4A the university daily kansan
opinion
wednesday,november 19,2003
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To the girl who just went into the Budig
bathroom barefoot: You are disgusting.
What the hell? I almost got run over by a Jeep Cherokee between Anshutz and Budig. Aren't there streets on this campus?
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There is this guy in my coms class that looks exactly like me and it is freaking me out.
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What is the point of having a student Rec Center if the students have nowhere to park?
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My friend thinks that he is superior with his tactics. However, my high-powered laser will burn him.
I wish text books were more interesting,
like Harry Potter books.
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If you ever wonder why so many other cultures of the world hate Americans, just watch MTV for a few hours and you will understand.
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Girls can't play Nintendo, and they can't make shooting noises. It's bad.
What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? I've had too much coffee.
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The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Louise Stauffer or Stephen Shupe at 864-4924 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com
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111 Staffer-Flint
stayskal's view
MANY STATES CAN'T PAY FOR HOUSING RECORD NUMBERS OF PRISONERS
Don't freak out: Family time not limited to traditional holidays
perspective
COMMENTARY
I have holiday anxiety.
Louise Stauffer opinion@hansan.com
I get a cold sweat when I look at the calendar, wondering where I am going to spend which days and with whom I worry about family members getting hurt feelings and developing jealousy. Inevitably, no matter what happens, there will be gossip and emotional phone conversations. This isn't about presents or a batched turkey. It's about family custody roulette.
Family custody roulette happens when one has divorced parents. If you have anything but a nuclear family, you probably have it too. It involves stepfamilies, parents' significant others, stepsiblings and even stepgrandparents. This makes holidays complicated.
Wayne Stayskal for Knight Ridder
With the numbers of traditional nuclear families decreasing rapidly, divorced parents are becoming more and more common. Because college students usually do not live at their parents' homes anymore, the fact that many of our parents don't live in the same house
— or the same state for that matter — doesn't result in much tension. But somehow, when the holidays come
No matter where I am on the holidays, part of me feels as if I should be somewhere else. The worst anxiety, for me, sets in around Thanksgiving and Christmas. These unavoidable days, traditionally designated for family gatherings, are alternated year to year between my parents. But stress can result with any holiday, no matter what one's beliefs are.
around and I must choose which branch of my family to spend time with. I get a pain in my stomach, and it's not from too much egg nog. A snippet of a typical holiday-anxiety phone conversation with a mother and daughter could sound like this:
Daughter: "Well, I thought I'd come up and see you and Jim (mother's boyfriend), Mom."
Mom: "Oh sure, that'd be fine. His four kids will be there, too. You like them, don't you honey?"
Mom: "But you don't want to eat left-overs with us and go to the movies like we always do?"
Daughter: "Yeah, I don't mind that they scream at each other (miffed silence), so I guess I'll fly to Dad's the day after Christmas to see him and Sheila (stepmom)."
You see? This scramble makes me want to sit on the couch, eat popcorn and swig beer while watching Uncle Buck— alone. Perhaps we should have a
national family custody schedule. We'll stick to it, no exceptions. Parents will not be allowed to persuade their children with bribs of pancake breakfasts or nostalgic pastimes, such as baking cookies together, shoveling driveways, etc. It will be Christmas Eve and Day with one branch this year, the other the next.
There will also be a Surgeon General's recommendation for dealing with stepfamilies: 1. Wear a nametag, including name, profession, age and a few hobbies to avoid being asked the same questions 20 billion times from stepfamily members. 2. No required bonding time with you and a stepfamily member. It is simply too awkward. 3. No questions about exspouses or their current love lives are allowed. This does not need an explanation.
Families can be messy. They can be scattered across the world, happy, unhappy, easy or difficult to deal with. The prospect of trying to spend a few days a year with each part of your lineage is unrealistic for some, so forget about tradition. If you can't share an important tradition with whomever you want on the exact date of a traditional holiday, make a phone call or send an e-mail and tell that person how much you care anyway. Holidays aren't the only days that can be shared with those you love.
Louise Stauffer is a Holland, Mich., senior in journalism with a minor in English. She is opinion editor.
'kansan' report card
Pass:
More variety in the KUJH lineup: Less reunts means a more original show format. And we get a new show from Brett Wadsworth, the guy who ran on the Lord Wads and the 12 Knights of the Crusade ticket. We knew he wasn't gone for good.
Online course evaluations: Getting the lowdown on a prof is always sweet, but accessing evaluations online before you enroll makes it more reliable than just a friend's opinion.
Add/Drop change: The reduction from a five- to three-week window to drop or add may seem like a rush, but it will help us make our minds up faster and allow those on waiting lists to get into classes sooner. Too bad all classes don't have the first test before the third week.
Fail:
Vitamins no substitute for food: What?
You mean we can't eat pork rinds and wash 'em down with a couple of capsules? Guess you can't hide from broccoli.
Hate Out Week: Did lower-than-average attendance to Hate Out Week events mean higher-than-average apathy about how to get the hate out of the University? Let's hope not.
Campus housing increase: Yes, it's still a good deal. But that doesn't mean residents at Miller and Watkins scholarship halls planned for a $300 increase.
Louise Stauffer/Kansan
perspective
Graduation does not limit you to drudgery; have an adventure or two before work begins
GUEST COMMENTARY
As December rapidly approaches, many students are making post-graduation plans. Some are busy with interviews, and some already have jobs lined up. But a lot are like me and have no idea what their next steps will be.
Recently, I did come up with an idea for what to do next: travel.
Tom Abell opinion@kansan.com
Why in the world, after going to school for 18 years, would you want to start working 9-5 right away? I know plenty of people who started the dreaded 9-5 immediately following graduation, just to quit a year or two later. After talking to several college alumni — mostly parents who have been in the workforce for nearly 20 years — the common sentiment seemed to be that they all wished they had done some traveling before they
settled down.
Why not spend that valuable time seeing the beautiful country you live in? I understand that some seniors have the misfortune of graduating with loads of debt that needs to be repaid. Here's an idea: Work for six months, save enough money to make your monthly loan payments for a while.
call your best friend, gas up the car and go.
Most students have spent the majority of their time in only a few states, occasionally taking a weekend trip elsewhere. But there is a ton of breathtaking scenery throughout the country, from the majestic coasts of Oregon and California, to the vast canyon lands of Utah, over the rugged Rocky Mountains and up into the Great Lakes.
Veronica Duncan, manager of STA travel, said more students were using graduation money or money they have saved to go on a trip before diving into a career.
"A real hot spot is either Europe or Australia internationally and New York or LA nationally." Duncan said. She added that a lot of students are taking road trips cross-country and staying with people they know along the way. This is a great way to save money while catching up with old friends and family.
Most soon-to-be graduates are bombarded with the notion that they must get a job and start their careers. But this is the only time in our lives when we will be free of the responsibility of raising a family or reporting to our job every day.
Awaken your human spirit, take one last adventure before you settle down. Be a surf bum in Baja, or hike the Appalachian Trail. Make it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the mind, body and soul.
Abell is a Boulder, Colo., senior in international business.