PERSPECTIVES YOU SPE AK

Smaller schools: quality v. quantity

CHRISTINE BLOM ASST. PERSPECTIVES & COPY EDITOR

Okay, so most college students dispute over which fakebake country they want to go on their spring break, whether they are going to Jamaica, Mexico or Puerto Rico. Me, I chose to go to Winston-Salem, N. C.: the home of the cigarette industry.

My game plan was that I would fly down to Wake Forest University to see one of my best friends from high school, get a decent tan and experience another college at the same time.

Let’s put it this way: I got two out of the three accomplished. I saw my friend and I got to see another school. It sure as heck wasn’t warm. Well, not the first day at least.

The night before I left for WFU, I got a look at the weather channel. North Carolina was having the only snow storm of the year the night before I was supposed to fly down. Keep in mind, when North Carolina has a snow storm, they mean all of four inches.

I didn’t know what to do.

I headed to the airport in the morning, sticking to the original plan. Either way I looked at it, I was going away for spring break. Snow was going to be the last thing that would stop me.

Right off the bat, when I got off the plane and realized what a culture shock it was to be in the South. I wasn’t sure how everything was going to turn out. I was definitely apprehensive about the entire weekend.

Much to my surprise, my friend had a list of events planned from the moment I got there until the moment I left.

We went to a frat party that Friday night. Saturday we spent watching a Division I basketball game in an abnormally large dorm room, went shopping in a small shopping center with in walking distance and went out to a café downtown where all the local college kids go.

The entire weekend was like being in a completely different world. People stay on weekends, are involved in everything going on around school and when they go off campus, they see people who are also from their school.

Sometimes I wish I had gone to a bigger school with more people, more activities and better housing.

When I do look back and think that if I had gone anywhere other than Cabrini I would not have had the opportunity to have the classes that I have with the small sizes. Believe it or not, we all benefit from this being a small school. Yes, it does mean the budget is smaller because there are less people, but it doesn’t mean the quality of people isn’t just as good.

Another thing that would not be fun about a big school is the long hikes everywhere. If you think about it, we all complain the walk down the path behind the houses in the morning. If you really stop and think about it we have it so much easier. We don’t have to take shuttle buses to class or walk 20 minutes in the snow. Other than commuters, the majority of us have an easy commute to class in the morning.

In retrospect, the visit to WFU was amazing and I couldn’t get over the difference in lifestyles between the two schools. I am so glad I got to experience the different culture,but I am glad I am where I am.

JILLIAN MILAM ASST. FEATURES EDITOR JGM726@CABRINI EDU

What difference does it make whether you are a lefty or a righty? Who cares, all it means is using one hand more than the other. Or so I thought.

As a child, I always enjoyed being a lefty for the mere reason of being a little different. I was always the one on the softball team who batted left-handed, or the one who “wrote funny.” However, being a lefty comes with its disadvantages…lots of them, even for a kid.

Do you remember those sketch-a-doodles? Achildhood memory without a sketch-a-doodle is like a peanut butter sandwich without the jelly. Everyone had one. The only problem was, I had such a hard time playing with them. The magic pen attached to the side, the right side I might add, made it nearly impossible to swing the pen around in my left hand and have the string long enough to make all the sketches and doodles that I wanted.

Heart-breaking news for a kid. So instead, I would switch to the good old construction paper and markers. I would be able to draw all I wanted, without limitations. However, after writing something from the left to the right side of the paper, like most of us do, blurred out blobs and an marker-stained left hand was the only result. As a lefty, you have to be conscious about dragging your hand as you write across the page, creating the,

“you write funny” comments.

Now onto mention copybooks. The spiral copybooks are one of the biggest disadvantages for lefties. Imagine having a copybook opened up, flat on a desk. Writing across the left page is no problem, but writing on the right side is nearly impossible. Trying to raise your arm high enough to avoid hitting the spiral with the hand you’re writing with is a difficult task, especially when trying to take neat notes at a fast pace. So what about the left-handed spiral copybooks made with the spiral on the opposite side? Asuper idea, and a very exciting moment for us. But after one day with the copybook, you realize that you have the same exact problem, just with the opposite side of the book.

From grade school until present day, we lefties have had to get used to writing in those small desks that have the seats attached. Did you ever notice how the bar that attaches the desk to the seat is on the right side, creating a convenient place to set your right elbow as you write? Good thinking, for a righty. Lefties have no place to rest their elbows when taking notes for 45 minutes at a time in class. We just have to kind of let them hang loose in the air. Not the most comfortable feeling in the world. Of course there are always the two or three lefty desks in the back of the room if somebody needs one. This definitely does help, but sometimes two or three isn’t enough. For some classes, it can become a race between the two lefties in the room for that special desk. And then causing a scene by hav- ing to move the desk closer to the front of the room in order to see the board is never fun.

Righties, have you ever tried picking up a pair of left-handed scissors to cut a piece of paper? Well that’s actually a stupid question. Odds are you have never done that, considering there’s a slim-to-none chance that there is a left-handed pair of scissors lying around anywhere. But if by chance you have, you know what I am talking about. If scissors aren’t made for the hand you cut with, they simply do not work. The paper will actually bend in between the two blades, creating more frustration than one could imagine. What’s even more frustrating for lefties is teaching yourself how to automatically reach for the scissors with your right hand to avoid this annoyance, then to actually be somewhere that has left-handed scissors, so you instinctively try to use them with your right hand because you spent however long teaching yourself to do so!

In this modern age, technology has amazed all of us at some point. Palm Pilots were once the newest astonishment and many people use them today. However, here is one piece of advice that a Palm Pilot maker should take into consideration: designing a palm pilot that has the pen, also known as the stylist, on the left side of the device. Having to pick up the palm, take out the stylist and then switch hands is one step too many.

Okay. So the majority of people in the world are right-handed. Well, what about the lefties? We do exist, we do matter and we do deserve the same simple privileges as everybody else!