They say college is the best four years of your life – and to that I ask, who exactly said that? I don’t think the statement is wrong, per se, but I’m currently sitting in my room that is stained with the odor of stale beer. I’m starving, I’m smelly and I’m attempting to complete four different assignments simultaneously that I pushed off until now for no other reason than I was too busy to complete them earlier. Sounds fun, right?
Despite this, as the shadow of commencement day looms over me, I am finding myself clinging to the life that I am soon to leave. Suddenly, the unhealthy amount of stress and anxiety mean nothing. The all-nighters, the breakdowns and even the breakups have become nostalgic manifestations of my rollercoaster ride of a life.
In the true millennial fashion, self-deprecation has become a cloak to cover myself in while I trudge through a seemingly endless storm of tears and cheap alcohol. Despite my deliberate choice of higher education, my deliberate choice of what I study and my deliberate choice to be involved in all that I am, I am continually preaching to the choir about how hard I have it in life (insert eye roll).
This is what brings me to The Chronicle. It was a faculty member that once said, in response to a lighthearted story we published, that it was nice to see our paper covering something positive. This is only one of the many “criticisms” that I have read or heard during my time here, and to each one I have about a thousand comments that I could never let past my lips. This is firstly because I have quite the temper and it would be extremely unprofessional of me to lose control of that, but it is further due to the fact that I honestly don’t disagree with everything they say.
Those on the executive board of The Chronicle are what our commander-in-chief himself calls “snowflakes.” Whether it be lack of mental health services, disapproval of our dining options or even a statue that I honestly never noticed until it was pointed it out, The Chronicle staff is always there furiously typing away every reason why you too should be furious.
This prompts a very fair question: With all the problems we allege this university to have, why do we still go here? Why do we spend so many hours out of the week condemning each and every mistake this university makes despite our deliberate choices to come here?
The answer is simple: complacency. There is not one institution in existence that is well enough equipped to handle the complexity of the human experience, even a college campus. Those who have the privileges that deem them “normal” in the eyes of our society do not have to deal with the repercussions of straying from this normalcy. I’m here to give those people a voice because I am one of them.
Throughout college, I constantly found myself asking why a stupid school newspaper meant so much to me. The nights were late, the events were boring and my articles were probably read by only a handful of people. But if you read between the lines, you’ll discover not just a passion for journalism, but also a passion for this community and everything that it stands for. So why do I complain so much about the things that I love? I can’t really answer that, but I also don’t need to.
Take these as my parting words: Nobody is perfect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to be.
