Given A Boost, Mason Oberg Shoots For Success

Imagine a little girl, assembling her thoughts into her newest story. She sets up a camera, positioning it just so, before hitting record and beginning her newest scary story.

This is one of the small anecdotes Mason Oberg shares with us on her relationship with writing- she smiles as she reminisces on the cute memory, explaining, “so, that’s always been a genre I really liked.” She discusses a childhood where she was given the freedom to explore, and write the stories she wanted to write. “I think it’s really interesting to be able to just take anything that can flow from your head and put it on paper. Like I feel like that’s just a really interesting thing to do.”

Even though Mason eventually grew away from writing her stories down, citing her interest in sports, especially basketball, as her main focus through high school, she still enjoyed her English classes. “The English classes at my school were usually pretty good about letting us express ourselves in our writing,” she says, “and most of my close friends were in my English class, so we did a lot of partner work and made some really cool things together.”

Staying on the topic was difficult, talking to Mason felt less like an interview and more like a conversation with friends trying to get to know each other. Open and outgoing, with a smile on her face she presented herself in a way that was both confident and humble.

A big part of Mason’s reason to do well in school was a teacher at her high school- her mom. We were fascinated by the idea; everyone has wondered about the teacher’s kids, and how they do in school. So was it more pressure, or a motivator? Mason explained that it was both, “If I were to be a bad student and not do my work or slack off, that would reflect on her. But on the motivating side, I really looked up to how smart she is, so I really just wanted to push myself to be like her in the academic sense, because she’s always been a really good role model in that aspect.” Mason dispels any worry that she felt overshadowed in any way by her mother, “I think that it brought us closer together because everybody knew her, and then they’d end up getting to know me, so we were both this nice little pair.” Overall, it seems that Mason’s mother’s position as a teacher was a boon, providing her with determination and opportunity.

Privilege was something that came up not only in Mason’s paper, but also in her experiences growing up. Figuring this was an important topic, we asked Mason her opinions on her privilege and how it affected her. My partner Adriana asked specifically about how Mason felt having her mom be a teacher and if that was a privilege. With resounding enthusiasm, the answer boils down to a great big yes. “Honestly, I definitely felt really privileged and that made me really want to be driven to be successful in my classes because I had that opportunity.” Mason explained to us not only was she privileged, but because she knew she had this opportunity it pushed her learning and drive to succeed forward. Delving a little bit deeper into this topic, it seemed awareness of privilege was something close to Mason’s heart.

Her parents were major sponsors of her literacy, partly because they didn’t have as much access to literacy growing up. Her father, who didn’t have as much access to literacy or privilege, affected her outlook quite significantly. Sheepishly she says, “I think that sometimes I would make an excuse for myself. Like, whoa, whoa, well my dad wasn’t good at school. So that’s why, like maybe I’m not good at school. But, in reality, I’d be like, that’s like not an excuse because I’m not him.” Having to overcome the urge to use that fact as a reason why she wasn’t doing well was an obstacle she had to learn to overcome if she wanted to succeed.

“that’s like not an excuse because I’m not him.”

Throughout the interview, she mentions a few times her parents are one of the reasons she pushes herself to not only acknowledge her privilege but to also help others become aware of theirs. One of the questions asked dealt with how she felt about others not acknowledging their educational privilege, and what she thought about people who took advantage of said privilege. Mason’s face dropped and she seemed a little upset at the thoughts this question brought around. “ I think that’s just taking advantage of something that obviously not a lot of people get to have and it’s disrespectful.” Probing a little further on the tender subject she said, “It’s like they don’t understand their privilege. So it makes me kind of like, frustrated.” As an advocate for people being aware of privilege, it is upsetting to her to run into people who don’t want to learn and who don’t care at all; her passion for the subject is clear.

Mason hopes to continue expanding her knowledge on other people. As the third person in her family (as of now) to attend college, and with plans to graduate, Mason is on track to meet many different kinds of people. While she doesn’t star in homemade movies anymore, she plays on the Western Washington Women’s Basketball team, and remains in good spirits despite heading home for the winter quarter due to the Coronavirus.

“I’ve always had really good support in school, and then my family has also always supported me.” Mason summarized as we closed out the interview, “It’s just that all the people who help support me that made me want to pay it forward.”