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THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 4A
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TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
If I'm given a question and I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right or wrong there is a 100% chance that I will pick the wrong answer. Every. Freaking. Time.
I already know I'm going to cry when Tarik leaves the floor.
This girl sneezed in class and farted at the same time. I'm withdrawing because I can't look at her without laughing.
The Campanile is playing Phantom of the Opera!!!!!!! Best. Day, EVER.
Woke up at 8:47, made it to class by 8:55 #isitspringbreakyet
Saw a guy wearing shorts in 30 degree weather. Watched him slip and completely wipe out on ice. If there is ice to slip on, you probably shouldn't be wearing shorts.
Ladies don't fear, the freshest Ginger is here. In the field of summer or on the route of Kasold, I promise, I'll be there.
FireryLocksO'Love
I'm sorry, I may be out of the loop, but we are talking about Rex from "Toy Story," right?
My roommate's newest plan to save money: stop eating... hope she remembers that she already paid for a meal plan...
I guess it's not a "Happy Ash Wednesday!" kind of holiday...
The cattle chute style shrubbery planting clearly isn't deterring people from walking herd-style throughout the boulevard. Better luck next year, maybe try fencing.
It took me three months to figure out what FFA stands for. And I just now realized that it says it at the top of this column.
I guess I'm in the position that everyone who writes to FFA wants to be in: I have a steady and attractive ginger hookup. Be jealous KU...
My neighbor just came over to ask me to turn down my music. I was listening to Frozen. I'm a dude.
Being a ginger, I was flattered by all the attention we're getting through FFA. I guess being the redheaded step child with no soul has its plus sides!
We all know that the ladies think Wayne Selden and Frank Mason are beautiful. Where are the rest of us guys fawning over the Gonzalez twins?
Sometimes I sleep on my couch because my bed is too empty with just me in it.
Depression can benefit creativity
HEALTH
I don't understand how people can go on with this façade. We are expected to run around with a smile on our faces that says that everything is okay, but the fact of the matter is that things are not okay. Not even a little.
We live in a society of ubiquitous hate. Sometimes there is no bright side, there is no silver lining and there isn't a greater plan. Sometimes life is miserable, and if there is a God then it is quite possible that he hates us, but it's OK. No matter how hopeless life seems, one might spin depressing feelings into fuel that can actually help us become more than we ever thought possible. Life is all about balance and whether we find ourselves happy or sad we must not forget that there are benefits to both.
When I'm in a good mood I get self-centered. I worry about the things that I want and my own aspirations, instead of the larger picture. My dreams of being a superhero might be fading a bit as my childhood dreams are drifting into obscurity, but it doesn't change the fact that I still want to save the world. At times I just need a bout of sorrow to be reminded of that.
I would like to introduce the possibility that we are not as great as we think we are. Nobody is better than anyone else because we are all insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I imagine many of us have felt insignificant at one time or another. It's because we are. If I were to die tonight, 99.999 percent of the world's population would have no idea, but that's OK. It's empowering to think
of oneself as insignificant because you're more apt to find something larger than yourself.
Without a doubt the best part about bouts of depression is the creativity that comes along with it. Google, "sadness and creativity," and check out all of the legitimate scientific evidence suggesting a strong correlation between how awful one feels and the ability to create. In the words of Aristotle, "all atrabilious persons have remarkable gifts." All of that depression, the hurt and the emotional scars can be focused into something extraordinary. It's almost something to look forward to. I enjoy writing. I don't claim to be any good, but I find it enjoyable and without a doubt the things worth reading lay on a tear-soaked page.
The fact is that everyone has to live with these feelings that are difficult to manage. It is only through adapting to that negativity that we can cope, but more than that, I would argue that even at the worst of times we may thrive and always remember what Harvey Dent says in "The Dark Knight": "The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming."
Nick Jackson is a senior from Lawrence studying chemical engineering.
LIFESTYLE
FFA OF THE DAY
Seeing out-of-staters panic about the tornado siren drill makes my day. Calm down there, Dorothy, you're gonna live.
Free time doesn't mean wasted time
o matter i much we appear to value free time in American culture, I feel that we don't think it's meaningful. It's as if taking time to ourselves is something that people do when they have the privilege for leisure. It's not for people who have to study or work full time.
I've found that stories can be incredibly liberating for me, helping me explore new ideas and new ways of being in the world. For example, Yann Martel's book "The Life of Pi" helped me sort out my spirituality in more ways than Sunday school ever did. Pi's journey as a Hindu, Muslim and Christian gave me a language to think about deeper questions on what belief, prayer and faith are to me.
We think that reading a book is all about the comfy chair we curl up in rather than the words on the page, that it's about luxury and has nothing to do with things that matter. But whatever we do in our free time, whether it's reading a book, watching a movie, or writing, can be just as meaningful as anything else we do.
A movie that has impacted my life is Dee Rees" "Pariah." This brilliant coming of age story helped me get through a difficult
tume in my life when I also felt like a pariah, rejected by a faith community that had once embraced me. Rees' fictional heroine gave me strength when I thought I had none. She reminded me that a sense of integrity is far more important than the people who reject you.
Writing has also had a powerful influence in my life. My dad was the one who encouraged me to keep a journal and write stories. There were many times in my life where words created a far more meaningful space than the designs I made in my architecture studio classes. It was one place I could reflect on my experiences and think about who I am and who I want to be.
While American culture seems to value personal time, I feel that generally the message actually reads: "Important but not meaningful." Does it really need be said that whatever we do in our personal time is meaningful to us?
I think poet and social activist Audre Lorde
draws a nice parallel to my thinking about personal time being important and meaningful. Reflecting upon her writing, she insists that "poetry is not a luxury."
I'm not suggesting that every time we put pen to paper for reasons other than a class assignment it is immediately going to create social change as large as Audre Lorde's life's work. What I mean to say is, what we do in our free time should be allowed to be just as important as our occupied time.
And to be sure, "free" doesn't mean meaningless. Just because we are doing something that we aren't paid to do, or that it has nothing to do with school, doesn't mean that something is not important to ourselves or to the social change it might create in the world around us.
Words, whether in poetry, books, movies, stories, writing or even a prayer, are absolutely necessary for survival because without them, our ideas, experiences and feelings are silent, and if they remain silent, we deprive ourselves of the possibility of them transforming our lives and the lives of others.
Garrett Fugate is a graduate student from St. Louis studying architecture.
RICKY SMITH/KANSAN
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