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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

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City Council The search to understand deliberates online grief and digital melancholy commision amendment

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Representatives discuss police oversight committee , community shares concerns

A community member gives a testimonial during the CSG meeting regarding reporting criminal records on UM applications in the Michigan League Tuesday night.

CSG discusses felony self-disclosure policy at ‘U’, tri-campus disparities

Carceral State Project opposes new policy, One University Campaign to equalize campuses PARNIA MAZHAR Daily Staff Reporter

At the University of Michigan Central Student Government meeting Tuesday night, students, faculty and community members came together to discuss a resolution opposing

the University’s new felony notification policy, which has spurred controversy on campus over the past month. Guest speakers also discussed the One University Campaign, a coalition working to make all three University campuses more equitable.

The University implemented an amendment requiring faculty, staff, student employees, volunteers and visiting scholars to provide notification if they are charged with or convicted of a felony crime. They must notify the University within one week of a charge or conviction occurring on

or after Feb. 1, 2019. Once the University is notified, University Human Resources will process each post-employment case using a process similar to the school’s current pre-employment background screening procedure. See CSG, Page 3A

RACHEL LEUNG & LEAH GRAHAM Daily Staff Reporter & Daily News Edtior

Amid objections from community activists, Ann Arbor City Council moved forward Tuesday with a proposed amendment to allow for a waiver of restrictions on the eligibility of city employees to sit on the police oversight commission. The amendment will be addressed at a second reading during the next council meeting. The 2014 shooting of Aura Rosser by an Ann Arbor Police officer provoked months of debate and protest, eventually

sparking interest in the creation of a police oversight committee. The council unanimously passed a resolution in October to establish an independent police oversight committee. Councilmember Julie Grand, D-Ward 3, attempted to clarify the intent of the amendment, explaining the amendment would not apply to police officers or current city employees. “There was a misperception about the ordinance coming forward,” Grand said. “I know with any new process there will be some bumps along the way. This was a bump that we made sure was corrected.” See OVERSIGHT, Page 3A

Breaking Barriers of Voluntourism talks Litigator Wendy’s to examines challenges of volunteering abroad not renew

GOVERNMENT

changes to regulations

Lawyer offers look into Trump administration’s environmental policies CALLIE TEITELBAUM Daily Staff Reporter

Sean Donahue, a lawyer whose focus area includes environmental litigation, discussed the President Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to deregulate key environmental policies at Hutchins Hall on Tuesday. The talk was organized for The Environmental Law and Policy Program Lecture Series put on by the University of Michigan Law School. Donahue’s firm, Donahue, Goldberg & Weaver, LLP, based in Washington D.C., focuses on Constitutional, environmental and civil rights litigation. Environmental policy deregulation under the Trump administration has been a controversial and prevalent initiative, Donahue said. Trump promised to decrease environmental regulations and promote coal and industrial energy during his campaign. Donahue compared the Trump administration’s efforts to cut regulations to the French Revolution, saying it was similar to the beginning of a new regime. See POLICY, Page 3A

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BUSINESS

The Quito Project hosts discussion on sustainable international public service EMMA RUBBERG For The Daily

On Tuesday night, The Quito Project held a workshop titled “Breaking the Barriers of Voluntourism: Engaging in Sustainable Cultural Humility Practices,” discussing the impact of voluntourism: a combination of tourism and volunteer work abroad. The workshop touched on the challenges of international volunteer work, which, according to the organizers, can sometimes be unsustainable and harm the communities it aims to help.

LSA senior Nora Kuo, Quito Project co-President, introduced the event by explaining how volunteers can unintentionally harm the communities with which they work. “We want to learn how to volunteer abroad without coming in with harmful behavior that is disrespecting the community,” Kuo said. Kuo said The Quito Project, a student organization based in Quito, Ecuador that works to minimize the achievement gap for primary school students in low-income areas, started holding

these workshops when they noticed their Michigan tutors weren’t achieving what they had hoped. “There was a disconnect between what we wanted to do and what was happening,” she said. Danyelle J. Reynolds, the assistant director for student learning and leadership for the Ginsberg Center, led the workshop portion of the event, beginning by asking the audience if they had any preconceived definitions of voluntourism. The responses of the audience were mixed,

leading into Reynolds’ next point. She explained though the word often holds negative connotations, she said she believes voluntourism is not inherently good or bad. “There isn’t a consensus for what voluntourism means,” Reynolds said. “It’s all about what you’re actually doing.” She noted one of the obstacles for volunteers was not knowing why they wanted to volunteer. This often impacts how volunteers eventually approach their work, Reynolds said. See BARRIERS, Page 3A

DARBY STIPE/Daily

Danyelle J. Reynolds, Assistant Director for Student Learning and Leadership at the Ginsberg Center, speaks about responsible Voluntourism abroad in North Quad Tuesday.

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restaurant lease in Union

Amid concerns of activists, the fast food chain decides against returning in 2020 ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Reporter

Wendy’s will not renew its contract with the Michigan Union when it reopens in 2020. This decision comes following concern expressed by University of Michigan student leaders and community members after the fast food chain failed to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program. Central Student Government, Ann Arbor City Council and the Michigan Union Board of Representatives all signed resolutions encouraging the University to prohibit Wendy’s from leasing a spot in University property until they join the Fair Food Program, with City Council additionally encouraging individuals and institutions in the Ann Arbor community to boycott the chain. The Fair Food Program is a partnership between farmers, farmworkers and retail food companies that seeks higher wages and better working conditions for those in participating farms. See WENDY’S, Page 3A

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News

2A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: CARTER, STUDENTS DISCUSS DRAFT. MSA’S ALLAND GOES TO D.C. Feb. 19, 1980 President Carter and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski met with 300 student leaders from across the country - including Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) President Jim Alland - in Washington Friday to discuss the reinstatement of draft registration. Both Carter and Brzezinski

reaffirmed that the proposal now before Congress is a necessary step to protect American interests abroad, Alland said in an interview yesterday. “The overriding concern at the conference was the registration,” Alland said. “It’s hard to know what a meeting like this will do, however, it’s always to express views.” He described his own

feelings on registration as “very mixed.” Campaign workers for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) invited the visiting students to a reception at Kennedy’s Washington headquarters, but All And said he did not attend it. He added that students expressed concern that they were being used as political pawns.

“To say that it was not a political move (on Carter’s part) would be nothing, less than naive,” he said. Alland, however, said he felt the president was “very sincere” in his desire to hear student response to foreign policy. “I really got the feeling that they wanted to hear what the mood was across the nation.”

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ASHA LEWIS/Daily Cafe Shapiro, the annual show presented by the UM Libraries, showcased students nominated by their instructors to share their poems and short stories in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library.

ON THE DAILY: ‘U’ BAN ON FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN PLACE ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Reporter

A new University policy took effect on Monday prohibiting sexual, romantic, amorous and dating relationships between faculty and undergraduate students in for all three University of Michigan campuses. The policy is part of significant revisions to University procedure on faculty-student relationships that came after a working group, consisting of faculty from all three campuses, made recommendations to University President Mark Schlissel.

The policy, which prohibits relationships between “teachers” and “learners,” bans relationships between faculty, graduate student instructors and undergraduates responsible for the delivery of course content with students they have academic or supervisory authority over, including in class, labs, online, field or other settings. Graduate and professional students are also banned from having relationships with faculty members inside their discipline or academic program, in which the faculty member has or might reasonably be expected to have academic or supervisory authority.

Supervised and non-supervised postdoctoral research fellows may not engage in relationships with faculty members in cases where they have had or might be expected to have academic or supervisory authority as well. University Provost Martin Philbert told the University Record that helping students advance as learners should be the primary mission of all educators at the University. “Maintenance of an environment of trust, openness, civility and respect that enables each person to reach their full potential is at the core of our mission as educators at the University of

Michigan,” University Provost Martin Philbert said. “It is incumbent on our faculty to nurture the advancement and pursuit of knowledge, which result in lifelong professional mentorships and service to our society.” According to an email sent to the Ford School of Public Policy, the Public Policy school will consider rare exceptions. Requests for exceptions must be made in writing by the faculty member, GSI or other teachers. This policy applies to the University’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.

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Ann Arbor project awarded $1 million grant from US Department of Agriculture

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Initiative to save Michigan farms chosen to receive funding from USDA

CARRINGTON TUBMAN and MADALASA CHAUDHARI

CLAIRE HAO

Daily Staff Reporter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding “The Ann Arbor Greenbelt: Saving Michigan Farms Regional Conservation Partnership Program” $1 million dollars, according to a Feb. 4 press release. The project is led by the City of Ann Arbor Open Space and Parkland Preservation Program, also called the Greenbelt. It aims Sudoku Syndication to protect surrounding Ann

Arbor agricultural lands through conservation easements, the right to use someone else’s land for a specified purpose. Greenbelt and its local partners will match the grant, which means a total of $2 million will go toward preserving farmland in Washtenaw County. Partners in the project include Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, Scio Township, Ann Arbor Township, Augusta Township, Legacy Land Conservancy, Southeast

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“It could potentially allow us Michigan Land Conservancy, The Conservation Fund and the USDA to go after larger parcels of land,” Natural Resources Conservation Fike said. “I’m not sure, as (both types of funding) are very similar. Service. This 2018 fiscal year, the It just allows us more funding — Saving Michigan Farms program one million dollars — whereas is one of 91 projects selected ACEP funding is a lot less.” The Saving Michigan Farms for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program funding program will preserve agricultural by the USDA Natural Resources lands by functioning as a Conservation Service. The USDA Purchase of Development Rights list of chosen projects describes program, a voluntary program ecological and local benefits for which landowners can apply. http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ of the Saving Michigan Farms Owners of qualified agricultural program. These benefits include property are compensated for protecting food security and accepting a permanent deed local economics, maintaining restriction through a conservation the agricultural heritage easement, which prohibits future of residents and combating development on that land. The land remains private property, and environmental concerns. According to Jennifer the landowner may receive income Fike, the Greenbelt Advisory tax benefits for donating part or all Commission chair, the of the value of development rights. To LSA freshman Noah USDA grant will amplify the Greenbelt’s land preservation Clements, who is a student in the Program in the Environment, PDR efforts. “(The grant money) is an programs are especially beneficial awesome way for us to leverage for their long-term effects. “Conservation easements, federal dollars to match the amount of money that we put like Greenbelt is doing, are really in to protect land in Washtenaw sustainable, and they keep that County in the Greenbelt area,” land undeveloped for decades to Fike said. “It allows our (tax) come,” Clements said. “It really is dollars to go further to protect a future-minded project, which is what we need.” more land.” According to the Greenbelt According to the USDA website, the RCPP funds website, PDR programs benefit projects through four types farmers in a variety of ways, such of programs, including from as rendering farmland more the Agricultural Conservation affordable, which helps younger Easement Program. Though the farmers; gives older farmers a Greenbelt has received USDA way other than selling their land funding directly from ACEP to fund retirement; and assists before, this is the first time in the transfer of farmland from Greenbelt has received such generation to generation. Fike funding through the RCPP, Fike echoed these points, expressing that PDR programs can help explained.

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landowners in their present-day business operations as well. “Land prices in Washtenaw County can be pretty high,” Fike said. “(It can be) very difficult financially to make a living at (farming). By being able to place land in a conservation easement with us as a partner, that allows (farmers) the financial capability to put the money back into their business and grow food for local markets, such as Ann Arbor Farmers Market, selling to Ann Arbor restaurants, selling directly off their farm.” The Greenbelt arose out of the 2003 Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage, a 30-year, 0.5 mil tax levy in response to the worries of suburban sprawl in Ann Arbor in the 1990s. More commonly known as the Greenbelt Millage, the measure passed with two-thirds of the vote. Michael Garfield, director of environmental advocacy group known as the Ecology Center, spearheaded the Greenbelt

ballot measure in 2003. Garfield explained the context in which the measure arose, describing rapid development in the 1980s and 1990s. “Back in the 1980s and ’90s, there was unplanned, unrestrained suburban development in all of southeast Michigan … quite a distance from the urban center of Detroit,” Garfield said. “There were ginormous (sic) developments in Washtenaw County fairly close to Ann Arbor that were being proposed that would utterly transform the landscape around here … We were concerned about the loss of natural resources, and loss of good farmland that could be used to build a sustainable food economy.” Garfield also described unrestrictive development laws, which made control of suburban sprawl difficult.

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Opinion

4A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019

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SOLOMON MEDINTZ | COLUMN

Why we glorify “the grind”

came to the University of think of a couple of reasons. Michigan understanding The first is the increasing what it means “to ubiquity of a college degree. grind.” Stuyvesant According to High School, my government high school in New census data, for York City, was a the first time, more notorious pressure than one-third of cooker where, per adult Americans The New York have a bachelor’s Times, “The social degree. While currency is academic going to college is achievement.” more important Students would than ever, going to SOLOMON brag about pulling simply go means MEDINTZ less than it used all-nighters, there was constant analysis of to. Another factor is that everyone’s GPA and a joke college attendance is largely among teachers was that determined by family wealth. the Stuyvesant cheer was, For wealthier students, there “What’d ya get?” after was never any doubt they receiving exam results. In a would attend college, so poll by the school newspaper, they need ways to show they over 80 percent of students deserve this experience. reported having cheated at some point. However, students were explicit about their motivations for working. Students worked hard so they could get the best grades, which would take them to the best colleges and subsequently to the best jobs. Though the culture induced by this mentality was toxic and dehumanizing, it was a logical mindset — especially for the 43 percent of Stuyvesant High School students The second factor behind classified as “economically this work ethic is that, once in disadvantaged.” college, graduation is not seen I was excited to leave the as an achievement for most rat race. When I started at students. In the 2015-2016 the University, I was amazed academic year, the University by how little my friends and I had a 91 percent six-year discussed grades — even when graduation rate. When we were in the same class. I almost everyone graduates, still do not know any of my whether or not a student friends’ GPAs. But that relief graduates does not say much was short-lived. After almost about how hard they worked two years here, I have noticed in college, because it is a a closely related — but less uniform goal that most attain. logical — work ethic among Consequently, graduation many of my peers and myself does little to differentiate similar to that which plagued students within college. my high school. Third, even within college, In this work ethic, particularly in LSA, grades instead of using academic seem to mean less than we achievement as social capital, think they do. Elite law and we view effort as a value medical schools require strong measure in and of itself. On college grades but, for most the surface, it is good that such schools, standardized we are placing value in the test scores are more process, not the results; how important. For individuals we use our time says a lot hoping to find work right out about who we are. However, of college, finding data on working just to show our how employers value college peers and ourselves that we grades was difficult, but are working is emotionally my understanding from my self-serving — not logical. and my peers’ experiences It is worthwhile to think is that employers care more about why we are beholden to about experience and skills. this illogical work ethic. I can Furthermore, a literature

It is worthwhile to think about why we are beholden to this illogical work ethic

SOFIA ZERTUCHE | CONTACT SOFIA AT SOFZER@UMICH.EDU

review found that college grades aren’t a good predictor of college success. None of this takes into account how grade inf lation is hurting the legitimacy of grades as a good measurement. The consequence is that within elite colleges and universities, students need new ways of differentiating themselves and attaining social currency because traditional academic metrics are not as valuable as they used to be. Without these more objective measures of success, we have turned to hard work as an end, not a mean. The last key reason we have this mindset is guilt. We feel the guilt and privilege of going to an elite college because we know that such a small proportion of Americans get to have this remarkable experience. The college experience is expensive and open-ended, leading us to feel as though we need to maximize every second of our time here by filling it up with activities, meetings or classes. We can see this mindset all around us. We burn ourselves out by overloading our schedules, we add double majors and minors so we can mention them in an icebreaker, and we brag to our friends about how late we were up at the UGLi. Working hard is important and essential, but working hard for the sake of working hard is toxic. Our competitive, hardworking culture is difficult to fix because the factors that contribute to it are so positive. We don’t want to go back to a time when college was a club of wealthy white boys where admittance alone determines outcomes, because we know how much inf luence wealth has over college acceptances. We also don’t want to make it more difficult to graduate, because the students that graduate deserve to do so. And if grades had more meaning, it would be as if we were back in high school. But we need to examine the motivation behind our hard work, and ensure that it does not become our social currency, because hard work and busyness are not everything.

Solomon Medintz can be reached at smedintz@umich.edu.

Vote for Boring in 2020

ith Democratic primary hopefuls not so quietly taking trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the field is wide open to challenge President Donald Trump in his re-election bid to “Keep America Great.” Let us turn to our nation’s past elections and leaders for insight into our upcoming historical presidential election. The recent passing of former President George H.W. Bush has provided us the opportunity to ref lect on his legacy as the most effective one-term president in modern history. His administration’s efficacy can be largely attributed to his years of hard work and experience. Having taken office as, arg uably, the most qualified person to ever become commander-in-chief, Bush came to the Oval Office with more than 20 years of experience as the former vice president, director of the CIA, Republican National Committee chairman, United Nations ambassador, U.S. representative from Texas and World War II hero. By all accounts, Bush was certainly a “D.C. insider” and this was a good thing. In 2020, we need an insider with the institutional knowledge necessary to effectively lead the government. Someone who has quietly been doing the work of our nation for decades. Not another billionaire outsider or ambitious career politician eager to make a name for themselves. We must ask: What reg ulatory, executive and discretionary actions does the next president plan to issue in order to begin to heal our nation, reeling from arg uably the most turbulent administration since 1974? Right now, our country needs a competent, humble and level-headed leader to govern. We ought to look to our history and take stock of how we as a nation navigated rocky waters in the past. Michigan native President Gerald

Ford rose to the occasion, becoming president with no ambition for power but out of service to the nation. Ford’s personal humility and years of experience representing Michigan in the House of Representatives are exactly what the country needed on the heels of President Richard Nixon’s resignation disaster. By all accounts, Ford could be considered a boring politician. As the first non-elected president, Ford took office at a time when confidence in the government was at an alltime low, but still managed to steady the ship and keep the trains running.

In 2020, we need an insider with the institutional knowledge necessary to effectively lead the government The Democrats ought to choose a candidate who is experienced, who has a vision and who some may even consider a little “boring,” as were Truman, Ford and Bush, all of whom were seasoned D.C. operators and well qualified for the job of president. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has taken center stage in the gaggle of progressives gnawing at the bit for the opportunity to challenge Trump, who currently has the lowest overall approval rating compared to other presidents since he’s taken office. However, Harris’ recent admission that she hopes to rid the American health care system of private insurance companies is demonstrative of the out-oftouch sensationalist policies of the progressive arm of the Democratic party, though she retracted the statement. Democrats rebranded in 2018 in a desperate attempt

to differentiate themselves from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the corporate arm of the Democratic Party. Candidates such as Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-N.J. and Sen. Cory Booker, D-Mass., have used Senate hearings as a launching pad for their campaigns instead of working with their Republican colleag ues on doing the business of the American people. 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has spent the past two years taking aim at Trump and his more eccentric statements instead of proposing legislation or using his Senate seat for more than a springboard to run for president again. Sanders has shelved his enthusiasm and bully pulpit for the past two years with the intention of preserving himself for another grueling presidential campaign. What are the Democratic Party’s policy initiatives for 2020? What actions will they take to unravel the Trump administration’s conservative directives and policies? Which Democratic candidate will bring the humility of Ford, the technocratic expertise of Bush and the steady handedness of former President Barack Obama? As students, we ought to look to the soft-spoken, “boring ” candidate who can humble themselves within the most powerful office in the world to enact change. Not “change that we can believe in,” but rather “change we can achieve.” With news outlets already covering the still far-off 2020 presidential election, let us be intentional in our vote. We must look for leaders who have meaningful track records and impressive resumes. And be open to candidates who, yes, may appear a little bit boring.

Sam Kole is a student in LSA and can be reached at samkole@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. CODY LADD | OP-ED

Repeal and replace House Bill 4205

ouse Bill 4205, signed during the lame duck session by former Gov. Rick Snyder on Dec. 28, 2018, prohibits state agencies from enacting or adopting policy that is stricter than the federal standards. This will impact environmental reg ulations across the state of Michigan insofar that it will put an end to intelligent policy that fits Michigan’s unique situation as a state benefitting hugely from industries relying on a clean, well-kept environment. The economic benefits from stricter than federal environmental reg ulations that ensure our state remains in pristine condition are plentiful: Tourism in Michigan generated $22 billion in 2014 in revenue for the state and local businesses, forestry products and recreation in forests generated $12 billion in 2012 and hunting and fishing generated more than $2 billion in 2018. All these sectors of the Michigan economy require policy that is mindful of the common denominator all of these money-makers share: a pristine environment. This is not including indirect beneficiaries of beauty like golf courses, of which Michigan has more than most states. HB 4205 takes control of

reasonable environmental management and policy and takes reg ulation out of the hands of Michigan agencies at a time when outdoor recreation is the fastest growing sector of Midwestern economies. Andy Northrop, a Michigan State University Extension

We need to repeal and replace HB 4205 with something that reflects our heritage faculty member who works in tourism, leadership and civic engagement, while writing a commentary over this report, notes that “. . .tourism activity in Michigan generates approximately $2.4 billion in state and local taxes. In the absence of these taxes, each household in Michigan would have to pay $640 to fill the gap.” This sum will only increase if Michigan agencies can’t enact the policies necessary to safeg uard against environmental degradation, the likes of which will have a negative impact on tourism

and thus tourism revenue, and, ultimately, increase that $640. Now you might be thinking, “It’s not like I have to pay that” or “I don’t see tourism filling my pockets with cash,” but I implore you to consider that while you might not benefit directly in the form of some sort of payout, your city, county and ultimately state do benefit, and when they benefit from increased revenue, they are less inclined to raise taxes, which does directly benefit you. But this is all related to Michigan’s ability to control and manage its own land, our own land, and it is for these reasons we need to repeal and replace HB 4205 with something that ref lects our heritage and economic characteristics as a state. The federal government is not Michigan; we, as citizens of this beautiful state, know better than those in Washing ton what environmental policies we need to safeg uard and promote both our environment and our economy. Thus, let our direction not be stricter rather than federal, but simply better.

Cody Ladd is a senior studying ecology, evolution, and biodiversity and can be reached at cody.t.ladd@ gmail.com.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 — 5A

FILM REVIEW

‘High Flying’ is dramatic Oscars 2019: Live Shorts ANISH TAMHANEY Daily Arts Writer

To call “High Flying Bird” a sports movie would be like calling “The Social Network” a court drama. Sure, it would be true, but would also be a fatally narrow interpretation of the work. Steven Soderbergh’s (“Unsane”) latest project is so much more than it appears: It’s a microcosm of race and American power structures, an electrified dive into the nuance of NBA labor conflicts and a meditation on the evolving information age. It’s a seemingly mundane concept for a movie transformed into a prescient web of ideas by “Moonlight” screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, and ultimately, one of the most intriguing films I have seen recently. The film covers the sneaky, perceptive maneuvers of NBA agent Ray Burke (Andre Holland, “Moonlight”) as he navigates between players and team owners during a league lockout. While the movie is centered around basketball, it is far more concerned with the gritty and complex backroom business of the sport than courts and scoreboards. While player representative Myra (Sonja Johnson, “The Chi”) and team owner David Seton (Kyle MacLachlan, “Inside Out”) struggle to compromise and end the lockout, Burke hatches a plan of his own, equipped with charming persuasion and discerning foresight. Holland’s performance as Burke is one of the film’s highlights. His lines are hefty soliloquies spoken at nearly twice the speed of normal conversation, but he carries

them off with ease and elegance. The most challenging aspect of the performance is that Holland must appear believably one step ahead of everyone in the room without them knowing it in order for the character to work. And indeed, Burke’s energetic grace embodies this quality perfectly to pack a startling punch near the film’s end.

‘High Flying Bird’ Feb. 8, 2019 Netflix

Since the film is mostly just people talking to each other, Soderbergh must get creative in how he keeps the scenes visually engaging. As both the cinematographer and editor he employs nearly every tool at his disposal. The most palpable of these is his decision to shoot the entire movie on an iPhone 8. From the very first frame of the movie, it becomes evident that this choice plays a key part in how Soderbergh stages every scene. The iPhone as the camera ultimately feels essential to the visual language of “Bird” simply because of how inimitable the film looks. The many wide shots of New York stand out because the iPhone lens gives them a memorably warped quality. Soderbergh also places the

camera in normally impossible places, at various points strapping the iPhone on a ceiling, to the back of a car seat and in a narrow train aisle. While most of these shots were fascinating enough to spice up a dialogue heavy narrative, there were also times when the iPhone’s limitations became clear. Every time the camera moved from natural to studio light, there was a visibly distracting filtering of light onscreen. A notable flaw of the film is that it might be too smart. I found myself having to turn on closed captions or rewind frequently to comprehend a rapid exchange. It’s an intellectually demanding process that not everyone will relish in. That being said, the film did make me engaged in the politics of NBA lockouts, a hefty feat for someone who hasn’t followed the organization for years. The movie offers whatever you’re willing to put in. The real impact behind McCraney’s script is not simply how esoteric it is. He uses the backdrop of NBA lockouts to comment on far more than the nuances of contracts and board room meetings. One of the film’s lingering questions is just what the best platform is for professional basketball in an era of rising streaming services. In this way, “Bird” offers a commentary not only on the NBA, but on filmmaking itself. Where is the best place for the content we consume today, on a platform as accessible as Netflix or a space as traditional as cable TV? McCraney’s ability to weave these questions into the conflict of “Bird” is truly enthralling, cementing “Bird” as a powerful sports drama with the smarts to delve beyond its own premise.

STYLE REVIEW

SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer

Though varying in subject matter, through their common themes of youth, childhood and power in a fresh light, the 2019 Oscar Short Films perfectly complement one another. That said, the sheer degree of heaviness and intensity that characterizes each film makes digesting them all in one sitting a challenge, to say the least. When Marta (Marta Nieto “Karabudjan”) receives an unexpected phone call from her six-year-old son Iván (Álvaro Balas “Bajo la red”), who is on a camping trip with his father, she is alarmed to find that Iván is stranded on a beach alone. In the panic of “Madre” that follows, though Marta fights to keep her calm and protect her son as best she can from thousands of miles away, her composure crumbles as her worst nightmares come to fruition. The beauty of “Madre” is not in what it shows, but what it doesn’t. There is no advantage given to the audience in this film. Though presented with panning-shots of an isolated beach, presumably the one that Iván refers to over the phone, we never see Iván and, by consequence, we feel just as distraught and bewildered as Marta. Mirroring Marta onscreen, over the 19 minutes of “Madre” our heart rates increase minute by minute, our anxieties bubble over and, by the credits, we feel just as powerless and hopeless as Marta. Reacquainting viewers with the topic of children, “Fauve” presents a harrowing depiction of the perils of childhood ignorance. Epitomizing the image of ‘kids being kids,’ tween boys Tyler (Félix Greiner) and Benjamin (Alexandre Perreault) are messing around outside, playfully testing each other’s egos through tests of strength and dares. What begins as harmless fun soon turns hazardous, however, when one

of their pranks leads to Benjamin getting stuck in and sinking into the concrete of a surface mine. Most intriguing about “Fauve” is its exploration of innocence lost. In one moment, Tyler and Benjamin are boys: innocent, naïve and reckless. In the next, Tyler is hardened, encompassed by a dark cloud severity. “Fauve” indirectly poses a question of where the line between childhood freedom and a need for supervision and protection should be drawn. Especially in our tech-saturated society, a question arises: With digital knowledge that far surpasses that of their parents and unrestricted access to social media, has childhood innocence has become an ideal of the past? A picnic after the upsetting plotlines of both “Madre” and “Fauve,” “Marguerite” is a refreshing and much-welcomed change of pace. Centered around the relationship between an elderly woman Marguerite (Béatrice Picard “Ma tante Aline”) and her younger caregiver Rachel (Sandrine Bisson “1981”), the film explores the concept of youth, regret and repressed sexuality. Unlike the two pictures before it, “Marguerite” is much quainter, depicting the day to day routine of the older woman Marguerite and the progressive growth of her peculiar friendship with Rachel. Through a focus on the little things, bath times, pills, cups of tea drank in solitude and brief, yet heartfelt chats between Rachel and Marguerite, the film paints a broader picture about the loneliness that can accompany old age and the ever-present desire for companionship within us all. Believing that the worst of the somber and depressing was over after “Madre” and “Fauve,” “Detainment” functions as the rudest of awakenings. Based on the horrifying story of the abduction and murder of toddler James Bulger (Caleb Mason) by

10-year-old boys Jon and Robert, this film offers no silver lining or moment of relief for audiences to grasp. Through a compilation of documentary-esque flashbacks and separate interrogation sequences of the two boys, the film rehashes the day rehashing the day of James’s murder. Traumatizing and mentally paining enough as a film adaptation, the knowledge that this film is based on a true story is almost too inconceivable to process. While successfully debunking the stereotype of children as innocents on its head, it leaves us all feeling sickened in the process. Though wellmade and disturbingly captivating, the premise of “Detainment” is ultimately too awful to stomach and allow for a meaningful viewing experience. When the credits do finally role, it is mercifully so. Thankfully, the best of the shorts is saved for last. “Skin” illuminates the vileness of modern racism through a sobering portrayal of the influence of a parent’s actions on a child’s. In a rural small town, a fervid white supremacist brutally beats a Black stranger for smiling at his son Troy (Jackson Robert Scott “It”) in a convenience store parking lot, igniting a violent clash between the local Black and white gangs. Though the plot revolves around the brief gang war that ensues over the single incident, the essence of “Skin” is an unmissable message about the learnedness of racism. Much of the hate between the two gangs is observed and acted upon by the sons of the respective members, emphasizing the impressionable nature of children. While the very level of hostility that the film exposes makes it nothing short of enraging to watch at times, “Skin” delivers a much-needed message that deflates the illusion of a post-racial society by bringing to screen the realities and repercussions of racial hatred to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t see them.

RAW is spectacular ‘Territory of Light’ a stunning look at empathy and loneliness BOOK REVIEW

MARGARET SHERIDAN Daily Style Editor

The RAW Natural Born Artists show took place in downtown Detroit at St. Andrew’s Hall on Feb.13th. The show, which had the goal of empowering local artists and providing them with a platform, certainly did not fail to impress. All forms of art — fashion, textiles, cosmetics, live music and photography — came together in the eclectic space that is St. Andrew’s Hall to represent the diversity of creativity that lies within the growing community of artists in Detroit. An event completely by and for artists, RAW holds shows all around the country, inviting artists to showcase and sell their work at mandated venues. Contributing to the sense of independence that is re-emerging in downtown Detroit, the RAW Showcase was just a taste of the talent and development that is occuring in our very own backyard. Serving as a reminder as to why we cannot forget about our dear Detroit, the show blended all aspects of any and every part of design, completely catering to independent artists personal work and business, carving a space for a conversation about the world of artistic mediums and experimentation. Said first year attendee and artist Katherine Cross, “It (this show) has exceeded my expectations, I’m super impressed by the group of people they brought together- music, hair, all types of artistry, and I think that is so cool.” The vibrant show truly represented all aspects of the art spectrum, all tied together through mini concerts played by various artists throughout the entire event. The show catered to a lifelong dedication and love for art and design, as shown by many of the artists present, Cross included. A selfbranded surface designer, Cross spoke on her own practice as an artist and how she arrived at the show. “It was total serendipity. One day I started cutting things out of magazines. Then, I started organizing them by color and making them into collages. I was originally trained as a portrait artist, I have a degree in human figure drawing. But here I’ve found myself cutting out abstract

shapes and things out of magazine pages,” Cross said. Cross’s process speaks to the entire show and its total encouragement for experimentation across all mediums of art and design, one growing in the world of design as well. In a physical world covered in surfaces, from paper to textiles, to everything in between, Cross left no stone unturned when beginning her business founded on color, collage and texture. Said Cross, “It started with cards, I was living abroad when I started this company, and I went around to all the little shops in my town asking ‘would you be interested in using these for your floral arrangements?’ And they said yes! My first order was a florist shop, so I designed small gift cards and different things for that.” The versatility of Cross’s work aligns itself with a conversation occuring all across the world of art and design about the use of textiles, color and pattern in fashion and beyond. Cross does not limit herself to checking one box in design, as a surface designer she completely plays off the ever changing characteristics of design, curating her work to fit just about any surface. A pioneer in self-branding and material use, Cross is changing the definition of what it means to be both an artist and designer, a concept the RAW show catered to. Cross’s inspiration started in fashion and has completely extended to other mediums including paper products and jewelry. “My favorite designer is Dries Van Noten — the way he mixes pattern and color and things like that — so I love vintage materials, I love textiles that have texture, unique patterns, everything — I’ve always been a lover of fabric. I love it, I gotta buy it. I do love fashion, when I was a kid I had a cousin who got Vogue and I would always just look through the pages and think it was just the most amazing beautiful artwork,” Cross said. Cross and all the artists at the RAW Show are completely revolutionizing what it means to be immersed in an art form, taking initiative and inserting themselves into a conversation and effort to blend and support all styles of art and design, a beautiful balance one really could only find in downtown Detroit.

The vibrant show truly represented all aspects of the art spectrum, all tied together through mini concerts played by various artists

EMILY YANG

Daily Arts Writer

In 1978, the acclaimed novelist Yuko Tsushima published “Territory Of Light” a chapter at a time in the Japanese monthly literary magazine Gunzo, each chapter representing one month in a year. Tsushima is well-known in Japan, but is relatively unknown to Anglophone readers. The small amount of her work that has been translated into English is her most autobiographical component, and it’s autobiographical in way that might be unfamiliar to Anglophone audiences. Long before the word “autofiction” was coined in French or English, Japanese authors had been writing gently fictionalized accounts of their lives in what is known as shishosetsu, or “I-fiction.” These works are written as ref lections or examinations of the author’s life, and the strikingly clear realism of the genre has no real analog in Western literature. Tsushima’s work frequently deals with the experiences of single mothers in 20th-century Japan’s intensely patriarchal and workobsessed society, and “Territory Of Light” follows this model — the story is told from the perspective of an unnamed woman, who recently divorced her husband and is tasked with raising their young daughter alone. The novel closely follows the minutiae of day-to-day life in Tokyo — the protagonist takes her daughter to daycare, holds down a desk job and embarks on endless strings of errands and chores, often dragging her unwilling daughter along. The incessant pace of life gives the story a sense of constant motion, even as the protagonist’s loneliness presses in from all sides. Very few other characters receive as much development — they just f lit in and

out of the protagonist’s attention and are occasionally the subject of tentative, quietly desperate acts. She has an ill-advised one-night stand with an acquaintance, she gets excessively drunk at a bar with strangers, she invites one of her ex-husband’s pathetic students over for lack of any other real friends. Many of the side characters are beautifully sketched in outline, and the reader is painfully aware of the social barriers between the protagonist and the rest of the

‘Territory of Light’ Yuko Tsushima Farrar, Straus and Giroux Feb. 12, 2019

world. She is reminded again and again that divorced mothers are at a decisive disadvantage — one of her acquaintances from the daycare go as far as to tell her she would be “at the bottom of the heap.” Even as we see the protagonist begin to spiral without support — drinking heavily to stay asleep at night, having strange visions of death, showing up late for work, brief ly wishing her daughter was dead — nothing drastic or cruel happens. There are moments where it seems as though something absolutely terrible is going to happen (it never does) or some great juncture in the story is going to happen (it never does), but life stabilizes itself somehow and the protagonist must continue as best she can. Her loneliness also seems related to how intently she focuses on her

surroundings, and the sensitive and somewhat sad way she apprehends them. The novel provides a crystalclear yet utterly idiosyncratic vision of Tokyo, following the protagonist’s vision down long associative trails and occasionally into near-delirium. She describes a stand of trees as “some plant species, expelled from the sky, which in a fit of disgruntlement had stiffened into these three brooding pillars as it landed.” More often, though, experience is just given a luminous rinse and left to stand on its own, unmarred by any self-consciously “novelistic” processing. When her daughter drops origami paper from their fourth-story roof, the protagonist brief ly pictures it: “I could only conclude that every sheet in the pack … had f loated down, one after the other, taking its time and enjoying the breeze, onto the tiled roof below.” Shortly after this scene, she has to apologize profusely to her neighbors for the trash on their roof. One gets the sense that Tsushima endows her character with such a powerful sense of perception as a way to cope with an existence so crushing it threatens to overwhelm her. This is an incredibly effective combination, and despite the understated tone, the novel has an unexpected emotional weight. Since the novel was originally published in serial, each chapter is relatively self-contained, and its compilation into a novel can feel awkward at times. Each chapter contains a relatively limited and yet wholly self-contained arc, and the novel has no overall trajectory beyond the allotted space of a year. With a novelist any less perceptive and skilled at making the everyday glitter, this structure wouldn’t work at all — Tsushima’s airy prose, however, makes the recounting of small moments prismatic rather than static.

Arts

6A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ALBUM REVIEW

DAILY ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN

Avril Lavigne is not back On my roommate, and how he made it to our television DOMINIC POLSINELLI Daily Arts Writer

Avril Lavigne, more than any other pop star (except Lady Gaga), has had an absurd amount of personas throughout her career. The Canadian phenom was launched into fame nearly 17 (holy shit, we’re getting old) years ago with 2002’s Let Go. And for good reason — it’s an absolutely iconic alt-rock album. Good luck finding anyone who doesn’t know every single word of “Sk8er Boi.” She maintained the status quo with 2004’s Under My Skin before doing a complete 180 in 2007 with The Best Damn Thing — possibly post-death and post-replacement by double. This album is notable for featuring one of the greatest songs of all time, “Girlfriend.” Lavigne shed her angsty vulnerability for a hardass attitude, and it is safe to say that her risk to fuse glam-rock and pop paid off. Unfortunately, save for a few singles, her 2011 and 2013 efforts were hardly memorable, and the end seemed nigh for Miss Lavigne. This actually happens to be quite literal, as her latest album Head Above Water is about her near-death experience battling Lyme disease. Her struggle over the past six years has pushed her

album’s peak because every song following it elicits a “what the actual hell” within 10 seconds. Head Above Water is like a box of chocolates but every piece contains a different type of nut. Ultimately, you’re gonna be disappointed after a bite or two. There are blues tracks, there are pop songs, there are ballads and there is even a track with a Nicki Minaj verse. There’s just way too much going on here, and none of it particularly stands out. Avril Lavigne In her defense, there was BMG Rights Management no way she was getting away with yet another reinvention in 2019. Pop is too in right now — it’s that genre, and it’s fucking cutthroat. Pop punch, reminiscent of the girl stars come and go on a whim, who denied the skater boy. and only the truly strong keep But here’s the kicker: This is a their head above water in today’s environment. Lavigne’s roots Christian album. On the album opener, biblical are too deep, her legacy too set imagery is abundant. “Can’t part in stone. If you’re not innovating the sea, can’t reach the shore,” today, pop will chew you up she calls out; “God, keep my and spit you out on your head. head above water / Don’t let me Her insistence to maintain a drown, it gets harder / I’ll meet semblance of the pop she was you there at the altar,” the chorus putting out over a decade ago begs. In truth, it’s pretty catchy, is near fatal. What I’m getting but at the same time, a very at here is that Lavigne, while unexpected turn of events for holding on to nostalgia at times, the girl once yelling “Hell yeah, is outdated. Do yourself a favor I’m the motherfuckin’ princess!” and listen to “Mine” by Slayyyter It’s almost safe to say it’s the instead. back to her roots, leaving behind alt-pop hooks for ballad-y piano melodies. The album is an odd combination of bad-girl Avril and old-school Avril, pasted together in a messy fashion. Her vocal melodies carry a nostalgic

Head Above Water

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

‘War Requiem’ from the Orchestra is marvelous SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Arts Writer

The f irst time I ever heard Benjamin Britten’s “ War Requiem,” I was immediately struck by the colossal nature of the work: A f ull orchestra, a chamber orchestra, an organ, a boys’ choir, an adult choir and three solo vocalists. And the subject matter — the juxtaposition of war poetr y and the traditional Latin requiem texts — seems equally colossal and foreboding. Listening to recordings or watching videos of the work, it is hard to f ully understand the piece. It is leng thy, dissonant and emotionally draining. Though I have tried many times to make it through the complete work, I will admit that I have never done so without the aid of a score to keep my attention. Last Saturday’s performance of the work at Hill Auditorium was a reminder of what makes the piece so special when heard live. The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the UMS Choral Union, the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale, soprano Tatiana Pavlovskaya, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and baritone Stephen Powell combined for an absolutely stunning performance. I lef t in a state of contemplative awe, unable to think about any thing except the work. For those unfamiliar with the piece, it opens with the traditional Requiem aeternam text before moving on to Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” Owen’s poetr y, written while he was a British soldier in the trenches of World War I, is dark and straightfor ward. It ruminates on the failures of humanit y leading up to World War I; the failures of European belief systems to prevent the tremendous loss of life that was the t wo World Wars. The orchestral and choral writing is at times stormy and at other times slow and mournf ul. The opening movement, for example, is jolting and frightening. The audience member is transformed into a civilian during the darkest moments

of these total wars, living in fear of what comes next and in sadness at what has come before. And yet, Britten soon contrasts these sentiments with the angelic beaut y of the boys’ choir. In this performance, they were placed in the top balcony, their sing ing of relig ious texts literally f loating down from above. The baritone and tenor, meanwhile, take on the role of narrators, reading Owen’s texts in opera-esque recitative st yle. Through these juxtapositions, Britten pulls different, frightening meanings out of the requiem texts. In some instances, he plays for dark irony, highlighting instances of peace in these texts, pledges for a world that must have seemed all but foreig n to those alive during the World Wars. At other points, he draws out much more sinister undertones, drawing the audience member’s attention to violence and conf lict in relig ious texts. Violence, he seems to say, is an awf ul aspect of the human condition — something that we should work to eradicate, and yet something that is unfortunately intrinsic to humanit y. This is perhaps most poig nant in the third movement, the “Offertorium.” Towards the end of this movement, the baritone and tenor perform Owen’s “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” a retelling of the stor y of Isaac and Abraham. The poem ends with t wo startling lines, connecting this Biblical stor y with the World Wars. “But the old man would not so, but slew his son, / And half the seed of Europe, one by one,” Owens writes. As the baritone and tenor intone this f inal line, the boys’ choir erupts into fearf ul “Hostia et preces tibi,” the Latin text asking God to allow those commemorated by the cong regation to pass from death to life. The beaut y of the boys’ choirs melody juxtaposed with the harsh ending of Owen’s poem was over whelming. I felt my stomach turn out of both horror and disg ust as these t wo texts collided.

Britten concludes with Owen’s “Strange Meeting ” and the Latin text, “Requiescant in pace.” The baritone and tenor sing the last lines of Owen’s poem, “Let us sleep,” as the boys’ choir and the adult choir sing a f inal “Amen.” Af ter over an hour of the dark, somber, alarming material Britten previously provided, this ending is arresting in its simplicit y and its beaut y. It was a f inal prayer for peace, an urgent cr y for change in a world that seems all to accepting of mass violence. Harmonically, Britten centers the entire work around the tritone. This inter val is considered to be the most harmonically dissonant of all inter vals. In the 18th-centur y, it was referred to by some as “diabolus in musica,” “the Devil in music.” This is the harmonic g uiding force behind the tension in the piece. At the conclusion, Britten harmonizes the tritone in an almost consonant manner; the audience member thus f inds some semblance of closure in the most dissonant of all harmonic inter vals. Though this performance lacked at times, the streng th of Britten’s writing easily negated any such problems. The soloists, for example, were slightly buried in the text at some moments. Had I not been provided a copy of the libretto, along with an English translation of the Latin texts, it would have been hard to disting uish what they were saying at times. The orchestra also struggled with balance at a couple of points. The mallet percussions parts, f urthermore, were a little too loud for my taste — the metal instruments struck at an almost painf ul volume. Thinking back on this performance, however, it is not these shortcomings that I will carr y with me but the meaning of the piece itself. In our world of seeming perpetual violence, in a countr y coming up on its 17th year of war in Afghanistan, Britten’s message rings true. It was a call to action, an exposé on our moral shortcomings that morphed in the end into an urgent plea for peace.

Almost a year and a half ago, one of my close friends joined a new club on campus. However, this club wasn’t like the other ones I heard of — it didn’t revolve around a specif ic team activit y or a shared academic interest. No, this club was a cutthroat competition that kicked people out once a week and would end with only one remaining. This was the f irst season of “Sur vivor: Michigan.” Growing up, “Sur vivor” was not a television show of choice in my household. In fact, to this date I have never seen an episode of the CBS show. The closest thing I’ve got is my occasional binge-watch of “Total Drama Island.” Tribal council, immunit y idols, Jeff Probst? Never heard of them. When my friend f irst told me they would be competing on the show, I orig inally thought it was a gag of some kind. How could you compete on a sur vival show while going to school? Were they going to live in the A rb for eight weeks? It turns out there’s more to “Sur vivor” then literally sur viving. As I’ve now been told many times, “Sur vivor” is a strateg ic, social game far more dependent on your brain that it is your abilit y to start a f ire or catch f ish with a trap. At f irst I didn’t understand what they meant by “being on the show” either. Who is going to watch a bunch of college students pretending to be on “Sur vivor?” Who is going to edit it? How will people even know this exists? Much to my shock, as the year prog ressed all of my friends slowly became aware that there was an entire net work of college “Sur vivor” shows out there, and that despite the of ten

low-qualit y camerawork and lighting, people actually watched them. Today, “Sur vivor: Michigan” has its own subreddit, fan podcast,

IAN HARRIS and is bring ing in thousands of views on YouTube ever y week. It sort of blows my mind how many die-hard “Sur vivor” fans are out there. Watching my friend compete in this was a truly bizarre experience. At f irst we all thought they were mostly doing it just as a f un way to spend a semester, but prett y quickly we started to understand that to the people competing, it was no simple game. From the time my friend started competing to the time the game was over, all we heard about was “Sur vivor.” Hours were spent scouring campus for “idol clues,” names of other competitors were thrown around in the same tone of disdain usually reser ved for Spart y or Duo Identif ication and the tension was constantly high. Now that the show is actually being released week to week on YouTube, the entire experience is slightly surreal. As my friend relives a semester of their life, so

Classifieds

do the rest of us by vag uely recalling the conversations and drama that surrounded it at the time. It ’s a bizarre window into the past, but one that is treated by the general audience as the present. The Michigan Union is open on this show. Construction has not yet come to consume The Diag. Michigan Time still exists and people run around in t-shirts and shorts in a beautif ul fall. In the midst of this cold and long winter, there’s strange warmth that comes from getting a onehour dose of fall in A nn A rbor ever y week. The really crazy thing is that despite being produced and edited almost entirely by one person (George Jayne, Class of 2018), the actual show is prett y good. Now, I do have a huge bias here, because the entertainment value derived from watching my friend get criticized in YouTube and Reddit comments is insanely high, and I can’t speak to how well this compares to actual “Sur vivor” or even other college “Sur vivors,” but what I can say is that the insidebaseball Michigan angle of it makes for a ver y appealing watch for current students. As you watch you’re constantly wondering, what would I do in this situation? How would I possibly balance this with school? A nd do these people even go to class, or do they just play “Sur vivor” all the time? I don’t have the answers to those questions and I don’t have an answer to how the rest of the season is going to play out, but what I can say is this: there are worse ways to spend a Friday night. “Sur vivor: Michigan” is now airing on YouTube Fridays at 8 p.m.

Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

FOR RENT Release Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Gaping mouths 5 “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” composer 10 States in an outdated atlas: Abbr. 14 Nobelist Wiesel 15 Official mandate 16 Analogous (to) 17 One way to ride a horse 19 Stereotypical pooch 20 D.C.’s Pennsylvania, e.g. 21 Named, briefly 22 Shop talk 23 One in a hundred? 25 Cafeteria worker’s cover 27 Affleck of “Gone Girl” 28 “Downton __”: PBS show 29 Dramatic opening? 32 Many an emailer 34 ’50s political monogram 37 Typical MLB pitching alignment, and a hint to this puzzle’s circles 41 Train stopping at every sta. 42 They turn litmus paper red 43 Does impressions of 44 Grazing groups 46 “Gimme a __” 48 Large goblet 50 “Haven’t the foggiest” 54 Bamboo lover 55 Alternative to fries 56 Korean automaker 57 Script fraction 58 Military expert, say 61 Sun Devils’ rival 62 Canadian fliers 63 Language of Pakistan 64 Riverbank residue 65 Govt.-backed bond 66 “Freeze!”

DOWN 1 Small plateaus 2 Still in contention 3 Alleviate traffic on, perhaps 4 “Told you” 5 Exactly right 6 Milk source 7 10-time NBA All-Star Jason 8 Commonly injured knee part, briefly 9 Sault __ Marie 10 “On Language” columnist 11 Barely enjoy the pool? 12 First Homeland Security secretary 13 Condescending one 18 Place 22 First sign of fall 24 Rose’s Broadway beau 25 Saintly glows 26 Drive the getaway car, say 29 Partner of 30-Down 30 Partner of 29-Down 31 Remote choice 32 Ouzo flavoring

33 MDW : Midway :: __ : O’Hare 35 Anonymous Jane 36 Peyton Manning’s four? 38 Educator Montessori 39 Adapter letters 40 Delicate handling 45 Firstborn 46 Parlor piece 47 Let up 48 Just above average

49 One side of Hispaniola 50 Talk oneself up 51 School uniform part, perhaps 52 Foul up 53 Thoroughly enjoy 55 Early smartphone 58 Rank above cpl. 59 Coffee break time 60 Mercury astronaut Grissom

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Sports

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 — 7A

Joseph Cecconi’s lifelong competitive drive is paying off

PHOTO COURTESY OF REGINA CECCONI

Senior defenseman Joseph Cecconi helped grow his confidence at the 2017 World Juniors Tournament, which propeled him to the first line and NHL-caliber defenseman that he’s dreamed of being since his youth in Youngstown, New York.

BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer

It was the night before the United States junior hockey team’s last exhibition game at the 2017 World Juniors tournament, and Joseph Cecconi wasn’t nervous at all. He probably should’ve been. The Michigan captain — then a sophomore playing for his country at the World Juniors for the first time — knew that the final roster spot for a defenseman was coming down to two players. Thanks to his upbringing, Cecconi was ready to fight for that last spot. In that final exhibition game, coach Bob Motzko and the rest of the staff would be looking for one of two players to assert themselves as the right choice. Cecconi knew what he had to do to make sure the place went to him. “They pretty much said that it was between two guys, and I was one of them,” Cecconi said. “I just went out there and played my game and didn’t hold back and hoped for the best.” As soon as the team arrived in Toronto after playing its final game in Oshawa, a city 40 miles to the east, general manager Jim Johannson told Cecconi that he had made the team. “I called my grandpa right away, because he was at the game in Oshawa and he was driving back home,” Cecconi said. “I immediately called him, it was like 1 or 2 in the morning. He answered, then I called my dad. It was just — I mean, I was expecting to make the team. That’s what I wanted to do. I wasn’t going in there just hoping for whatever, I was expecting to make the team.” Motzko wanted to add a defenseman with size to his final team and Cecconi — then 6-foot2 and 222 pounds — fit the bill. It wasn’t the most glamorous reason to make a team, but Cecconi took his opportunity and ran with it. He became an integral part of a team that went undefeated through the group stage and defeated host country Canada for the gold medal. “Joe was quietly

probably one of our most steady competitors as a defenseman and just played a huge role for us on that team to win a gold medal,” Motzko said. “I remember after the tournament, he was one of the guys me and the staff members talked about like, ‘What a great surprise,’ because he was such a calming force for us.” The 2017 team boasted talent up and down the roster, which made Cecconi’s selection to the team a bit of a surprise. At that point in his sophomore season, he had only one assist and no goals. Motzko told Cecconi that people were talking about him, and Cecconi responded by playing his traditional, steady defense. By the end of the tournament, there was no more conversation about why he was chosen. Aside from winning the gold medal, a moment Cecconi will never forget, he took something else home from Canada after the tournament. Confidence. That changed his approach to the game when he came back to Michigan. Two and a half years later, at the end of his senior season, he now stands as the Wolverines’ captain, looking toward an NHL career — the Dallas Stars drafted him in the fifth round of the 2015 draft — when his time in college comes to a close. *** When Cecconi first picked up a hockey stick at age three, no one ever would’ve guessed he’d come this far.

Youngstown, N.Y., is not a big place — in fact, it’s considered a village rather than a city or town. It sits a few miles north of Niagara Falls and mere feet from the shores of Lake Ontario. The best restaurant, according to Cecconi, is a former gas station that now serves pizza. The population is barely 2,000 and there isn’t a lot going on. But what is going on is hockey. “There’s like three restaurants, a Rite Aid,” Cecconi said. “That’s the type of town it is.” Buffalo, home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, is just over half an hour away. There are countless minor and midget teams in the area, which is where Cecconi got his start. “His dad played hockey, and he was on his sister’s little inline skates, so he started skating around,” said Regina Cecconi, Joseph’s mother. “Hockey’s big in our area, so why not throw him on the ice, see what happens? He’s just been in love with it ever since.” Even before his first organized hockey experience, Cecconi gravitated toward the game. He always picked the hockey stick over the basketball as a child and could always be found on skates in the winter and rollerblades in the summer — when he wasn’t playing soccer. “Outside, inside, always had a group of kids in the driveway playing hockey,” Regina said. “Even the real little kids, he would let them play, too, with them. One of our neighbors’ dads used to dress up in the goalie uniform and bring his little kids over. Joseph would love skating with them.” In middle school, Cecconi’s years of balancing hockey and soccer came to an end. Hockey was Cecconi’s first love and his first priority, and an Achilles injury that left him unable to run made the decision even easier. He couldn’t run, but he could skate. The ice skate held his foot in place and didn’t aggravate the injury, allowing him to continue skating during his recovery. It was the only sign he needed to switch his full attention to hockey. From there, the kid who used to spend his winter on the ice and his summer on the soccer field spent the entire year on skates. If Cecconi wasn’t playing for his regular season local team, he was playing on an elite summer travel team. It was all hockey, all the time. Just how Cecconi wanted it. But as he rose through the levels, it soon became clear that his talents may take him farther away than his small town or

even nearby Buffalo. After spending his whole life in Youngstown — where he knew everyone, played street hockey with his neighbors and was a few minutes’ walk from the lake — Cecconi had a decision to make. “I didn’t want to leave home, but I was excited to move on from playing U16 hockey and to probably the best junior hockey league in America,” Cecconi said. “It was sad to leave my friends and family, but I knew if I wanted to take hockey seriously, I would have to leave. Once I left, I didn’t really look back.” In early 2014, Cecconi moved to Muskegon and made his debut for the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks. “That was difficult,” Regina said. “That was — Joseph’s a momma’s boy and that was difficult to let him go, but it was something that had to be done. We always knew that if he had the chance to advance and to move up and play the game with a higher caliber of kids, that he was gonna have to leave the area. So, when that opportunity came around, it wasn’t a lot of discussion as far as not going, it was just making the arrangements to get him to where he needed to be.” While Muskegon isn’t a huge city, it was quite a change from the small-town life surrounded by friends and family. Suddenly, Cecconi went from a town of 2,000 to a city of 40,000 and left behind everyone he knew. Everything was different. But it was for his hockey career, so it was worth it. It was an important step for Cecconi’s maturity as a hockey player, just as leaving home to play juniors has been for decades of NHL players before him. And it was in Muskegon that Cecconi first realized that a professional career might be a legitimate possibility. “Growing up, ages like 10 to 15, I didn’t even know what (getting drafted) really was,” Cecconi said. “I didn’t know who was getting drafted or where they were getting drafted from, things like that. As I got older, I think it was when I went to Muskegon in the USHL I kinda figured like, ‘Oh, wow. Maybe I can do this. I love the game so much, why not take full advantage of what Muskegon has to offer and go from there?’ “Now that it happened and I was drafted, which, that was an awesome experience, but that was a long time ago. Now, I’m just looking forward to finishing the year and seeing what happens to me at the end of the season.” Going away from home for hockey isn’t something that kids from Youngstown often do. And

for most, the NHL is nothing but a distant dream. But now, as his senior season draws to a close, Cecconi has a chance to take his career to the highest level. *** Regina Cecconi always wanted her kids to be the best they could be at their chosen activity. Cecconi and his older sister Carissa were encouraged to be involved in extracurriculars, whether that meant playing a sport or taking up a musical instrument. Cecconi played the cello for a couple of years in middle school on top of hockey and soccer. His own mother admits that he could’ve practiced more, but it was important to her that he honored his commitment. Cecconi picked up the cello because he thought it looked interesting, and when he decided he wanted to quit after a couple of years, he knew he couldn’t tell his mother. Regina believes strongly in her kids sticking with their activities, so he brought the cello home and kept it in his room for months — without practicing. When Regina looked at the calendar and saw an upcoming orchestra concert, the jig was up. He had to fess up that he hadn’t played in months and no longer wanted to play. “She wasn’t thrilled with that,” Cecconi said. “I don’t even know if I had to pay to return the cello for how long I was using it, but that was pretty funny.” And whether it was in the orchestra or on the ice, Regina always made sure that Cecconi was set up to be the best that he could be. Most parents want their kids to play sports so that they learn to get along with other people and be active, and Regina was no exception. But she also wanted more than that for her son, and she made it clear that success was a priority. “My first priority was that he was having fun and that he was competing with the best kids,” Regina said. “He always tried out for — I always made him try out for the team that was the hardest to make. My thing was, if he can get a little college out of it, that’s a bonus, and the NHL, well, that’s always been Joseph’s dream.” By having her son try out for the best team and always making sure he was heavily involved, Regina instilled a competitive drive in her son. As a competitive person herself, the atmosphere in the family was one of competition and success. It’s hard for that not to rub off on a young hockey player. “He’s always been competitive when it comes to hockey and

whatever sport that he was playing in,” Regina said. “I’m very competitive, I’m very goaloriented, so I’d love to say that he gets that from me. It’s taught in the family and Carissa’s the same way. I always tell him, if you want to do something, you’re just going to have to go after it. If that’s what you want to do, then just go for it.” Nowhere has that lesson been more poignant for Cecconi than when he made the 2017 World Juniors team. After attending the USA Hockey summer showcase after his freshman year, he knew there was a fairly good chance he’d be on the preliminary roster for the World Juniors. Cecconi wanted desperately to be on the team, and — just as his mom taught him — he went after what he wanted. And it was there that his natural competitive drive began to blend with the inner confidence he’d always had. As Cecconi moved through the World Juniors tournament, his confidence continued to grow until it became external. His ability became more and more self-evident as his mental poise began to show itself in his play. “The first couple games in the tournament, I wasn’t playing too much,” Cecconi said. “Then, in the final couple games, I logged a bit of ice time. It just gave me a lot more confidence when I came back here. I had more confidence in my defensive abilities, as well as carrying the puck and just my poise and control with the puck, too. “I played much better my second half of my sophomore year and that — going into the summer, that just built on. And then junior year and now senior year, I feel like World Juniors really gave me a kickstart to being more confident on the ice.” Confidence is incredibly important in sports, and it’s particularly important in hockey. One weak pass or tentative move to block a shot can change the outcome of a game. If you’re confident, you compete harder. If you compete harder — and win those battles — it increases your confidence. As Cecconi’s confidence grew, his natural competitiveness increased even more. It’s been a successful formula for the senior as he looks to the next step in his career. “If you’re not wired (to compete), you kinda just get left behind,” Cecconi said. “Especially with — in hockey, you have to play at U16s and then (U18s) and then juniors and then maybe stay a couple more years and then college. All that. “You have to be competitive or you’ll get left behind.”

8A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wolverines searching at first base Thome becomes third player in ‘M’ history to reach 2,000 points LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Writer

Well then who’s on first? Yes. I mean the fellow’s name. Who. The first baseman. Who. The question may have originated from the famous 1936 skit, but it holds true 83 years later as the Michigan softball team asks: who’s on first? Since first baseman Tera Blanco’s graduation last May, Michigan coach Carol Hutchins has been searching for a replacement to round out the infield. While Hutchins has stressed that there are many players being considered for first base, sophomore Taylor Bump and senior Alex Sobczak seem to be among the top contenders, each having started at least one of the nine games so far this season. Throughout her career at Michigan, Sobczak has served a variety of roles in both the infield and the outfield, providing the Wolverines with strong defense from all over of the field. The Wolverines have gotten off to a rocky start, dropping five of their first nine games, and are currently unranked for the first time in 18 years. “I’ve seen some good things from (Bump and Sobczak), but we’re going to need to see more.” Hutchins said last Tuesday. “When a player asks me ‘What can I do?’ Stand out. We’re looking for people who are going to stand out. The stand-out nine are going to be the ones who are the most regular.” In looking for someone to fill the role, Hutchins has chosen to go back to the basics. She emphasizes the importance of fundamentals in seeking a starter, but also a player who will show assertiveness. “We need someone on first base to help be vocal,” Hutchins said. “It’s a vocal position. And

catch the balls that are thrown. That’s the job.” Added Canfield: “Taylor and Alex have both been competing for first (base). I think they both have their strengths and weaknesses but I don’t think any of them are so dramatic that it’s that noticeable. They’re both working hard and doing what they can for the team.” And with both players failing to “stand out” thus far, Hutchins isn’t limiting her search to those two. “I’m looking for hitters, always,” Hutchins said. “We need people who can hit through the lineup. (Bump) has done a nice job there but we’re looking at who makes the bag.” Bump, who has started seven of the nine games this season on first base, spent her freshman season primarily stationed at third base, creating an additional challenge to her in her new role on the other side of the diamond. “It’s always a challenge learning a new position,” Bump said. “I knew I wanted to be in the lineup and I wanted to contribute the best I could this year.” “One thing about switching from the left side to the right side is learning your range. On the

left side, you go for everything you could possibly get to and at first base, you obviously can’t because you have to be able to retreat to the bag.” Although the defense has done well so far this season with an average of .88 errors per game, the lineup is far from finalized. Going into the third weekend of the season, there is no timetable for when a consistent lineup will appear. But with struggles starting to mount, the sooner the lineup comes together, the better. “We move people in and out,” Hutchins said. “We’ve had different (designated players) and that’s part of what goes into a 56-game season. We don’t have a totally set lineup. It would be nice to have one and I’d hope we’d have one by the time we get to Big Ten play. Some years it doesn’t work that way.” These fluctuations don’t seem to bother the players who know this as par for the course. It may be frustrating but that’s what the Wolverines must do to return to a .500 record. “I think people are just getting comfortable,” Bump said. “That’s what our game is. Our game is adjusting and adjusting to adversity.”

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Sophomore Taylor Bump has started seven of the nine games at first base.

CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer

Hallie Thome scored just over 1,000 points during her illustrious career at Chagrin Falls High School. Entering last Sunday’s game against Illinois, the senior center needed only one point to surpass 2,000 points at Michigan. Four minutes into the first quarter, sophomore Hailey Brown lobbed the ball down to Thome on the right block. Just as she had done countless times before, Thome spun around her defender and converted the routine layup. With the basket, Thome joined Diane Dietz and Katelynn Flaherty — who graduated last spring — on the Wolverines’ list of 2,000-point scorers. “It means a lot,” Thome said. “It shows a lot about this program to have two players do it within a year of each other, so a lot of the credit should go to the coaches here for helping make the players so successful. “And a lot of the credit should also go to the point guards we’ve had. For me being a post-player and not bringing the ball up, so it’s all about the guards giving you inside touches.” Added Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico on the WKTA Radio show: “It means from the minute she stepped on campus, she has made an immediate impact on our program. She’s been such a special player for us. I’m just so happy for her because she’s worked so incredibly hard and I think you saw that excitement from her teammates as well.” Despite being a heralded recruit — a McDonald’s AllAmerican and Ohio’s Ms. Basketball her senior year — Thome never expected to be in this position. “2,000 didn’t seem realistic,” Thome said. “To come to college

and do that is mindblowing to me. Then again, credit to (assistant coach Melanie Moore) on developing me as a player to be able to grow and fill the shoes Michigan needed as a postplayer.” Thome burst onto the Big Ten scene as a freshman, starting all 35 games for the Wolverines. She was dominant at times, recording a 31-point game and nine others with 20 or more. Still, compared to Flaherty or even Siera Thompson, Thome served as a secondary or tertiary option. Thome eclipsed 1,000 points a year later, becoming the third sophomore in program history to surpass that mark. Even though Thome had followed in Dietz and Flaherty’s footsteps through the first half of her career, she remained skeptical of reaching 2,000. “I feel like your first two years of college are your easiest in sports because the other teams only play you twice,” Thome said. “So they don’t really know how to guard you. I thought ‘Okay, maybe I’ll get to like 1,500 because people know I love to go left, so there goes my left hand.’ ” Opponents may have learned of Thome’s strengths but stopping them was a different story entirely. Forming a tagteam with Flaherty, Thome increased her point tally to 1,679 as a junior. Though Thome looked destined to reach the mark earlier this season, injuries, inconsistent play and Michigan’s overall depth and offensive balance have slowed her production. Nevertheless, Thome kept a

positive mindset throughout. “My injuries were nothing compared to what (freshman guard) Amy Dilk has faced and what (senior guard) Nicole Munger has faced,” Thome said. “So I’ve just tried to put it into perspective and realizing it is my last year, always tried to be positive. When you get injured, it’s easy to get negative and think about yourself and everything you’re missing out on, and that’s when things tend to keep going south for you.” That mentality has paid off for her, as Thome has reached double-digit point totals in five of the last seven outings. After finishing with 14 against the Illini, Thome is now just 63 points away from passing Dietz for second on the alltime scoring list — an achievement that appears likely with three regular season games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament. Flaherty on the other hand, who became the all-time leading scorer in Michigan basketball history last season when she passed Glen Rice, remains unreachable at the top. For Thome though, talk of legacy and individual accolades can wait. Instead, she is more concerned with keeping the Wolverines’ current win streak intact. “It was never really a concern of mine to score 2,000 points,” Thome said. “I just wanted to make sure our team was sticking together and finding a way to win. Accomplishing this goal is great and everything but it doesn’t change me or anything like that. Having this accomplishment just reflects back on my team and how selfless we are.”

To come to college and do that is mindblowing...

For Charles Matthews, newly-minted leader, the time is now ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Charles Matthews walked into practice last week with some words in mind. The redshirt junior had just watched his Michigan team travel to State College and lose to the Big Ten’s doormat, an uninspiring performance from a group mired in the thick of the race for a conference title. He felt there was a lack of effort, focus, urgency — and said as much when asked about it after the game. Then he came into

practice and told his teammates the same thing. “He was talking about lack of discipline,” said sophomore forward Isaiah Livers. “Lack of personnel — the night before, you gotta read your personnel, know it’s your guy or potentially who you’re gonna guard.” Livers left unsaid whether the Wolverines read those reports before the Penn State game. He didn’t need to say whether they did before Saturday’s 65-52 win over Maryland, a game in which Michigan’s defense clamped down in a way reminiscent of,

well, Michigan’s defense. The Wolverines’ lead built to 25-10 early on, then plateaued, as offensive stagnation allowed the Terrapins back within three points midway through the second half. It was the defense they fell back on, and it was the defense that proved reliable. Over 34 minutes — a team-high

— Matthews held point guard Anthony Cowan just 4-for12 from the field with three turnovers. “He shut out anybody that he guarded,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “Really an incredible performance. And he was tired, too. My assistants were thinking we should give him a timeout, and I just refused. I’ll call a timeout before we get him off the court.” Beyond himself, the Wolverines’ performance early on — laser-focused, disciplined and jumping down the opposition’s throat — mirrored what Matthews stressed after Tuesday. Getting vocal in practice is not Charles Matthews’ natural domain. During his time at Michigan, he has spoken up on occasion and with impact, but for the most part, Matthews has been cast as a leader by his actions. When applied to an upperclassman on a college basketball team, that phrase usually means someone is seen as a leader because of their age, but not much else. As much as Matthews has undoubtedly

The night before, you gotta read your personnel...

helped set a culture for the Wolverines, it’s junior guard Zavier Simpson whose voice is the loudest on a day-today basis inside Michigan’s locker room. That may be changing. “The Charles that we all knew in that first semester is not that same Charles,” Livers said. “He was more of a leader by example. Now he’s starting to step up and speak more like a Zavier Simpson.” Michigan couldn’t ask for it at a better time. Its play has leveled off in the last month. After ripping through the first 12 weeks of the year undefeated, the Wolverines have lost three times in the last four — and they haven’t looked particularly good in some of the wins. Things aren’t about to get easier, either. Two of their last four regular season games are against Michigan State, and March is an animal that can’t be tackled by a group approaching burnout. In what is likely his last year of college basketball, Matthews has taken it upon himself to make sure burnout doesn’t happen.

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Redshirt junior wing Charles Matthews has owned his new role as a vocal team leader, showing a sense of urgency.

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“He’d rather just lead by example, but we have such a young team,” Beilein said. “We don’t even have a true senior on this team. Somebody has to do — we need another voice beside (Simpson). Jon (Teske’s) talking more, too, but still, that’s not Jon’s deal. So we need another leader. And he’s doing it.” Matthews declared for the NBA Draft last season, waiting until the last day to announce he would return to Michigan. Before this season started, he openly acknowledged plans to declare again — and this time without coming back. This isn’t technically his senior year, but he can graduate and doesn’t seem to long for college basketball. All the signs are pointing in the same direction. To what he wants out of next month, and to why. “He’s got a sense of urgency to win this year,” Beilein said. “And make a decision after the season, but win this year so that he doesn’t look back and say, ‘I didn’t do enough in my senior year.’ ”

He’s got a sense of urgency to win this year.

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | FE B RUA RY 20, 2019

The search to understand online grief and digital melancholy ILLUSTRATION BY SHERRY CHEN

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | FE B RUA RY 20, 2019

Managing Statement Editor Andrea Pérez Balderrama Deputy Editors Matthew Harmon Shannon Ors

Designers Liz Bigham Kate Glad

Photo Editor Annie Klusendorf

Copy Editors Miriam Francisco Madeline Turner

Editor in Chief Maya Goldman Managing Editor Finntan Storer

The skewed romanticization of marriage BY ANDIE HOROWITZ, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN KUZEE

planned my dream wedding when I was 6 years old. I had met my soulmate in my kindergarten class, and I was positive that our love was going to last forever. Because of my deep passion for organizing, my only clear option was to figure out every nittygritty detail of when and where we would tie the knot. Summer or Winter? Summer. The wedding will be outside, so it must be gorgeous out. Big or small? Big, with everyone I know in attendance. First dance? To “If We Were a Movie” by Hannah Montana. Does it get more romantic than that? It sounds absurd, I know. But the idea of the beautiful white dress and a shiny diamond ring was something I knew I wanted since I was introduced to the concept of marriage. I had my par-

ents’ relationship as my one true guide as to what marriage looks like, and they were happily in love. My mom and dad are the kind of people who do what they can to constantly keep their romance alive. They always acted — and still do — as if they were two teens who just recently fell for each other, forever stuck in the honeymoon period. My dad would bring my mom home flowers just to remind her how much he loves her. My mom would surprise him with random subscriptions to * Blank * of the Month clubs, a gesture that undoubtedly parallels his bouquet of roses. Whether it was the hot sauce, bacon or beer, her gifts were the most romantic thing my father could ask for. They never left the house, hung up the phone, or said goodbye without saying, “I love you.” Their evident happiness was what marriage was to me. I thought no differently for any other married couple.

With everyone around me seemingly following this path, life to me went as followed: grow up, go to college, settle down, get married. Marriage was the utmost kick-starter to a normal, happy life. It was the key to a successful future — an end goal that I had to dedicate my life to. Find the perfect life partner, find the perfect diamond ring, find the perfect white dress, and you’re all set. I had never thought otherwise until middle school, when I started watching a majority of my friends’ parents get divorced. To put a number on it, in the course of three years, the “happy” parents of six of my friends decided to end their marriage. And I started questioning. If marriage is truly centered around the idea of everlasting love, why do almost one in two marriages end in divorce? It’s a question that still lingers with me to this day, becoming deeper and more complex as I further explore the topic. With research, I learned the implications behind matrimony and the benefits embedded in its original purpose. Marriage began as a method of forming alliances among between families, often as a strategic tactic in maintaining social status in society. Marriages often involved dowries, or a basic trade involving money or property in exchange for the potential spouse. The beautiful white dresses we fantasize over about weren’t popularized until the marriage of Queen Victoria in the 1840s. The diamond rings we pray for weren’t tradition for the everyday person until De Beers changed their marketing tactics to increase profits in the 1930s. The glorification of marriage as the beall and end-all to happiness is a modern idea, disregarding the methodical and capitalistic reasons behind the institution. Society has conditioned people, specifically young girls, from childhood to forget these truths and romanticize the idea of marriage. It is made out to be a desirable fairy tale that, without it, would lead to a boring, miserable life of loneliness.

Though few married couples would admit they give into this sad truth, one would be ostracized for thinking otherwise. Single parents have a stigma following them everywhere; couples with children but without a license to prove their love for each other are condemned. But the idea of marriage is inherently flawed within itself. It has been misconstrued from its initial purpose and twisted into something straight out of a romantic comedy or Disney film. To many, a relationship isn’t valid until the couple has said their vows, and love isn’t real until there is a wedding to prove it. But if the historical institution of marriage only entails a dowry and a tax write-off, why should people be so quick to give into the myth that it is the only way to confirm true love? A couple should not need a beautiful white wedding dress and a shiny diamond ring to prove to society their love. A happy life should not center around a piece of paper claiming wedlock. I’ve come to realize that the real concept that I’ve been longing for since I was little was not the white dress or diamond ring, and definitely not the idea of marriage itself. Instead, what I want is the love that always feels spontaneous, the love that always feels genuine, the love that always feels real. That is what my parents have, and somewhere along the way, I mistakenly attributed the uniqueness that defines their relationship to the mere fact that they were married. I may no longer know what time of year I plan to get married in, the size of the potential wedding, or the song for my first dance (though Hannah Montana is a superstar and I can’t help but let my initial choice stick). To be completely honest, I’m not even positive that I want to get married in general. My kindergarten wedding was based on high hopes and good intentions, but I’ve come to realize the fantasy I hoped for has shifted. My 6-year-old self dreamed of a perfect wedding. My 18-year-old self dreams of authentic love and happiness, regardless of what society deems “recognizable.”

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 // The Statement

Coming out with a secret BY ALEC COHEN, MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR

magine having a secret for most of your life you have wanted to tell someone for so long, but are afraid of what might happen if you share it. This was me. Until today. Today, I am going to stop feeling alone, and embrace who I am as a person — I am gay. This is something I’ve known for a very long time, but have been too afraid to share. Ever since I was young, I had a plan for my future. I imagined having a loving wife, happy kids and a fitting job. My plan was detailed in this way because this is what I was exposed to throughout my childhood from television programs, friends and social media. Growing up, I always liked guys as friends but it took me some time to realize it wasn’t only as friends — I had feelings for them, too. During my junior year of high school, I started to have the idea I was gay. But when I would have this thought, I immediately tried to deny it, as I knew this “plan” would not be able to exist. I thought if I was openly gay, it would be impossible to find love or a secure job. This state of denial that I was in lasted for many years. Until very recently, actually. And one of the reasons I believe

this denial lasted so long is because I did not, and still do not, identify with how the media portrays gay people. In television, movies, interviews and social media, gay people are all seen in a similar fashion. They are portrayed with a feminine look, their only interests revolve around the arts and they only have only female friends. While some gay men do identify with this description, I believe there is much more than one personality type for a sexuality. You can carry some of these traits, or none of them at all. While I am still a fan of Broadway (typically seen as an effeminate trope), I also enjoy sports, as well as hanging out with guys — more typically masculine traits. And because the media views gay men with one specific label, so does the public, who interact with different forms of media on a daily basis. Even though there are plenty of people who can relate to this characterization, I cannot. Until I got to the University of Michigan, I only saw people who are gay in one light. Finding my place at the University, as well as my group of friends, allowed me to feel more like myself. And while

that helped, I always thought there was something missing — something I was hiding from the people around me. And over the past two years at the University, I discovered new aspects of my personality, and now my sexuality. But now that I have discovered this new part of who I am, I want the world to know I am the same person as before. Many times when people “come out” to the world, people look at and treat them differently because of their sexuality. I have to admit, there was a point in time where I may have been guilty of doing the same. But I want to say to my friends, family and to the world, that being gay may change my sexuality, but it does not change who I am as a person — I am still me. I am still going to have the same friends who will support me through difficult times I will face down the road. I am still going to dress the same as I did yesterday. I am still going to enjoy yelling at Michigan football games when Shea Patterson makes a bad play. But the biggest difference between yesterday and today is that I am open about a secret I have not only been hiding from

the world, but also from myself. I will be straightforward and say the next few months will be an adjustment. Not only for me, but also for my family and friends. Yes, there are people who may have had an idea for some time that I might be gay, but I am sure some people who I interact with on a daily basis would not have expected it. By sharing my secret with the world, I hope I will be able to ease my anxieties and worries about keeping this secret from practically everyone. For years, I never told anyone about my sexuality. I interacted with people every day, and I felt like there was something missing. But I am happy to say that I have decided to finally be true to myself and to stop pretending to be someone I’m not. I now realize there is not one description of what being gay is supposed to look like. There are millions of different labels and every person has their own. I spent a long time in denial about something that makes up a major part of who I am as an individual, but today I am proud to have “come out” to the world about who I really am.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

Wednesday,February 20, 2019 // The Statement

Wednesday, February 20. 2019 // The Statement

It’s cool to be sad: the search to understand BY SAMUEL ROSENBERG, DAILY ARTS WRITER online grief and digital melancholy I

t’s no secret that the happy moments we post onto the internet are often a façade for the sadness we hide from ourselves and the rest of the world. Whether it’s posting about a job acceptance on Facebook, a video of partying at a nightclub on Snapchat or a photo at an exotic resort on Instagram, social media acts as a sort of smoke screen for our unfulfilled desires. We attempt to construct an idealistic, perfected image online in order to replace the gritty, flawed one that exists in real life. But what happens when we do broadcast that gritty, flawed image online? What happens when we expose the part of ourselves we are so scared to share in the real world within our digital communities? How do we reckon with being vulnerable and open about our sadness without seeming performative? Through my own deductions from having spent a considerable amount of time on the internet, there seem to be at least three patterns of communicating sadness online. The first, most commonly found on Twitter and finstas, comes in the form of dark humor, where irony and self-deprecation are employed as a vehicle for discussing mental health, unrequited love and personal insecurities through unfiltered posts and tongue-incheek memes. The second, most commonly found on Facebook and Instagram, comes in the form of melancholic sincerity, in which the loss of a loved one, the death of an important figure in pop culture or the news of a national tragedy are commemorated through a series of heartfelt, essay-like paragraphs. The third, most commonly found on Tumblr, aestheticizes sadness under the guise of GIFs and pictures that juxtapose intense poems and quotes about loneliness and anxiety with attractive people crying alone, drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. n her experience using Tumblr, LSA sophomore Rachael Merritt believes this third type of online sadness is especially unhealthy and toxic. “On Tumblr, a lot of the time, (people) will make something disturbing sound beautiful or put a romanticized twist on it,” Merritt said. “There are so many pictures of roses on Tumblr, roses with blood.” “Lana Del Rey shit,” I interjected during our conversation. “Oh my God, so much,” she replied. I reference singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey simply because her vintage Americana aesthetic and gloomy lyrics about love and loss are not only perpetuated to a fault on Tumblr but are also fetishized, stylized and celebrated among her devoted online fan

base. The artist grew into popularity after the release of her 2012 major label debut Born to Die, right around the time Tumblr became a viral sensation among high school teens. Though Del Rey’s music has matured since then, her wistful, edgy artistic sensibility, matched with the glamorized heartache she exuded on Born to Die, left a long-standing impact on how internet users perceived their own sadness. By branding sadness through this aesthetic, Del Rey’s nostalgia-heavy iconography and other images like it have allowed people, not just teen girls, to buy into the idea that their sadness is not only valid, but also functions as a kind of cool accessory. People on Tumblr who experience mental illness, selfharm and eating disorders no longer had to feel ashamed due to the relatability of the sad aesthetic associated with Del Rey embedded within that space. Merritt cited Effy Stonem, a character from the popular British TV series “Skins,” as another example of how sad culture on Tumblr exploits its users by appealing to their desire for validation. “I’ll see a picture of Effy (on Tumblr) and she’ll be crying, tears running down her face,” Merritt said. “But at the same time, you want her life because you idealize her. It’s this bizarre thing where you see all these people doing negative things, things you relate to depression or mental illness or sadness or destructive behavior, and kind of glamorizes it.” Tumblr’s obsession with Effy goes beyond basic depictions of her expressing grief and sadness. There’s a whole subculture dedicated to her, from fan art to style blogs to comprehensive commentary on the psychology behind her character’s actions. As a cultural touchstone that represented teenagers who experience depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, “Skins” as a whole remains a prominent source of romanticized sad fodder on Tumblr. Along with Effy, the show incorporated other characters who were known to defy social conventions, which included experimenting with drugs and alcohol, engaging in casual sex and exhibiting antisocial behavior. Like with Del Rey, subcommunities on Tumblr reframed the instability of Effy’s and other “Skins” characters’ lives into something attractive and exciting through which people can live vicariously. Since Tumblr is known as a platform for escapism, pop culture is often used as a canvas for those who are most vulnerable and misguided to project their anxieties and emotions. Tumblr users don’t have to feel as

ashamed about the darker elements of their suffering. Instead, they can find solace in their own misery through someone else’s, which inevitably realigns their perception of sadness from being a seemingly inescapable terror to an illusory spectacle. n contrast to how people on Tumblr channel their sadness through glamorized aesthetics, people with finsta accounts advertise their sadness through unfiltered journal entries. “Finstas” — a portmanteau of “fake” and “Insta” — refer to an exclusive Instagram account users create to share a more vulnerable side of themselves only for their closest friends to see. Like an updated version of LiveJournal from the mid-aughts, finstas operate as a sort of secret haven, where people can talk about their most intimate thoughts, ranging from newly developed romantic crushes and family issues to frustrations with friends and mental health. They can also be a fun way for the select group of people who follows you to see your flaws without fear of judgment, a reassuring alternative to Instagram, where the quantity of likes and comments tend to dictate self-worth. But similar to Tumblr’s detrimental reinforcement of one’s sadness, there is a drawback that comes with finstas if they’re used for the sole purpose of getting something off your chest. I discovered finstas at the beginning of sophomore year, right about when they started trending on campus. Seeing that my friends had their own finstas, I decided to make one for myself. For two years, I created a litany of posts with lengthy captions about getting rejected, complaining about my heavy load of homework, venting about my fraught emotional well-being and my frustrations with my family. Sometimes, these posts were laced with irony and self-deprecation. Other times, they were much more open and honest. There were some posts that contained a mix of both humor and sincerity. Even though I knew deep down that the constant reinforcement wasn’t good for me, getting a like on my finsta meant more to me than getting a like on an Instagram post. A like on a finsta post meant that people were actually seeing me for me, as opposed to the “me” I built on my real Instagram. A comment was an even greater gift. It meant that someone was compelled enough to reveal themself and acknowledge this hidden facet of my inner world. Toward the end of junior year, I accepted the fact that perhaps I was oversharing a bit on my finsta and took a break from posting. Despite the attention that comes with shame-

lessly telling secrets to a small group of close friends, there’s only so much you can share about yourself to the point where you no longer feel like you’re doing this just for you. You become aware of the fact that there is an audience of people you trust examining your posts and expecting you to churn out a specific type of content. It almost feels a bit like schadenfreude, but even more twisted and sadistic. People take pleasure from watching you joke about your pain, just as much as you take pleasure from giving them that satisfaction. It is no longer just an ephemeral form of catharsis, but rather a comfortable self-indulgence. “Over time, you get a community of people who slowly understand you and that you feel supported by, but that doesn’t necessarily fix anything,” Merritt mentioned. “They’re there to comfort you always, but it’s not like a real sort of comfort that helps you.” Sadness can be a wonderful thing when we recognize it as a shared, universal experience. But as evidenced by Tumblr and finstas, online sadness can be tricky and messy based on how it distorts the way we deal with our demons. The constant tension between the real feelings we put out into the digital world and the artifice of the digital world itself presents a troubling question: Can we ever truly be genuine about our sadness if the medium through which we express it is manufactured? hich brings me to Twitter, perhaps the most fascinating and depressing online space for expressing sadness. In the same way that finstas allow people to rid themselves of their deepest, darkest thoughts, the anonymity of Twitter gives users a platform to eradicate those icky feelings to the extreme, sometimes without any repercussions. “I’m always surprised by how willing people are to share,” LSA senior Brandon whose name has been changed to protect his social media accounts said. “I see people tweeting about being back at some mental health institution or, ‘Yeah, I just took some pills.’ It’s kind of insane.” Brandon is referring to a subculture on Twitter that circulates provocative and often risqué tweets regarding issues of mental health. Popular Twitter user @jovanmhill, whose account is now disabled, is known for being unabashedly vocal about his bipolar disorder and mining wry humor from it. One example of his style is shown through an Oct. 5, 2018 tweet when he reposted a video from TikTok user Enoch True with the caption “my brain

cells committing mass suicide.” Internet humor is primarily based on finding the specific absurdities in everyday life and spinning it into something everyone can relate to on a certain level. In the case of @ jovanmhill, who has 115 followers, a lot of that humor is based on the way he laments disturbing truths about his personal life. For better or worse, joking about mental health has become a primary avenue for people to forge an online community of shared suffering, much like with finstas. The only difference is that everyone’s sadness becomes much more publicized and therefore harder to contain. “At first, it acts as a net where you feel validated and stand up for yourself more,” Merritt said. “But at the same time, when you transfer how you feel to this online community, you sort of alienate yourself in a way from the rest of the world. It turns from, ‘This community understands me’ to, ‘No one else does.’” “It helps to see that other people are going through similar things and provides exposure and perspective to it,” Brandon commented. “But at the same time, it kind of enables it because I think there’s definitely a way in which we can romanticize it.” Having a strong internet presence relies a lot on not only maintaining a brand, but a banter with followers. Twitter is particularly intriguing in how it breeds conversations between different accounts that share similar interests or, in this particular context, a collective misery. “The only reason you’re connected is because of your problems and they want to maintain that community,” Merritt said. “If you all of a sudden are like, ‘Oh, I’m better, I had an excellent day,’ you’re no longer relatable.” LSA senior Regina whose name has been changed to protect her social media accounts offered a slightly different perspective about how Twitter feels like the only reliable source of comfort for many. “Social media is one of the only places to connect to people like you about how sad it all is. If you do that in real life, people around you tend to get more upset than you necessarily want them to be,” Regina said. “It feels better to just like, joke about it on the internet, to commiserate in our mutual fucking misery. Sure there are tangible solutions, but I think we forget how inaccessible and stigmatized therapy and medicine really are for a lot of people.” As Regina noted, a lack of access to therapy and medicines can play a huge role in why

people are prone to expressing their sadness so explicitly on Twitter, especially since the internet provides not only a safe space for those struggling with trauma or mental illness, but a free one. Still, the line between genuinely expressing sadness online versus performing sadness for a phantom audience continues to be blurred. As Susannah Chandhok, a secondyear doctoral student studying social psychology at the University of Michigan, points out, this issue is intrinsic to the way Twitter and social media in general is structured. “The psychological distance that exists online can facilitate being more open and making saying things you wouldn’t want to say face-to-face,” Chandhok said. “But then at the same time, it can also facilitate more confrontation because there’s more distance and people aren’t picking up on verbal cues as much as you would be with nonverbal cues.” The almost uninhibited amount of personal autonomy that Twitter affords its users makes me wonder what lengths people are willing to take to talk about their issues before it becomes a serious situation — and if we, as members of the online community, are willing to take the responsibility for the consequences that come with it. Picking up on these cues are a huge marker for differentiating the tone of a tweet from the intention, especially in one recent instance where rapper Elizabeth Harris, known by her stage name Cupcakke, tweeted on Jan. 8: “im about to commit suicide.” Known for her more raunchy posts, Harris’s alarming tweet provoked confusion and unease from her fans. After being hospitalized, Harris issued an update on Twitter the following day: “I’ve been fighting with depression for the longest ..sorry that I did it public last night but I’m ok.” Harris’ tweet is a rare and harrowing case in which someone’s sadness on Twitter is not only fully and completely displayed, but done so without the heightened pretense of comedy. hile Twitter seems preoccupied with turning communal sadness into a fun and often juvenile social space, Facebook seems more concerned with making collective sadness an aggressively earnest force. It’s a place where people can band together for the greater good of humanity over the most recent and relevant tragedy, whether individual or collective, on a local scale or global scale. “For one reason or another, it’s sort of developed as a cultural norm to express important events online,” Merritt said. “Peo-

ple feel this obligation almost that if someone important dies, they have to show that they were important, to show their followers that they’re grieving about it. They had to leave a last memento.” Facebook users seemed to have adopted an unspoken agreement, wherein folks often commemorate the death of a family member in a lengthy post or sometimes with a simple, sentence-length caption along with a picture. By and large, their friends will like or comment on the post. The same is usually done on Instagram. Because both platforms are known for upholding more positive shared news or experiences, disclosing the despair that fosters from someone’s death or a national calamity is sometimes the only way in which someone can lay their soul bare. But given that Facebook is built on giving our friends updates on our lives, there is a kind of social pressure that comes with partaking in the discourse surrounding serious subject matter. If you don’t show support for someone who has lost a relative, it comes off as insensitive. If you don’t acknowledge a mass shooting or a death of a pop culture figure, it’s almost like you aren’t part of the conversation or are uninterested in participating in it. The same goes for Instagram, where announcing the death of a loved one or memorializing the anniversary of a national tragedy becomes expected. Once again, our sadness becomes a spectacle, an easy and accessible way to manage the shock of sudden disruptions in our lives. There’s another cost that comes with sharing a bevy of negative information on Facebook, particularly for those who have clinical depression. According to a 2016 research study conducted by members of the Department of Psychology at the University, depression was found to be positively correlated with social support from Facebook networks when participants disclosed negative information, but negatively correlated with how much social support participants thought they received from their Facebook network. “People with depression actually do receive more social support on Facebook, but they perceive less, so there’s a mismatch,” Chandhok said. “Social media can be a place where people find support, can reach out for help, but there might be a lack of seeing that support, perceiving and being able to benefit from it.” hich brings me to my final question: Do social media and technology make us sadder and more vulnerable or simply expose how sad

and vulnerable we actually are? Along with the aforementioned paper, a recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania suggests the former, contending that social media use — particularly on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat — increases levels of depression and loneliness. But another recent survey reported by NBC News indicates that at least 90 percent of teens and young adults with symptoms of depression go online for information about mental health issues, using social media as a expository for a therapist. Perhaps it goes even deeper than the way we express sadness. Tim Schwartz, an L.A.based artist and digital strategist, figures that some of the melancholy we experience online stems from the shift in format of the technology we use today and our narcissistic obsession with digital technology. He cited the “digital Dark Age” as the reason why. “The digital Dark Age is the idea that if you write or print something on paper, paper can last 500 years,” Schwartz said. “If you record something on film, it can last for a couple hundred years. But we have no long-term backup systems for digital information. Hard drives last five years. DVDs last 20 years. In order to keep information around for a long time, it takes a lot of upkeep for digital and we don’t actually have standards for how to do it.” “My thought is that because we’re living in this state of euphoric production of information,” Schwartz continued, “We just kind of don’t worry about the fact that it’s all lost or we just kind of internalize it and it’s just there and we’ve already decided that we don’t care that our things are saved.” When we are confronted with our emotions, the internet primes us to compartmentalize them. The online world becomes our coping mechanism, but also a way for us to make the transience of the sad moments in our lives feel permanent. Perhaps the reason online sadness is such a strange phenomenon is because there already is a sense of loss built into it. We are constantly seeking the temporary gratification that social media provides us because there is something missing within us. As a result, we latch onto whatever we can to make us feel better, whether that’s painting a happy, flawless portrait of our life online or giving the online world the ugliest parts of ourselves. It’s a slightly unfortunate reality, but I’d like to think that moderating our happiness with our sadness is the best way to reconcile with that missing part and hopefully leave an imprint that will last forever.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019// The Statement

Tea or water

BY ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERAMA, MANAGING STATEMENT EDITOR

henever I realize I need a haircut, it always takes me a few days to get around to booking it. First, because I always have something to do and often forget, but also because it takes a certain amount of courage for me to decide that I want to go to a place where I will be expected to make small talk with a stranger. Growing up, I always got my haircut with the same person. My mom’s best friend. We went to her house, I told her how to cut my hair and then she and my mom talked while I sat quietly, getting layers or bangs or whatever the style was that I felt like experimenting with, which almost always ended up being mostly the same, but a little different — anything to make me feel innovative. My taste for safe innovation extends to my social interactions. Small talk is not bad as long as I am free to leave whenever I deem the conversation over. Strangers are not bad as long as there is a possibility that we will eventually move on from small talk onto something less circular. But being forced to have endless small talk with a stranger, while being stuck on a rotating chair? That’s a no from me. The entire experience is curated. The moment I open the door, I am hit by the smell of a perfectly pungent lavender eucalyptus oil, and then I turn and make eye contact with the receptionist. She smiles as if she’s known me for years and asks my name. “Did you have an appointment?” she says, her voice trailing off as she looks for my name in the system and some indecipherable last name matches her search. “Would you like some water or tea?” she asks. I say tea and she turns to get it, but another customer is already at the door. She promptly forgets her offer and goes on with her day searching names on a computer, offering tea and smiling to an endless flow of strangers. When my stylist comes downstairs and calls my name, I realize she was the woman who cut my hair last time I was here a few months ago. However, she greets me again like a stranger, says her name and locks my eyes with hers in a more-than-brief moment. Once she seated me in the chair, my cape on and hair wet, she asks me again

if I would like some tea or water. I say tea again, and minutes later she comes back with a mug of room temperature water, explaining they have just run out of tea. I say it is ok and she proceeds to cut my hair in silence. With every cut I expect her to initiate a conversation, but she never does. I’m secretly grateful and pull out my phone, but her head placement directions quickly prove scrolling impossible. Then, with no other options and a lot of intrinsic curiosity, I start looking at and listening to what is going on around me. The music playing overhead is happy but unrecognizable over the myriad of

voices and hair dryers functioning on the floor. After a second of silence, while the queue organizes itself, I hear a customer behind me recognize and start singing the new song playing through the speakers. “Uh, let’s go to the beach, each…” “Let’s go get away.” The stylist continues while swaying his hips but keeping his steady hands at bay. I recognize the song too, a 2012 hit I remember from high school dances. Suddenly, from my omnipresent mirror that somehow, through one reflection or other, can observe

The stylist’s eyes widen as he registers his customer’s situation and then he says something along the lines of giving her a discount on a blow out, for extra confidence on her date with an older man. Next to them is a stylist with an older customer, seemingly the oldest in the salon. Her hair is short and gray and her face is beautifully drawn in with wrinkles. I can’t piece together what she is saying, but her lips never stop moving and her and her stylist let out a laugh once in a while. She leaves before me, with a perfectly inert and spiky pixie cut. My hair is being dried now, and my stylist asks if I have a preference on how to style it. I say no and she proceeds to dry and curl my hair to her liking. By this time, I can already feel the hairs that, despite the cape, got stuck to my neck and sweater. As a distraction, I continue to let my ears and eyes wander into other stylists’ stations. The customer who loves “Starships” is gone and a long-haired, brunette, middle-aged woman has replaced them. The stylist has gone to fetch her tea and she sits on her chair talking on an old flip phone. “I think you should buy the chicken for tonight,” she talks into the phone. “I will probably be here for another hour. Would it be too much to ask? The store is on your way back.” My hair is almost all curled now and my stylist remains quiet, biting her lip every time she takes a new strand onto the curling wand. It just started snowing outside and I hear one or two people comment on the weather in the background. I let my imagination fill in the gaps between the conversations. The girl with the blow out went ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL on a date with the 38-year-old man while talking about her own engagement and she discovered he was married. The woman and her fiancé finished “Breakand Netflix habits. “My fiancé and I just started watching Bad” and started binging “Game of ing ‘Breaking Bad,’” she says. “It is such Thrones” in their gold and teal decorated a good show, but depending on what kind living room. The brunette lady’s significant other didn’t only buy the chicken, of shows you’re into.” Thanks to my mirror, I can also see a but they also cooked it and served it with girl and her stylist working away two accompanying romantic candles and rows behind me. I am not sure how I can chocolate cake for dessert. I exit the salon with a slightly crooked hear them, but they’re talking about the bob and new bangs, but also with a found woman’s love life. “He’s 38 and I am 23,” the girl says. love for haircuts and a few semi-imagi“I kind of like the age difference. It has nary, new acquaintances. never been a huge problem.” almost everyone in the room, I see heads bobbing, mouths moving and feet tapping to the song. “Starships were meant to fly.” The customer behind me gets more excited as the chorus comes for the first time; “Hands up and touch the sky,” she sings. I can tell the words came out louder than she intended because she and her stylist let out a nervous laugh afterwards. In the station next to me, the stylist, whose name remains a mystery, as she is referred to differently by almost every person who addresses her, has a light up crystal plugged in at her station for “good vibes.” She is cutting another girl’s hair

Failing in love

Wednesday, 2019 // // The The Statement Statement Wednesday,February January 20, 16, 2019

7B 7B

BY RAMISA ROB, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR

ast year, a friend of mine, who had been searching for a girlfriend for a decade, finally found someone. When I heard the wonderful news, I texted him, “I’m happy for you.” His reply was odd but familiar. He wrote, “aww thanks, it’ll happen for you one day, don’t worry.” I was slightly irritated. I had never expressed that I was searching for a relationship, and his assumption that being single was not my choice bothered me. He was not the first one to manifest such a bizarre judgment regarding my single status. I have gotten used to being stereotyped as the lonely, single woman who is unable to find love — the future “crazy cat lady.” I have internalized these social standards by constantly bombarding myself with question: “What if I never find someone?” In reality, I am grossly burned out from trying to find a life partner because I have had a little too many eerie and rather unpleasant experiences with serious relationships, non-relationships and flings. Between the ages of 15 and 20, I had four long-term relationships. Until August last year, I was technically “single,” but in a non-labeled relationship with someone. In other words, I have gone to great lengths to eschew the forlorn psychological state widely known as “loneliness.” As a teenager, I settled for incompatibility, convincing myself that being slightly unhappy was better than solitude and loneliness. I jumped from one dysfunctional relationship into another, seeking another person every time I was encumbered with the emotional vacuum and fresh scars of a breakup. Allowing myself room to breathe, grow and develop myself was not an option. At 16, my first serious relationship ended somewhere between hell and the wildfire that wrecked the Battle of Blackwater (Game of Thrones, Season 2). Its repercussions demolished my sense of self-worth, which expectedly takes time to recover from. But I wasn’t one to stop dating. I entered another serious longdistance relationship. The three months between my first two relationships felt like purgatory gaps in my search to find “the one.” Romance was my main priority in my teenage years because the vignette of a partner heavily imprinted my vision of an enviable adult life. I grew up watching romantic comedies, both of the Bollywood and Hollywood variety, which all end with a grand reconciliation between the male and female protagonists. Even the “happily ever after” in Disney prin-

cess movies depicts romantic partnership as the basis of a happy life. The word “couple” remains an essential component of the socially sanctioned boxes of adulthood that include a real job, a house, a family and, of course, a partner. Like myself, many friends of mine entered toxic relationships and stayed in them for long periods of time. When imagining myself single, I visualized a lonely woman, sitting on the floor with Chinese take-out and cheap wine, blinking tears as the tragic cloud that reads, “You are alone” settles around her aura. I was apprehensive of an embarrassing scenario — having only my parents to call when I got into colleges. But, since I always had a boyfriend during that time in my life, I would deem myself lucky that I wouldn’t have to do that. Yet, my relationships ironically brought loneliness and insecurity into my life. I was perfectly happy with my friends and family until I stumbled upon the repetitive relationship syndrome. My self-confidence went missing, and I wavered with bitterness and fragility. I spent nights wondering if someone was cheating on me. Days unfolded in horrid blurs, arguments and tears. But I delicately camouflaged the negative aspects of my relationships under the shiny wrapper called “love.” I was too spellbound with the idea of having a boyfriend to recognize the infringement on my personal development every time I embarked upon a journey to share love with someone else. But when my last relationship met its distasteful demise, I celebrated my newly acquired singledom as a marker of freedom to casually date whomever I want. My divorce from relationships lead to the “party girl” lifestyle. In today’s millennial world, being single envelopes the hook-up culture, in an effort to free the term from an association with isolation. As a result, non-relationships have become the new relationships. I frivolously dove into a rampage of “friends with benefits” arrangements. I would have frolicking hook-ups that would turn into a salacious game of “who’s going to be the first one to text.” My non-relationships eventually involved the same amount of work as relationships, except with a confusing headache that emerges with the gray area. My mind would perform gymnastics with thoughts like, “Should I message him now? I don’t want him to think I’m his girlfriend. He’s not my boyfriend, I can’t randomly message him on a Wednesday night.” Non-relationships

ILLUSTRATION BY WILLA HUA

weren’t the “chill” I expected. It was the same as relationships, except without a label. It was like trespassing the same danger zone with a “lifeguard” Halloween costume. During this phase of my love life, going home alone on weekends was another scenario I dreaded. Finding someone at a party to fulfill my sexual needs was my definition of being single. Men flocked to my life like pigeons, and I considered it my pride. But I knowingly resented the pressure of having to text a man when I just wanted to be alone. In some ways, I loved the idea of attention more than the attention itself. After two years, I realized that I was paradoxically sustaining the ideals of finding a partner that I hoped to dispense from my ideological landscapes. I was denying myself that room I needed to breathe and learn who I am and what I want from my life. Last August, I moved into a studio apartment and decided to concentrate on myself rather than men, sex, love and relationships. Alas! I discovered what it means to be single and happy. I began watching more television, reading more books, talking to my parents and friends whom I had lost touch with.

Strangely, I didn’t feel that void I predicted I would feel if I were single. There has been a surge in my independence and I finally have headspace to think about the different things I can do with my life. I even began writing and publishing, and I discovered domains of my life that brought me pleasure and satisfaction. I’m not saying relationships always blind individuals from unearthing their own inner potential. But we often feel this need to be with someone else, and thereby forget that self-sufficiency and self-love are important dimensions of a happy adult life. I enforced this requirement in my life at the cost of subjugating my personal fulfillment. Though I don’t regret any relationships, I am glad I finally went on hiatus from them a hiatus from them. Every significant moment of my life, such as graduating high school, leaving Bangladesh for boarding school and beginning college, involved a partner. Three months away from graduating college, I truly feel refreshed and ready to start a new life by myself. For now, it is me, myself and I, on my couch relishing chicken wings, tacos and ice cream. And I couldn’t love it more.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 // The Statement

the visual statement by Natalie Stephens

The Detroit Foundation Hotel used to be home to the Detroit Fire Department Headquarters. It has been repurposed and now operates as a chic boutique hotel in Downtown Detroit. The Foundation holds a restaurant called the Apparatus Room where the old red fire doors let in beautiful natural light showcasing the 1950s architecture with all of the original features illuminating the restaurant. The restaurant and hotel provide a cozy and eclectic atmosphere, whether you want to enjoy a nice dinner or spend a weekend in this hotelâ€™s historic beauty.