Geography major challenges culture
Patrick Barrus has always considered himself a counter-culture enthusiast.
“I like challenging tradition,” he said. “I like to confuse people and be different.”
For Barrus, this enthusiasm for counter-culture manifests itself in his wide range of interests and hobbies. Last year, he dyed his hair blue. He runs half marathons. He won last year’s gender blender drag show. He calls himself a fanatical “Tetris” player. He has participated in research on gender in Ethiopia. He has been a member of the Life club and is an advocate for feminism, gay rights and marriage equality.
At USU, Barrus has found a community in which he said he can embrace his differences and use them to stand out.
“There’s such a spirit of understanding here,” he said.
But Barrus’s enthusiasm for standing out, he said, was sometimes difficult.
“I grew up in Sugar City, Idaho,” he said. “It’s a town with traditional rural values. No one there is gay. No one there is liberal. No one there is a feminist. Being all three, I was kind of a little different.”
Barrus, now a sophomore majoring in geography, said he felt isolated in his upbringing. In his graduating class of 90, he was one of the few who did not embrace the small-town values of rural Idaho.
But no matter how different and isolated he felt from those around him, Barrus said he always maintained that standing by the things he believed was the most important part of his life.
“I had beliefs that were really different from everyone,” he said. “But I stood by them. I learned how to stand on my own and stand by my different values. It helped me be more independent.”
Soon, Barrus said, he will be using that independence and desire to break tradition as he embarks on a year-long backpacking trip across Europe, where he will worki on organic farms across the continent.
“I got the idea last semester during finals when I really was tired and burned out,” he said. “I wanted to do something I’d never heard of anyone doing before.”
Barrus said his trip will include stops in Switzerland, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and the Mediterranean, and he hopes it will help him gain a better understanding of the world and the people he’s studied within his major.
“The geography major is about studying every possible aspect of the world,” he said. “It’s more than just learning things like the capital of Saudi Arabia — we study why societies are the way they are.”
Barrus said he hopes spending a year living in new societies will help him gain an understanding beyond what he’s learned in the classroom.
Though a year farming in Europe is a less-than-traditional route for undergraduate work, Barrus said he is unconcerned with delaying graduation or his studies.
“I figured there’s no one way to live your life, and this is the way I’ve chosen. I’m not going with too many expectations other than I’m going to learn a lot and be changed,” he said.
While at USU, Barrus said he has found many ways to express himself and reach out to those around him. As a member of the LGBT community, Barrus said he understands the difficulties that can come with being gay in a conservative area, and he works to reach out to other students who are struggling with their sexual identities.
“There’s a great gay community in Logan,” he said. “We’re like a family, and this can be so important for people who come out in college and get cut off from their family because of it.”
Barrus said he hopes the example he sets will inspire others around him to be true to themselves.
“It’s important for the people who are out to be proud of that fact,” he said. “When my boyfriend and I hold hands on campus, people come up and thank us for being who we are.”
Barrus also participates in outreach programs to help foster understanding about homosexuality and gender identity. He participates in the Outspoken panel discussions, which are made up of groups of students who go to classrooms to give other students an opportunity to ask them questions about being gay.
“No offense is going to be taken in that setting, so students can ask anything and we’ll answer honestly,” Barrus said. “It fosters so much understanding.”
In addition to his activity in the campus LGBT community, Barrus is an undergraduate research fellow, recipient of several scholarships, including the Presidential Scholarship, and he’s an honors student.
In the future, Barrus said he hopes to use his studies at USU and the knowledge he will gain in Europe to help gay homeless teens in Utah, an issue that was first brought to his attention when he attended a workshop organized by Operation Shine America, which supports the homeless.
“There’s so much we can learn from them, and so much we can do to help,” Barrus said. “There’s stereotypes about the homeless that they’re mean and scary and drug addicts, but we need to recognize them as human beings who have been pulled into these horrible situations. I want to try and help these people and destroy these stereotypes.”
– m.van911@aggiemail.usu.edu