How many times a day do you hear the phrase “that is so sketch?” If you’re a typical student, you probably hear it anywhere from 5 to 10 times a day, depending on the crowd you encounter most often.
We need to rethink the use of this word. I’ve heard it said that the Fitness Center in the Field House is sketch. I’ve heard it said that the shuttles are sketch. I’ve heard it said that the CCB stairs are sketch. I’ve even heard it said that the HAWC is sketch.
Think about it for a moment … if you can say any of the above or something similar, do you truly know the meaning of the word sketch?
Let’s examine this word for a moment. Sketchy — the grammatically correct way to say sketch — means “unreliable or unsafe” or “disreputable or shady.” Now let that soak in for a moment.
I suppose you could call the shuttles sketch, but unfortunately even if they’re a little behind schedule they always show up, so they’re not truly unreliable. As for the HAWC and the fitness center, sketch simply doesn’t apply.
We go to one of the safest schools in the country, located in one of the safest towns. Pepperdine was given an A+ rating for Health and Safety by collegeprowler.com. College Prowler generates this rating based off “student reviews of how safe they feel on campus, the visibility of campus police, the quality and convenience of the student health center, and the number and severity of safety concerns that students have on campus.”
According to the review that goes along with the rating, “you need not worry about crime or personal safety on the Pepperdine campus. You may worry, however, about the rather hazard-prone roadways nearby, such as Pacific Coast Highway and the perilous Malibu Canyon Road.” In these two cases, based on the dictionary definition, sketch can properly be used.
To put the word sketch in perspective for you, let me tell you a little story: A couple of my friends went into Los Angeles — South Central to be exact — and while they were there, a fight broke out behind their car.
One of the people involved in the fight pulled out a gun and began waving it in the air. My friends were able to get out of the parking lot and away from the scene before anything more serious happened, but for them the word sketch was truly put in perspective.
Most students have never been in a truly sketchy situation. Maybe they’ve run into the occasional sketchy person, but it likely wasn’t anywhere around here.
Most of us have no true idea of what sketch really is and yet the word is thrown around as if it’s going out of style.
I’ve had a passing thought or two that maybe we just like to say we’ve had a sketchy experience for the novelty of it. Or maybe an ignorance pervades about what sketch truly is, which is more likely the case.
Most of us have grown up in relative privilege and safety. There is nothing wrong with this, but there is something wrong with speaking about a topic we have no real understanding of.
When you walk around saying things, situations or people are sketch when they truly aren’t, you are letting your ignorance speak — and yes, in that case you could be called an ignorant person because of your comments. Don’t be offended by this, realize it’s true and change your diction to fit the situation.
We’re all smart cookies. We got into Pepperdine, and we likely have extensive vocabularies. Instead of resorting to the word sketch to describe everything you feel is a little out of the ordinary or uncomfortable or whatever reason you’re using the word, dig into that brain of yours and pull out a different word as a more suitable descriptor.
