Manifesto of an American college student

I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.

I reserve the right to make mistakes.

I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn, grow or get more involved.

I reserve the right to defend my opinion.

I reserve the right to share and spread my opinion.

I reserve the right to choose who represents me.

I reserve the right to love, hate, or ignore any person or thing.

I reserve the right to live with dignity and safety.

I reserve the right to live anywhere.

I reserve the right to gain knowledge in all shapes and forms and from all sources.

I reserve the right to ask questions

I reserve the right to demand honesty and transparency. Most importantly from my government.

I reserve the right to know why certain things are the way they are.

I reserve the right to change and ask for items relating me to change.

I reserve the right to disbelieve what my fathers and ancestors have believed.

I reserve the right to resist.

I reserve the right to protest.

I reserve the right to boycott.

I reserve the right to learn.

I reserve the right to be human--- to be treated, respected, honored and appreciated as a human. Despite all of my flaws and all of the rights that I reserve.

Choosing a college

UVa is considered one of the most beautiful campuses in the US. Also consider that it is a World UNESCO Heritage site and BAM! you have a beautiful, well-manicured "Lawn" with flower trees everywhere. There are trees, flowers, cute squirrels, homogeneous brick architecture, ponds, and groomed grass. As you can see by these photographs, there is something that invites the tourist to take a massive amount of photographs. UVA is aware of it as well. Just check our Week in Photos if you don't believe me that we are one narcissistic, proud hell "uva" school. Around this time of the year, there will be at least one photograph of flowers or flower trees. So if you visit UVA on a sunny clear day, you will fall in love.

However, if you are on a day like today, where it is cold and misting, then you might be turned off by it. Yes, I am talking to you--- prospective young one who is deciding which school to attend. Like you I visited schools, and the skies help the schools that I visited when it was raining. I was snarky to the guides, ungracious to the current students, and deemed a hazard to any staircase that dared to trip me.

Amherst is one memorable example. With its 1960's concrete buildings, Amherst's architecture is the antithesis of UVa's colonial brick architecture. Unlike its neighboring New England colleges, Amherst does not have the ivy-covered brick buildings, but buildings made of what was then cutting edge material: concrete. While Kirin Makker would argue that the 1960s modernist buildings represent a heroic building practice, aesthetic risks, and a confident embrace of current technologies, what concrete doesn't do on a clear, sunny day it definitely does not do on a rainy, cloudy day. Plus it smells.

In short, I hated Amherst and wanted to get away from that bloody town. I hated how it made me feel like I was a cog in a machine, an unmarked slab of concrete, and a lost high school senior in the midst of college applications. I did not even apply.

On the other hand, UVa shined the minute the sun stepped away from the clouds. After a 7 hour drive from New York, I was ready to stretch my legs and the cloudless skies allowed me to do so to my heart's content. It was beautiful and it felt right. My decision was sealed with a bite of my first Five Guy's Burger.

I never critically thought about why it was so beautiful and why it felt right until now. After reading Kirin Makker's article, I realized that in my senior year, I was looking for a traditional look of a college campus. UVa looked the part of an American college (which is appropriate, considering that Thomas Jefferson was so purposeful in his architecture that he created a new aesthetic for university architecture). I was lost in knowing what I wanted in college, which is fine, but then instead of critically thinking about it, I relied on a stereotype of what college was.

In an essence, there is a powerful myth about college perpetuated by popular media, teachers, and marketing campaigns by the universities themselves. It would be a term paper to dissect this myth and the different ways that it affects college choice. (One quick example would be the powerful myth of what Harvard is and then what it actually is.)

UVa also relies on this myth in your head. Whatever the myth may be to you, be aware of it and really do think critically of why college is the right decision for you and why UVa is the right academic decision for you.

Best of luck!

Babies Talking

Babies Talking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY.

I am sitting in my MDST 3559 class, Dataesthetics, and my professor showed this video. Then he said, "anthropologists from all over are analyzing this video for linguistics."

Aw yea.

Getting Over a Grudge

Reposted from Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

A reader writes: Dear Alexandra, ten years ago in my first job out of school, a colleague I thought was my friend stole my new product idea and took all the credit. Well, it’s a small industry and now I find myself forced to work closely with this person. I swore I’d never talk to him again. What should I do?

I’m very sorry this happened to you. Sometimes people do things we feel we cannot forgive. But I’m going to encourage you to try. My first reason is that perhaps this was more of a misunderstanding than a betrayal. Even though I don’t know the specifics, I can say with certainty that there are very few truly evil people in the world. Maybe he thought he arrived at the idea himself, or maybe was so insecure about making a contribution that he was grasping at straws.

My second reason is that harboring anger and resentment against this person will only serve to negatively impact you emotionally and professionally. Even if his behavior was indisputably callous, it was ten years ago and he has hopefully matured since then, so look at it as water under the bridge and aim to make a fresh start with him.

Remember that you can forgive, but you don’t have to forget. There is no reason to blindly trust this person again until he has earned it. I’m just saying to get over the grudge and move on so that you can be as effective as possible.

This totally applies to college. If you are involved on Grounds, you will definitely need to collaborate with people, share ideas, and work in groups. This can happen.

Sleeping in class

I realized why I fall asleep in my Intro to Digital Media class: Nau 101 is dimly lit.

Nau is one of the two new buildings of the South Lawn Project. It looks impressive because of the wall-to-wall glass windows and spiraling staircase. It's brand spankin' new. The toilets flush automatically and you feel posh on the leather couches.

However, Nau 101, one of the large 200 seating classrooms is so dimly lit that I fall asleep. This is why I cannot take a film class and why I hated Art History. Professors dim the lights, you sink back into your plushy chair, and then it's over.

I realized I had a problem when I woke up one class day on the shoulder of the nice girl next to me. She didn't wake me up but gently shoved me off once class ended.

Me: zzz...
Her: *shove*
Me: .... uh.. wut? *looks up* ... oh.
Her: *smile*
Me: *run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in embarrassment*

Next time I'm going to sit right in the front where staring directly into the green glow of the projector will keep me awake.

UPDATE: 03.24.11 //

I haven't fallen asleep in the past two classes because I sit right in the front. Also, the first two rows are the only ones that are lit from above. Yay for better learning habits!