About the Author

Hi, my name is Derek McPhail and I am currently a Junior here at Siena College. I am majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Criminal Justice with the hope of getting a job with the New York State Police. I am from a small town in upstate New York called Greenwich, which is about 45 minutes north of Siena. I graduated from Greenwich Central High School, the graduation rate of Greenwich High School is 82%, which is above the New York State average. I decided to live on campus rather than commute everyday because along with getting a great education I wanted the college experience of living in a dorm and meeting new people as well. Yes, it would have saved much more money for myself and my family, but the memories I have made here are worth it. While attending Greenwich High school I was involved in many extracurricular activities such as sports and being a volunteer fire fighter.

My Hometown

Growing up in Greenwich with the population being 1,728, you are bound to see someone you know, or know of if you just go to the grocery store. Greenwich is a very small village and town with 91.6% of its population being white, 5.0% Hispanic, 0.4% Asian, 0.3% American Indian and 0.2% African American population. As I said before that everyone knows everyone, I am able to tell you that I am friends with and know of the people who make up these very small percentages. One of the biggest events that happens every year in Greenwich is the Greenwich Lighted Tractor Parade. About 50-75 tractors are lined up, decorated with well over 1000 lights and paraded through the town. Many do themes as well. This happens every year around Thanksgiving time and draws a huge crowd of people from many neighboring towns and even states. This is always a big Saturday night event for families and friends to get together to kick off the holiday season. When I say the population of in Greenwich is doubled or even tripled that brisk Saturday night in November I am not kidding. With only two street lights in the town you can imagine the traffic jam.

My Family

I have a very large, but also very close family. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all live about 5 miles from my house except for my Dad’s sister and her family who live in Clifton Park. My Mom and Dad have been married for just over 25 year and they both grew up in Greenwich as well. I have a little brother who is 15 and in 10th grade who is big into sports and is pursing to hope to play college baseball someday. (Hopefully at Siena!). Everything from holidays, vacations to just Sunday night dinners y whole family gets together and does together.

My Education

Following high school I always wanted to attend college with the idea that it will put me in a better spot to support myself in the future. But like most people I also felt the idea that I had to go to college as well. Both of my parents attended college and both had great experiences and have turned out to have successful jobs. Attending Siena I felt was the best option for me. The small tight knit community where everyone knows everyone really felt like home to me. I have always been interested in both science and also creating things, so when I was placed in an intro C.S class freshman year I felt it was a perfect fit for me. Dan Wang writes that only 3.14% of all college graduates in 2015 received degrees in computer science. These statistics prove that being a C.S major is not only hard and stressful, but also deviant from every other college students major. Along with the percentage of college graduates with a C.S degree in the U.S being low, Siena College in 2017 graduated 4.16% or 34 out of its 818 students with Computer Science degrees. My deviant behavior has much easily prepared me for the stresses that come with my deviant major and for the future.

My Deviance

In Howard S. Becker’s book Outsiders, he describes and elaborates very clearly his definition and what it means to be an Outsider. Becker states, “When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group. He is regarded as an outsider”(1). This quote really brought what being an outsider really means to me. No matter what you do in life someone is going to have a different belief and think differently of you. In todays day not many people want to become police officers and not many people want to go through the military style, high stress academy which every police officer must complete. To prepare for this high intensity environment, I decided to become an umpire. Now these two may seem very distant, but umpiring will prepare me for what is to come. I am a baseball umpire with the Capital District Baseball Umpires Association (CDBUA). Being an umpire I have had to deal with many coaches, parents, aunts, uncles, kids and even grandparents yelling at me for the calls I have made. Doing so can be a very stressful thing to deal with. Right now in my life I want to place myself in difficult situations and scenarios that are deemed stressful to help prepare me for whatever my future may hold. I find this as a deviant trait because if you ask someone if they enjoy being stressed out, they will most likely say no. In 2017, 62% of adults say they stress about money and 61% say they stress about work. “The simplest view of deviance is essentially statistical, defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from average” (4). This quote from Becker goes hand and hand with my deviant behavior. Nobody enjoys being stressed, but if I can place myself in stressful situations now and deal with people yelling at me and constantly giving me a hard time, I will be able to deal with stressful situations more easily wherever and whatever life throws at me. “The individual learns, in short, to participate in a subculture organized around the particular deviant activity.” (31). This quote from Becker I felt like I could relate to quite a bit. Life is tough, you are going to yelled at, confronted with problems and have stress many times. Life is so much better when you are able to learn, get through and grow from that stressful time. If you do not know how to encounter stress, a struggle in life or a barrier you need to get around, you will just grow even more unhappy. Being an umpire and placing myself in stressful situations has showed me that yes people are going to disagree with you, people are going to mad at you and some people probably will not like you, but how you react to that and if you react the right ways everything turns out great in the end. I’m sure my deviant behavior of placing myself in stressful situations isn’t going to relate to many people, but I believe it will help me in my future.

References:

Becker, Saul Howard. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York City, New York: The Free Press.