| |
|
|
| |
WHAT I LEARNED FROM STAYING ON CAMPUS ON THE WEEKENDS
By: CAITLIN KELLY
(GAINESVILLE, Ga.) It's Friday afternoon and there is a palpable sense of relief on campus. After all, the first week of school has just finished. The freshman made it through their first week of college and the returning students are getting back into the familiar routine. And with a long weekend on the horizon, the majority of campus prepares to head home.
I can understand the strong desire, especially of freshman, to head home on a long weekend. After all, I spent my first two years of college with my home across the country and would have liked nothing more than to be able to go home some weekends. But now that home is in Gainesville, the desire has faded some. Don't get me wrong, I like my parents (and my dog) and like spending time with them, but college is a time of learning about independence. College is not only about classes and extracurricular activities, but about finding your own place in the world, and learning to live on your own.
I have two older siblings who are living on their own, so maybe my view is biased, but I don't want to spend all my time with my parents. The freedom that comes from living in the dorms--living on my own--is priceless. I've learned a lot about independence and I'm still learning. And I think it would be hard to learn those valuable life lessons if I were going home every weekend.
When you can't go home as often as you might like, you learn quickly about independence and that experience has been invaluable in my life. I look forward to getting my own place after I graduate, and putting what I have learned from living on campus and staying away from home into practice.
So I would like to give the freshman (and even my fellow upperclassmen) some advice: try spending more weekends on campus. It might not be as exciting and the food might not be as good, but you'll get more out of learning how to live on your own then you would from getting free laundry from mom. That's not to say you should never go home, because family is priceless and you should never take what you have for granted. But there are some life experiences you have to experience on your own; and what is college if not a place for new life experiences?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
THE JOYS OF READING
By: CAITLIN KELLY
(GAINESVILLE, Ga.)The first question people inevitably ask me when they find out I'm in college is, "What's your major?" I'm proud of my major, so I tell them that I'm an English major. There are generally two reactions that I get to this, sometimes back-to-back. First, a contorted face that looks like I just told them I do calculus in my free time. The next is the inevitable statement of, "Oh, so you want to teach." And it's rarely, if ever, a question. At first I never thought much of it. But the more I get that, the more I'm confused.
I'm confused because people seem to think the only thing you can do with an English degree is teach. But I don't want to teach. I want to write. And that seems to surprise people as well. Is it so odd that someone enjoys writing in their free time? I suppose that because I belong to a generation of people who spend their free time watching YouTube videos on their iPhones, it does seem like an odd choice. Who reads these days after all?
And that's another thing that amazes me. So few people seem to enjoy reading. I see that all the time when people make that contorted face when I tell them my major. "Why?" they want to (and sometimes do) ask. "Because I like reading," I say. And that's true. There's just something about picking up a good book and getting lost in the world that the author has created. I can spend an entire day with a good book, and that seems to be a lost experience in our technology-obsessed world.
But even in a generation that has the Harry Potter and Twilight series, among many other great books, to introduce more people to books, reading still seems to be an oddity. The number of people who have told me they like the Harry Potter movies but have never read the books shocks me. Maybe it's because I've been raised with books from a young age, but I just can't comprehend that type of mindset. And I think it's a shame that more people aren't reading. You miss out on so many wonderful experiences when you completely ignore books.
No one says you need to be reading War and Peace, but you really miss out when you completely discount the experience of reading a good book. There's a book out there for just about everyone, though it might take a little searching. But in the end, that search is completely worth it. I have an addiction to reading because it gives me a great feeling. I like being able to escape into a new world and forget my own problems, even if it's only for a few pages at a time.
So next time you're sitting around bored, pick up a book. Reading isn't supposed to be a boring experience, and with the right book, it never will be.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
LETTING IT BE: A TAKE ON SOCIAL LIVES ON CAMPUS
By: RACHEL THURMAN
(GAINESVILLE, Ga.) Dating is not why I came to college, and the logical side of my brain- the side that gives up the easiest- knows that. I know there are so many more important things I need to be focusing on right now. I have a scholarship to keep, after all.
Unfortunately, I’ve been dwelling on my empty dance card more than usual as of late. I’ve been at Brenau for a week and it seems like everywhere I turn there’s someone wrapping up a rant about the lack of readily available testosterone on our fair campus by turning to me and saying with a frustrated sigh, “It’s just so easy for you.”
Well if that’s the case then why am I just as dateless as all the women I’ve met who aren’t sure how to go about finding available men? Okay, so I’m not all concerned about the lack of available men on campus, but that doesn’t mean anything as far as my social life is concerned. There is also the slightly less popular theory that my lack of concern about the “guy issue” is due to a lack of caring for the whole process of dating as a whole. This is not true.
Dating tends to be an, if not big, important part of most of our lives at some point or another, myself included. How could it not be? Seeking out romantic relationships is a natural, healthy and, most importantly, fun experience. However, I feel I should make it clear that as important, natural, fun, etc pursuing romantic relationships are for all of us, there are so many more important things. There is no woman (or man, for that matter) out there who cannot be happy and fulfilled within herself. There are certain elements of our society which still seek to make us believe otherwise, but those elements are lying and shouldn’t be listened to or allowed to influence us heavily.
No one’s perfect, though, and I have to admit to getting carried away, especially since coming to Brenau; and no, it has nothing to do with the campus full of women. It’s a fact that I, like many of my classmates, am experiencing the heady rush of being pretty much on my own for the first time. It’s an intoxicating thing, really, but I know I don’t need to let it control me. There’s plenty of time, even if I can’t see it through all my undone homework, and the best thing is to “let it be.”
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
TRUE LIFE: I’M OBSESSED
By: EMILY BRASELTON
(GAINESVILLE, Ga.) At the 2007 VMAs, Justin Timberlake begged MTV to start playing more music videos, and said something about not giving reality shows to anyone in the Simpson family. I agree with him, especially about the Simpsons. Sometimes I want to watch music videos while I’m getting ready for school in the morning, and VH1 can get a little boring, since they seem to have a contract with Daughtry which leaves them obligated to play their videos at least four times an hour. The MTV of old, in the 80s, sounds so appealing, and the idea of music videos all day is really kind of weird when you think about it- our generation has never had anything so novel.
However, I can’t with all good consciousness say I’ve supported JT’s plea. I am unquestionably guilty of watching MTV reality shows like The Hills (speaking of, can you believe how creepy Spencer still is?) But my chief pleasure is definitely True Life. If I see that a marathon of True Life episodes are going to be on all day, then there is a good chance that I will not be going to any classes.
I used to think of this show as a guilty pleasure, and, to be honest, it always made me feel vastly superior to the show’s subjects. Watching True Life: I Lead A Double Life or True Life: I Want The Perfect Body always left me shaking my head and smiling at how weird and pathetic people can be. I mean, come on, in the quest for a good body before a beauty pageant, a pretty girl eats nothing but an apple and yogurt all day for weeks, and while she is in a tanning bed, her mom sneaks off to Arby’s and gets a huge fast food meal, giggling to the camera that her daughter would be so mad if she knew she was eating this! I kind of felt like a scientist, observing these people in a lab coat with a clipboard, shaking my head and thinking ‘I’m glad I’m not like them’. But I also watched for another reason. For lack of a better word, these shows are juicy. It wasn’t until about a year into my obsession with the show, when I was seeing a girl sobbing hysterically while she was being insulted in every possible way by her ‘friend’ and then still stayed the night on True Life: I’ve Got Friends With Benefits, and had just got to the point where she accepted his lame apology and I started to roll my eyes and think ‘I’m glad I‘m not…’ when a new thought entered my head. If I’m not like them, if I’m better than them, which is what I’m implying, then why am I watching them? Over and Over?
Yet I couldn’t stop watching them. If one comes on that I’ve seen five times, I’ll watch it. Except for one. An episode of True Life came on one night that I had never seen, and I was only too eager to watch it; True Life: I’m Dead Broke. Like all the others, this episode chronicled the life of a few young people through a journey. One boy in particular caught my attention, and his story was seared into my brain. Like I said, I’ve only seen it once, so forgive me if it seems a little hazy. This boy lived with all of his family in a small home that did not have running water- he had to go outside and pump out rusty colored water into an old bucket. There was never enough food to go around, and a black cloud of eviction hung over his family, while they slept four in a room. This boy helped his father with any odd jobs they could find, and his goal was to join the army, but he was having trouble passing the reading portion of a high school equivalency test. The juiciness faded away, and it broke my heart to see him struggling to read a Dr. Seuss book to one of his younger sisters, while she helped him out with words he couldn’t understand. That show was a slap in the face to me. What I saw as a carnival show of caricatures was about real people struggling with problems that I was fortunate enough to have avoided so far. These people didn’t deserve my scorn; they deserved my respect for being brave enough to broadcast deep personal pain to a generation who’s concern with humanity seems to be shrinking by the minute.
I still watch True Life, and I still get pleasure out of it. Now though, I feel like I’ve taken off the lab coat and have picked up some pom-poms instead- ‘good job’ I now think when I watch True Life: I Have Tourettes or True Life: I Have OCD. Of course, I’m no saint- I just save up my scorn now for Spencer.
|
|
|
|