I’d like to start by saying that I shamelessly pride myself on my satirical writing and unique sense of humor. As the only biological male on staff I have embraced the role of expressing a different perspective and voice to every piece that I’ve submitted late had published on this site. In every piece I have written I have used the phrase “variety is the spice of life” and in response to my personal mantra, this blog post will be different from how I have normally manipulated this medium.
So while we curse our privileged lives studying for finals, stressing about our physical fitness, and whether or not Sally actually went behind your back and hooked up with Johnny over the weekend, I firmly believe that we owe it to ourselves to take a break and reflect on this past year.
As my second year here comes to a close, the comparison of speed in which this year has gone by is not even close. It’s a sentiment that almost everyone I have talked to in preparation for this post has shared with me. The thing about time flying by in such a manner is that there exists a contradiction; despite the belief that the human construction of time seems to have sped up this school year, everything seems to have taken place so much longer ago than it actually has. We arrived on campus almost exactly eight months ago and in that time I guarantee that you have experienced the ups and downs of living, loving, and losing. I guarantee that, despite your lack of confidence in the fact, you are monumentally smarter and more well rounded. I guarantee that you can’t even recall the amount of times you’ve felt lost and have been found.
Eight months ago after two weeks on campus, amidst celebrating the life of a new school year, we came together as a community to mourn a tragic accident that shook our community and supported those most affected by it. Greeks and non-greeks filled Magnolia Drive in what can only be described as a showing of humanity.
A month later the first case of Ebola broke out in the U.S. as smaller strands of illness made it’s way through the country. We had our struggle with it as the University responded by sending out behavioral protocols that mainly consisted of reminding everyone to wash their hands and practice common sense. Yik Yak started blowing up and the Cleveland Clinic erected a multi-million dollar facility in a matter of days in case infection levels would actually become a large concern. In hindsight, the only think that the ebola pandemic really caused was an annoyingly scratchy throat and fatigue during mid-terms.
On a larger scale ISIS made it’s presence known to the world, the Middle East experienced more violence, Bill Cosby proved to not be who we thought he was, protests shook the foundation of major cities (including Cleveland), Cuba and the U.S. became friendlier and SONY got hacked.
When we returned to school for the second semester we witnessed the opening wrestling match with heavy hearts, our mens basketball team got off to an historic start and we remembered how mother nature loves to test our metal with unforgiving weather which resulted in the cancellation of classes. The Tink continued to buzz with multiple events including conferences, guest speakers, and galas following the presence of a flash mob and Lacy Green from the previous semester. In a flurry we went through valentines day, mid terms, and the slow grind to spring break.
In the six weeks since spring break ended the weather has shown promise, Greek Week single handedly supported the economy of energy drinks, love bloomed as it does in the Spring, a Phi Delt sent an email that made national news, and Springfest was rocked by Hoodie Allen. And now here we are once again making our way to the end of a semester and year that we likely did not embrace and appreciate to the fullest. It can’t be helped, grinding through these last ten days of the semester can not be avoided and even though many will hate life and state how impossible it is, we’ll get through it one way or another. Take a second and look back at the year that has taken place on an individual level and as a whole. With all that has been endured, learned, and experienced; there’s no way that this endeavor is impossible. Not when we’ve made it this far.