is almost shocking when followed by an image of a children’s soccer game, parents’ cheering for their kids to do the best they can. These visual techniques are meant to make the juxtaposition of everyday Gainesville and the Gator Nation stand out with shocking clarity, and perhaps point out to people who see it that there is more to Gainesville than what most often makes the news. By contrasting images of the University and aspects of University life with images of Gainesville and community life, we aim to make students aware of their surroundings, to really broaden their perspective of Gainesville and what the city is really about.
Misinformation, or lack of information, breeds ignorance. Students should be aware of these facets of Gainesville life; misconceptions should be cleared about stereotypical “college towns” as they create a sort of disillusionment within the young.
Misinformation, or lack of information, breeds ignorance. Students should be aware of these facets of Gainesville life; misconceptions should be cleared about stereotypical “college towns” as they create a sort of disillusionment within the young.
