On a rainy August morning, the arrival of my senior year brought me a perpetually-ticking internal clock counting down the minutes until I graduate from Miami. It’s like a New Year’s Eve countdown in slow motion, except I’m the only one in Times Square, and I’m chained to a lamppost and waiting for the ball to drop. And when it drops, there’s a strong likelihood that it’s going to drop on me.
Puerto Rico's struggle began long before Hurricane Maria, and has not disappeared since.
In elementary school, a lot of kids had end-of-the-school-year traditions. Some would have pool parties, take day trips to the beach or celebrate good grades by going to their favorite ice cream places. My end-of-year tradition was staying up far past my bedtime and sobbing to my mother about how I was scared of growing up.
When you do something wrong, admit it. If you're sorry, act like it. There seems to be a discrepancy here so to clarify, here's a dose of realism: If you mess up and apologize, only to turn around and gloat over your mistake, your apology is void. In fact, don't even bother.
Coming off a week of relaxation, good food and laundry machines that actually work, the return to Oxford can only mean one thing - we have to be responsible again. A few weeks ago, sitting around on a Sunday meant planning how we were going to spend our week of freedom. Now that we're back, Sundays mean cramming homework and dreading the weeks ahead.
My senior year of high school, sitting at the kitchen table, I paged through a Miami brochure. A student quote caught my attention.
A few days before we left for break, Miami University's Symphony Orchestra put on "The Two Titans," a powerful concert presenting both Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "Titan." As I looked around me in Hall Auditorium during that concert, I saw hundreds concentrating on Beethoven's abrupt harmonic shifts and Mahler's magnificent symphonic form. Not everyone was enraptured -- in fact, I spotted several slumped heads sleeping through the heavenly performance.
At the beginning of this year, a wise professor told my class that we need to prioritize physical health and mental wellness above all else, and the best way to achieve that is to subscribe to a systematic planner.
Adults have failed us.
It's no secret that the American people want change. For all the trouble and terror it's caused, our current political climate has sparked a longing for civic, healthy communities and less hostile hometown politics in the average American. Whether they want "the good old days," or a promise of "a new day on the horizon," every heart has its hopes for a better tomorrow. You can see these hopes in a neighbor's wave, a friend's face, a teacher's desperate lesson on civics.
A true democracy can only exist when voters are employing shared facts in their decision making. Democracies are designed for people to decide their representation through elections based on how candidates' positions agree with their own. Through this ingenious system, the government is composed of the intentions of the majority of the people. However, this can only work when people know the candidates' positions. That relies on facts, which are becoming maligned commodities.
There comes a time in one's collegiate life where the realization sets in -- learning is not the most important part of college. While the administration and faculty preach about the analytical and problem-solving skills that come with a liberal education, students come to realize that attaining a higher grade point average is far more advantageous. While the two can coexist, one is far more valuable than the other.
Money. We all want it. We want the comfort that it brings. The things that it can buy hardly matter more than when there isn't enough of it to cover their cost. And while money might not buy happiness, but it can certainly buy peace of mind. And even if that peace of mind is as paper thin as the currency traded in for it (and often it is), every now and then, it's all that stands between the "us" that we know, and the "us" that would do anything to get more of it.
One of the most momentous occasions over winter break is undoubtedly the new year, a holiday when our younger selves struggled to stay up till midnight that now consists of getting drunk with our friends. However, for a holiday celebrated by all, there's nothing really special about it. For the most part, we watch TV, see dumb tweets about how bad the last year was and party.
