…I learned that an Op-Ed is actually a term used to distinguish between the opinions of the editorial board (an editorial), and the opinions of other authors and staff writers—me. I learned it is also short for “opposite the editorial,” not opinion and editorial…go figure. I also learned that the sales pitch that convinced…
The inconvenient awkwardness of working out at Lawrence
I came on my recruiting visit to Lawrence in March. It was spring break; in the early moments of the spring thaw, but campus was still grey and bleary. Campus was also empty and still, and mostly quiet, save for the cars passing on College Avenue. In this vacated, mostly dead state, all the doors…
My opinion on opinions, and a constructive way to use them
Forming opinions is an art form, but really more of a brutish and ugly one than one worthy of much admiration. My dad used to tell me opinions were like buttholes — everybody has ones, and they usually all stink. He’s an old western, traditional, Norman Rockwell type of man, and he had whacky turn-of-phrases,…
A practical guide to surviving midterms
It’s about that time. We’re five weeks through the coldest part of the school year, which, undoubtedly, means nothing but the worst. The professors are having the bi-termly meeting on ways in which they can effectively ruin your life and tank your GPA, which includes the usual instruments of joy: midterms, essays, lab reports,…
Baby, it’s cold outside
On New Year’s Eve, as friends and I gathered around waiting for the ball to drop, I was obsessing over my phone. More specifically, I was obsessing over my weather app. In the eastern plains of Colorado, under the shadow of Pikes Peak the temperatures were in the teens, and the wind chill was itself…
Course progress should be an open conversation
Oftentimes, I have been asked about how I am doing in college by family and friends, and for the most part I know how to answer. I give a general synopsis: I am doing well, like one class a lot, the other not so much, am indifferent towards one professor and learning a lot from…
Lavanya Proctor’s Lecture Reminded Me Why We Take Freshman Studies
Last Monday, Jan. 8, Professor Lavanya Proctor stood on the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel to deliver her lecture on The Bhagavad Gita. She opened with a broad, overarching question: “Why are you here?” In truth, this sort of broad philosophical inquiry made me want to roll my eyes. It was bland, rhetorical, lacking…
My Glasses Taught Me About Myself
I was prescribed glasses for the first time in my junior year of high school. The prescription was low, so most my friends just laughed when they tried them on. “Are these even prescription?” they always inevitably asked. They were, of course, but even I barely noticed. What people did tend to notice about my…
What I learned from a term of Freshman Studies
On a surface level, it sounded like everything that the conceited, snooty, wannabe intellectual in me thought I wanted at a high achieving liberal arts institution: a wide array of different material, classical works, art, literature and engaged discussion between young, vibrant minds. In truth, Freshman Studies did for me what it promised. I did,…
A Practical Guide to NFL Fandom
But what is football, really? One big theater of dreams, and it’s these moments, prior to the kick-off, that loom the largest, when all the fan’s dreams are still alive and intact. The Panthers, the Titans, the Vikings, the Rams…every one of them dreaming of a ring just like the Patriots, the Steelers, the Cowboys.…