Why can’t the time period for back to school have more glamour, some more glitz? Everything can be cured with a little glitter. Glitter just isn’t for holidays, you know. It also doesn’t help that Billy Madison isn’t singing to us about going back to school, with our lunches packed up and our boots tied tight (I’m not ashamed that I know the lyrics). Whether we like it or not, it is time to get back on that academic grind.
Three years ago, I was lugging my belongings up two flights of stairs into Willow Hall. I was about to begin my long-anticipated adventure of college life. It has been so much more than an adventure. My college years have seen me enter as an immature young girl and leave as a mature, young lady. As a senior, I am able to look back on each of those years at the University and view things in 20/20 v ision. All of my habits, good and bad. My decisions, right and wrong. My expectations, high and low. I have one final year to prove that all of those mistakes, decisions, and expectations were worth making. I also have this year to create new stories to tell in my many years that follow graduation.
I can remember the exact moment when I walked into The Outlook four years ago. Staring up at the masthead that frames the office door, I was meek, naïve – a completely different person than the woman I now see in the mirror. I knew the inverted pyramid and the basic elements of a news story, but really, I didn’t know anything about being a part of a newspaper – ethics, common mistakes, how to interview sources, the all hail AP style and, most importantly, the bonds you can have with your staff.
And to think, I never saw this day coming. The day I submit my final article as a staff writer for The Outlook.
Our generation has never taken a moment to breathe. Mornings are spent sifting through e-mails, text messages, news alerts, and Facebook and Twitter notifications all before our first cup of coffee. Afternoons are spent gossiping about the morning’s “he said, she said” until the next OMG moment. We let that simmer until the evening, where countless uploads and sloppy text messages foster tomorrow’s conversations.
A few weeks ago, I went to go see The Hunger Games with some friends. At first I was a little reluctant because I did not read the books and I thought it was going to be another one of those mythical romance stories that was virtually impossible in the real world like Twilight (sorry if any of you reading this are Twilightfans).
IMAGE TAKEN from collegebound.netThe time is approaching where we all need to fill out some more applications. I’m not talking college applications (thank goodness that is over with) but I’m talking about summer job applications. College students are scrambling to find summer jobs to make a little bit of cash before the next school year. But it isn’t that easy. Applying for a summer job can be incredibly stressful.
IMAGE COMPOSED by Victoria JordanI am a public relations major and a part of my future career will consist of monitoring social media sites. Classes and experience have helped me develop remarkably analytical ways of observing things people pos. Most of these are big-time corporations, professional athletes, celebrities and other students like me.
“Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs,” Charles Dickens once said. What does that mean? The more you regret, the greyer you’ll be? Maybe, but one thing is for sure, everyone regrets something they have done, or didn’t do when they had the chance to. Life is about making choices, and taking chances, and sometimes we don’t do what we wanted in the long run and wish we would have. College is a four year period with a high probability for regret.