“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou
A few things I’ve noticed when talking with people is your degree of agreeability. It has a great impact on that positive first impression you work so hard to achieve. Think back to a time that you have had a conversation with someone for the first time where your responses received some form of rebuttal or pessimism. What was going through your head? I can imagine you are beginning to find yourself on the defense, attempting to keep the conversation on track and lead it down its original direction safely. This becomes a problem that can often be overlooked when actively participating within the conversation. Begin to take a few moments to think about the responses you make towards people beforehand and see if they are fitting this model of positivity and agreeability. The point of conversation is to participate in a discussion, not a debate.
“When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.” This quote encompasses a lot of the negative events that occur in our lives, but when we are looking at opportunity, things should always be coming your way. Let this be an encouragement to place yourself in the real world and experience life to the fullest. Take as many breaks as necessary for your own personal sanity, but be sure your youth is enlaced with opportunity. To those who work and are busy on the weekly I send mad respect. It takes a special person to deal with the stresses of work, school, and home.
With the economy being in the current state that it is, this may not be the best time to rush through a degree and graduate. The career pool isn’t what it used to be, and undoubtedly could be changed for the next decade. A large mark that could be overlooked in this whole global crisis is the fact that we are looking at a selfish society that has more or less fallen on itself. If we can’t survive these events with a strand of sanity then of course we haven’t learned from these greedy mistakes.
Stay on top and be a winner. Not only is it psychologically part of being a twenty something, but also a mandate if we are to singlehandedly overthrow the world with our leadership and assertion. Be driven.
The proofs for the business card design have been finished. Soon we will be on our way to saving the world. T-shirts are being printed as we speak and should arrive by this time next week. It will be interesting to gauge the responses of others to my campaign material. It’s about time someone stood up
for what they believe in and really bring things into perspective in this world. Where does this concept come from, you ask? Simply, the printing company was having a sale and I decided to monopolize on the opportunity to print my face and
contact information on every surface possible. Making my mark in as many ways that were provided through the company. I will change the
world.
Experiencing the first lockdown on the USF campus since I began school here was frightening and unnerving. My calculus class lecture which took place in the CWY building had just been released at 1:45PM, approximately 15 minutes after the first report of the gunman on campus. Students pushed through the doors unsuspecting of the events transpiring only a few buildings away. As I walked outside the eerie shrill of the emergency alert system was sounding and instructing students to stay inside of the building. Understanding the severity of the alerts, I retreated back into the atrium of the CWY building and gathered my classmates to search our phones for an answer to what exactly was going on.
The MoBull Plus alert system was sending text messages to us consistently throughout the event and alerting us of new police developments as time went on. Twitter updates from USF Oracle and various USF departments were flooding all of our phones. Facebook was a sea of status updates from students who had been in the library during the evacuation, and those who had actually witnessed some of the suspects on campus. We huddled around our laptops and phones eagerly, scared for our own lives. Little did most of us know we would be spending the next 3 hours locked in the building awaiting the clear.
More alarming to me than the crisis itself was the way most of the students were acting about the event. One class had been released an hour after the lockdown began and the entire class walked out of the building and proceeded to talk and act as if nothing were going on.
It is to my personal horror that I realized the complacency of my fellow students who are becoming desensitized to these types of emergencies occurring on campus. Not only are lockdowns performed for personal safety, but also in assisting the police department in being able to spot suspects on campus. Another concern was the lack of direction provided by the staff members of USF. A few USF Physical Plant staff members were located on scene but did not stop anyone from leaving or entering the building and also seemed nonchalant about the entire situation. I found myself in a position where I had to perform crisis intervention and provide updates to students who did not have text messaging plans on their phones or no phones at all. A group of us remained by the doors to speak with those coming in and out of the building who did not know the situation.
Technology has created a different environment around USF’s campus, and I believe that events such as these feel much safer with the instantaneous methods of communication that are used by the university. Thankfully no one was hurt, but I personally don’t want to see students fail to take campus wide emergencies as lightly as they have again. Frequent emergencies may begin to numb some students to them but I believe a better program for emergency education is in the future for students here at USF. A fatality or injury should not be the wakeup call.
