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MLK day is the beginning of Black History Month. We all know it.
I love my peers. Casually eating a jar of Nutella is now socially acceptable.
That moment of panic when your floss gets stuck between your teeth and your mommy isn't here to help you.
College classes are kind of the same as Dora the Explorer because they both ask questions and then wait five minutes for an answer.
My basketball camping group needs a coup d'état.
If there are about to be vintage FFAs, I hope I can remember what I wrote!
rm a senior mechanical engineer swimming in a sea of freshman gen ed electives.
Five days in and Mrs E's still isn't using dishes. I wonder how many hundreds of pounds of paper plates/bowls/cups have been wasted.
Sorry. I know school has started, but winter has yet to leave which means going out in the cold ain't happening.
If Obama did cocaine, it can't be that bad.
My politicss teacher just played what I think was German death metal. Well, this semester should be interesting.
Knowing the clap is not enough! Listen to the band! Stop rushing!
I suggest that next semester on the first day of class every classroom has its number written on the board.
To all the new transfer students, the cleanest bathrooms on campus are in [redacted]
I wish they'd legalize weed just so stoners would shut the hell up about it.
Learn the clap. Know the clap. Be the clap. But don't get the clap.
All these kids whining about homework assignments on the first day of class have never taken an Engineering course before.
"Uh, my car knows how to pop,
lock, and drop it... Except the drop
it part. I wish it could do that."
@collegefession is the best thing to happen to twitter since @takeajewithey
I'm a senior and the biggest regret in my college career was getting the clap
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014
FFA OF THE DAY Decided I'm going to take 12 hours from here on out. Some people say I'll graduate late, I say I'm taking a victory lap.
RICKY SMITH/KANSAN
LIFE
Bounce back from post-break blues
January is my least favorite month of the year. With the bitterly cold weather and the stress of having to follow through with that New Year's resolution, it can be really emotionally draining. As a student, January means it's time to get your rump off your parents' couch and get back to being responsible.
I think I can speak for most students here at the University when I say that we live for the breaks. However, this past winter break I couldn't help but notice how lethargic and lazy I had become after being out of my busy routine for too long
It's the same every year. Toward the end of the semester I can't wait for finals to be over so that I can take a break from classes and college cooking. But a week or so after moving back home, I begin to crave anything that involves not staring at my television or computer. The four weeks of break seem to drag on and on until Lawrence becomes this fairytale-like destination that I can't stop dreaming about.
Four weeks, in my opinion, is more than enough time to fall into a sluggish state of mind. Although there is nothing we can do about this ungodly amount of time we have been given, we can still make the best of it. We can come back to Lawrence stronger and better
Maybe we can even look back on winter break and realize how much it helped us in some ways. One thing it has given me is the motivation to get good grades this semester so that I can get a good job, that way I don't have to live at home with my parents for the rest of my life. Sorry Mom and Dad, but winter break was long enough.
I'd like to thank winter break for all the bad habits I've picked up out of pure boredom, for the unnecessary amount of money I've wasted and, of course, the unwanted love handles I seem to have picked up along the way. Not to mention, the endless amount of time I got to reflect on all the things I should've done with my life by now. Who knew you could have a mid-life crisis so young?
By Molly Smith opinion@kansan.com
than ever. Our batteries have been recharged and we are ready for action.
HEALTH
Even though it may be hard to get back into your busy schedule again, just remember that you have your whole life to be lazy. Take advantage of your busy, spontaneous lifestyle while you can because it won't last forever.
Molly Smith is a sophomore from Lenexa studying speech-language
The bottom of the bottle
Waking up in the hospital and feeling like a train had hit me was getting to be commonplace.
I'm lucky to have so many great friends. Each time I woke up in the emergency room there would inevitably be one of them sitting there with bloodshot eyes, waiting to see if I woke up at all.
In a span of 14 months I blacked out from drinking an obscene number of times. The hospital discussed setting aside a room for me and I hurt people I care about. But these consequences don't even include the as-of-yet unknown after-effects I've condemned myself to later in life. Already I'm incapable of remembering things like I used to studying used to come so easy, but not anymore.
It all started, as these things sometimes do, with tragedy. One of my best friends unexpectedly died. Those close to him drank in remembrance and also to (ironically) forget. It was easier to forget than it was to face the stark realization that we would never see him again. One thing that the D.A.R.E people and Health Center pamphlets don't mention is that alcohol helps in a way that nothing else can.
Growing up I was told that drinking would ensure instant death. When the fear mongering proved to be false, I decided that I was immune to any negative effects. I felt I was invincible and I ran with that idea.
I would go YOLOing around in an effort to escape thinking about anything that troubled me, and I got quite good at it. More than a year of my life is now effectively meaningless because I did so much damage to my memory. I know that a time will come where I would do anything to have that year back, but its too late.
Oscar Wilde once said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." All I did was exist. Each night I went to sleep hoping I wouldn't wake up, and when I did wake up, the cycle would continue. Waking up sober is the worst part of all. Everything I worked so hard to forget came crashing back down even more conspicuous than before.
Some studio portraits I had taken would ultimately save me. I sat and looked at them and was brought to tears. The damage that I had done to my body was, in the picture, obvious and unadulterated. I was wasting my potential, my youth, and my health because I was afraid to face something conquerable. It is almost humorous that after all I'd been through it was a few photos that finally turned my life around.
We are beautiful, unique people with untold amounts of potential. We owe it to ourselves to try to reach the apex of that potential. Whatever it is that is holding you back, do what I didn't do: attack it. Overcome and give life the effort it deserves. Maybe then you can look back and see accomplishments and conquer obstacles instead of waking up alone, used up, and wondering where the time has gone.
The point is that I implore everyone to see that one day the party will be over. One day we will have to look in the mirror, and we will have to be able to live with the person we see there.
Nick Jackson is a senior from Lawrence studying chemical engineering
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@KansanOpinion uh Home Ec. Cuz who remembers how to balance a check book or cook something beside Ramen
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