OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009
OPINIONS&EDITORIALS
THE TIMES-DELPHIC
the
TABULA RASA
Adapting to college frugality Is your dream job worth the price?
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here’s a lot we all probably miss about home. I can honestly say I don’t miss too much yet, except for one major commodity. I don’t miss my parents telling me what to do and where to go. I don’t miss high school drama. I don’t even miss my large bed. My twin sister, Rachael, recently opted to stay with our parents in a hotel during their visit to her college, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and I wondered why. Her answer was simple, “Ryan, there’s air conditioning at the hotel!” I laughed at her poor state in an overheated dormitory. Here at Drake University, we have air conditioning in our residence halls. There is one vital part of home I miss though, two-ply toilet paper. Honestly, the stuff we get in the stalls of our residence halls barely passes for sandpaper. A few of us were talking about this one night in Stalnaker and we came to an agreement on the reason for the one-quarter-ply toilet paper. This is the beginning of adulthood. There is no better way for college to prepare us for the cheap scrapping of college life besides giving us seethrough toilet paper. The comfort and plush innocence of childhood is gone, replaced instead by the irritating and scratchy demands of adulthood. In all seriousness though, many of us have started to realize the financial problems we are going to encounter
RYAN PRICE COLUMNIST throughout college. Summer savings barely bought us our new laptops, our new clothes, and our textbooks. Now we are left with a room, a meal plan and
for banks. It is weird that we are only a month into college and many of us have already thought about how we have to pay these loans off in the future. Do we want to change our major to something more economically sound? My current combination of majors is a good key to unemployment, or a lifelong career between the Starbucks and McDonald’s in West Village. I have considered switching to a major with job security and good pay, but that would be the beginning of my settling. We have always been taught not to settle – “Do what makes you happy, the money is less important.” Well, this is the beginning of the challenge. Are we willing to pay the price for doing what we love, even if it means cheap toilet paper? Whether or not we realize it, the college transition is already taking place inside of us. For me, I will take out loans on loans on loans just to do what I love. As Og Mandino said, we are all “slaves to habit.” Humans are habitual creatures and there is no time like the beginning of college to start out some new habits. Whether it is holding our money close or frivolously throwing it away, the importance lies in awareness. And with a reminder like toilet paper, I doubt any of us will soon forget our money management.
Are we willing to pay the price for doing what we love, even if it means cheap toilet paper?
some flex dollars to last us for at least the first semester. Can I put a few of my meals towards my fraternity dues? Can I donate some of my flex dollars to my textbook fund? The answer, of course, is no. Thankfully, banks still have some credit they can loan out to students. Student loans are usually pretty safe bets
Price is a first-year journalism major and can be contacted at ryan.price@drake.edu.
LIFE: LIVING IT FROM EXPERIENCE
The most important relationship
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Self love and life: Advice from Carrie Bradshaw
o if it wasn’t already obvious, I am an enormous fan of “Sex and the City.” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) said one of my favorite quotes from the
completely yourself. Spending time with your friends and meeting new people can be a great way to figure out who you are. We have all heard show: the saying “your friends are a reflection of “… I got to thinking about relationships. yourself.” Knowing who your best friends There are those that open you up to something are can tell you a lot about who you are new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, and vice versa with other people. Also, by JEN CALDER those that bring up lots of questions, those that meeting new people you can find out what bring you somewhere unexpected, those that kind of people you would eventually like COLUMNIST bring you far from where you started, and those to date, and ones from which you would that bring you back. But the most exciting, like to stay far, far away. challenging and significant relationship of all is Take the time in your busy college the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to schedule to find out where you want to be next semester, next love the you, you love, well, that’s just fabulous.” year and even in five years. These kinds of goals will help you Yes, college is a time for dating, hooking up and even love. decide what kind of a person you ultimately want to be. For But how can we ever be intimate with anyone else if we don’t example, whether you want to study abroad, where you want to even know ourselves? Take the time to treat yourself to the live some day or even where you want to work. things you love and spend time alone. Don’t worry, that is a I’m not saying to do this so you can find your soul mate and perfectly normal thing to do. How can you know what you want get married right away. but having similar interests is the base in a significant other if you’re not sure what kind of person you of any solid relationship. It is also very important to look back want to be? and see what you learned from past relationships, what worked, Every relationship we what didn’t and what are you venture into teaches us looking for in your next love. something and changes us Seriously, though, take significantly. It’s just my time to watch your favorite opinion, but before you movie, go shopping, read or jump into a very serious go for a run. Having alone relationship, you should be time is very important, comfortable and happy by everyone should have a yourself and like who you are minimum of 30 minutes of as a person alone. time with ourselves per day. As college students, how much do we really know about love? It is fine to spend time with your significant other, as long as you Sure, it’s out there for people our age. I will admit that I have get your alone time, too. It’s not even necessary to spend time been in love before and I know it was real, but I also gave up a together every day either; you will value your time together that lot of myself. When you are with the right person, you should be much more and probably be a little more of your own person, too. If you didn’t already know it, you’re pretty great. So take the time to discover what you really love about yourself. Your CORRECTIONS significant other can even make a list if you need it. Because if you don’t know how awesome you are, how do you expect In the last issue we misspelled the anyone else to?
… If you don’t know how awesome you are, how do you expect anyone else to?
abbreviation for the College of Business and Public Administration. It should be CBPA not CPBA.
THE TIMES-DELPHIC THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER FOR DRAKE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884 MATT VASILOGAMBROS, Editor-in-Chief times.delphic@drake.edu LIZZIE PINE, Managing Editor tdeditorials@drake.edu JILL VAN WYKE, Faculty Advisor jill.vanwyke@drake.edu ERIN HOGAN, News Editor tdnews@drake.edu MATT NELSON, Features Editor tdfeatures@drake.edu
SARAH ANDREWS, Photo Editor tdphotos@drake.edu MARY BESS BOLLING, Copy Editor mary.bolling@drake.edu KENSIE SMITH, Copy Editor mackensie.smith@drake.edu KYLE GLASER, Web Editor tdweb@drake.edu
PETER ZEMANSKY, Sports Editor tdsports@drake.edu
TYLER O’NEIL, Relays Editor tyler.oneil@drake.edu
PHIL KREZNOR, Business Manager tdbusiness@drake.edu
CALEB BAILEY, Ads Manager tdads@drake.edu
Calder is a sophomore public relations major and can be contacted at jennifer.calder@drake.edu.
BUZZ
OUTSPOKEN
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What do you think … … about renting netbooks from the library?
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CLAY PACIOREK (J4)
I’m not sure if people will either know about them or be willing to go get them and rent them. But I think if people do take advantage of them, they’ll be happy they did.
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ERIC GUDMUNDSON
(AS,J4) I think the netbooks are a great idea, kind of worried about the condition they’ll stay in and how long they’ll be up to snuff.
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KRISTINA BELL (B2)
They might use them if the student has a desktop or their laptop or notebook is being fixed, otherwise I don’t see the need for them on campus.
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BEN OLSON (AS4) It’s just another way that the library is wasting our tuition dollars, mainly because the netbooks don’t really work very well, they’re hard to use, the battery life isn’t very good and I think students … most of the time have computers anyway.
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CAYLA MARIE WOLPERS (AS3)
I think it would be really good because then they can take it where they need to and maybe work on group projects at different locations instead of maybe the library.
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