TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012
PAGE 5
opinion
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
That awkward moment when guys buy you drinks at the bowling alley instead of at bars.
Everyone is pissed to be back at school. Professors should be cautious about giving us homework...
Applesauce and crackers for dinner. College diet.
W
Must... walk... off... Thanksgiving.
meal... this... week
All men should be required to wear suits on Monday. The fraternity men are looking snazzy.
Walking up the hills to class on the Monday morning after break is probably the hardest thing I've had to do all year.
To the girl who wants to meet her boyfriend's parents: Tell him you're pregnant.
Want to know a great way to start a Monday? Sit next to a girl smacking on some Chex Mix in Budig. It's way too early for this.
LIFESTYLE
I think the old FFA guy/girl got canned. The new one won't text me back.
To the FFA about fedoras outside Marvin: one of us is a girl. We're dating, the fedras brings us together.
To the people concerned about the woo. Seriously WOO the hell cares! Editor's Note: Got 'em!
Shout out to the makeshift river on Jayhawk Boulevard.
I am shamelessly lending my adorable new puppy out to all my guy friends because I am desperate for sleep and they are desperate for girlfriends.
What is this finals week nonsense?
We engineering majors have finals month.
Optimistic view of divorced parents:
I won't find a "sex for dummies"
audiobook.
One of the Park & Ride drivers talked to a passenger by name today. Guess his career is over.
My girlfriend just took the bacon out of her Brella's wrap and put it on my plate. Today is a fairy tale.
That awkward moment you're forced to sit next to that girl from high school that hates your guts as you camp for a basketball game.
Family and friends key to happiness
My not-so-average life has taught me that there are three things in life that everyone cherishes. Everyone values and believes in family, friends and significant others. Throughout life we often lose appreciation by not always showing it. If you want a rich and fulfilling life, it's not about your diploma or wallet. It's about showing appreciation for your relationships every chance you get.
Our best relationships tend to be with our family. Their love is unconditional. Sometimes as we get older and move out on our own, we become too independent. We're busy and we forget about our support systems. When I was young, my closest relationships were with my seven first cousins. As I got older, I missed out on cousins' sporting events and life accomplishments. My immediate family was in turmoil. My father committed suicide when I was 6 years old, a week
before my parents were going to move back in together. After this loss, my mother became an alcoholic. I was taken by the state of Massachusetts for five years from ages 9 to 14. God bless my mom for her recovery that she has made since then; she is an inspirational woman. While I was in residential, group and foster homes, my cousins brought a smile to my face the most. Love and cherish your family. Stay in touch. Nothing will mean more as you get older than your family.
Our second best relationships are usually with friends only because they aren't as strong. We have numerous associations in life but not as many true friendships. We tend to move away from our closest friends as we pursue a future. Throughout our schooling, we've lost touch. But we've always had someone there for us. They tend to get pushed to the side. Every day I've been in college, I've wished to look down
the hall and see someone I knew from before. From the fifth grade until junior year, after roughly eight years of being separated from "normal" childhood and adolescent life, I was never able to form close relationships.
I could never maintain close friendships while being moved around. When I finally returned to public school my senior year I went from straightedge to criminal (I was young and I hung out with drug dealers, guilty by association). The life and friends I made helped me grow into a far happier person than I had
ever been. My most stable group of friends gave me the joy my life was missing. When you have these loyal undying friendships, live them to their fullest potential. If they're far away, stay in touch but don't ever put anything before friendship besides family.
Our third best are usually significant others because they survive less often. Everybody should be in healthy, happy relationships that make them want to be better. They must be appreciated. Don't let everyday life change the time you have. Go out and enjoy what binds us in this world. Enjoy life, stick up and speak well of them, don't lie or hide things, tell them why they mean so much to you. Always show them appreciation.
I recently ended a four-year relationship that became more surviving than enjoying. It was with an awesome woman and gave me the greatest gift, my son Jacoby Charles-Edward Noble but relationships change. About three years were spent trying to fix
things. If you have to fix things to be happy then you're not truly happy.
Everyone deserves to be happy. I have a new woman in my life full of potential to become more and have a better life than she alone could imagine. She has helped me to become a better man by being a proud leader and beautiful, independent woman. If we don't consistently show appreciation to our relationships, then we will always be left wondering.
The people who we form these special relationships with are and always will be most important in our lives. They're the ones who see us at our best and worst but will always be there, as we move on in life and create our own futures. Remember never forget to show appreciation for those that are, and hopefully will be in our lives, for a long time.
RELATIONSHIPS
Noble is a junior majoring in journalism from Boston.
Robots: It's time to tell your partner
University students face many hardships during their time in college: keeping a balanced bank account, actually finishing the readings for Western Civ and deciding between spending a Friday night in watching Disney movies or out stumbling around The Hawk. However, all of these pale in comparison to the real issue facing students today: knowing how to tell your significant other that you are a robot.
Ladies and gentlemen, the FFA public has spoken. And this fall it wants robot advice.
A few years ago, I was secretly seeing one of my older sister's friends behind her back until she squealed about it, causing a painfully awkward confrontation from sister to sister. We were only casualty dating, but despite my frustration with his blabbling, I wanted more. She asked if I thought we would ever be exclusive, and I answered that perhaps we would, but that he was sometimes a heartless robot and therefore might not even desire it. Three weeks later though, we were official.
I thought nothing of it at the time but in retrospect, could it have really been true? Could he, of all people, have been a robot? Just how many of them are lurking around campus? And how many of us need to come clean about our robotic ways? If our response to "I love you" is "Does
not compute," we owe it to our partners to be honest about our binary beings.
In this tough yet important process, first evaluate if you're actually a robot. Some say that never showering or showing human emotions are dead giveaways that someone is a robot. However, this could describe many college students at Kansas, so here the line becomes blurred. But if you have nightmares about the spinning pinwheel of death and you describe your favorite pattern as "pixilated," you might be a robot and need to embrace the truth.
After you carefully assess your robot status and determine that you are indeed a machine, next prepare how you will tell your partner. Some students may not take issue with dating such creations, but others may desire a relationship that's a little more human. Prepare your speech in binary code if you'd like, but practice it in words for your boy/girlfriend. No need to brace yourself for a breakup here — your lack of feelings will get you
through it.
Finally, even if your partner leaves you over your being a robot, don't forget to process that all is not lost. In a world in which robots in human clothing are rampant in movies like Vanessa in the first two Austin Powers flocks and the Sherminator from the American Pie trilogy, be confident that despite all odds, you can again find artificial robot love and perhaps one day start a robot family of your own.
All non-robots at the University will scoff as they may, but when it comes to relationships, it's important for us to be truthful with our partners about being robots. Honesty is almost always the best policy and here, that sentiment rings true. Sometimes status in the robot community can really be a dealbreaker.
If we aren't honest from the beginning, being a robot could send our relationships in college and in the future into system overload and possibly result in total malfunction. But even at the University, successful robot-human relationships are possible if we're willing to try them on for size.
In the end, all we have to do is learn how to operate them accordingly.
Rachel Keith is a graduate student in education from Wichita.
Follow her on Twitter
@Rachel_UDKeith.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
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Do you miss the Border Showdown with Mizzou?
@D_Ray_KU
@UDK_Opinion As far as the pigskin rivalry, I like being warm while watching them suffer in every SEC game instead. #MuckFizzou
@jeffsanoubane
@UDK_Opinion no because football.
CAMPUS
Don't lose focus this close to finals
W with the end of the semester coming up, it is important to remember not to check off
to remember not to slack off.
Stay on top of your schoolwork
and it will pay off.
There will be many distractions for students to lose focus on their schoolwork, such as Jayhawk basketball and the nightlife around town, so don't fall victim to these traps. You've heard a lot of these things before, and you've heard them for a reason.
For example, Thanksgiving Break: It is a time to go back home for a few days, completely forget about school and spend the time relaxing. With finals only two weeks after break, it is a good idea to not completely forget about your studies and focus on ending the semester strong. Don't let bad finals ruin an entire semester's hard work because it is not worth it. It is probably a good idea to spend part of your break studying for finals because they are an important part to a student's success.
Now that basketball season has finally tipped off, some of you may be more focused on the team than school. Let's face it: it is one of those people and you probably are too. But don't let the season distract you. With basketball season meaning so much to us students at the University, it is easy to get lost in the hype of the season. But we need to remember that school is just as important as a good season. Make sure you manage your time wisely on game days so you can study and watch the game.
People often like to go out and party more than usual at the end
of the semester. It is the time when everyone is getting worn down from an entire semester's hard work but also when everyone wants to get all of the partying out of his or her system. That is fine, just don't overdo it. Too much partying can cause you to become sluggish and your schoolwork will suffer. Your bank account won't hate you as much, either.
So why slack off for these final two weeks of classes before finals? It is not worth wasting an entire semester's work in the final few weeks. It is fine to let loose and have a good time but don't go too crazy. In some cases, the final weeks of any semester are the most crucial. You have worked hard this far, just keep it up and don't let it go to waste.
Lastly, it is important for us students to get enough sleep. Don't let yourself become sleep deprived by staying up all night at the bars. A weekend at the bars or partying can mess up your sleeping schedule for the upcoming week. Getting a sufficient amount of sleep is just as crucial to your schoolwork as studying is.
Ben Carroll is a junior majoring in English from Salem, Conn.
Follow him on twitter @BCarroll81.
@jondelabooze
@UDK_Opinion Of course we miss
the playing our biggest rival of all
time. Anyone who says otherwise
is seriously in denial.
@dillondavis3
@UDK_Opinion Yes. I loved to hate Missouri. It was the best rivalry west of the Mississippi, and it's a shame they broke that up.
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