April 2, 2012 • A POSITIVE PRESS PUBLICATION • VOL. 2, ISSUE 6
Patient Ambition
written by freshman Allie Windom
Some people dream of going to Hollywood, and others of exploring New York City. My dream is to live in Nashville, Tennessee. The rich country music that makes up the very heart of Nashville had a consistent presence throughout my childhood, and it’s still a source
of solace for me today. A few weeks ago I was enjoying dinner with friends and I mentioned an exciting piece of news I’d recently read about my beloved Music City. What did I hear in response? “Will you stop torturing yourself? You talk about it all the time, and I don’t know why you think about it so much when it’s impossible right now. Just stop.” I immediately began to interrogate myself and attack my own heart’s desire. Why do I continue to let my thoughts drift off to a life I can’t live yet? Why do I get caught up in something that I’ll have to wait weeks, months, even years to achieve? In that moment, I envisioned myself as nothing more than a scrawny toddler, standing at the bottom of a fifty-foot tree, and the top had never seemed further away. I knew there had to be a breathtaking view from the top of that tree. But words can hold supernatural power, and my friends had threatened to make me yield to my inner pessimist. Who was I to think I could make it to the top branch someday? I felt small and insignificant, and I could barely touch the lowest branch with my fingertips. As I gazed up at my beautiful Music City tree, my dreamer’s perspective was tainted by the memory of those jolting words. But then, as I paused to fully take in my surroundings, the truth became undeniably clear. I wasn’t alone. Didn’t I have my friends and family as a supportive crowd who would cheer me on when the daunting height turned my |
confidence to anxiety? And since when had I let fear keep me from looking for the beautiful views in life?
From that moment on, I was determined not to let doubt cloud my vision. Some may say that I’m prematurely enthusiastic, seeing as how I’m currently “stuck on the ground” of prep work and daily tasks. But why should patience be a barrier? I know I’ll reach the top of my Nashville tree someday, even if it takes a long, frightening climb. Will I fall off? Probably. Will I break an arm trying to catch myself? It’s likely. But, I have learned from experience that dramatic injury stories can make for some pretty entertaining conversations. And besides, since when does a broken arm keep your feet from stepping up? |
Seat Belts, Everyone
written by junior Andrea Morris
If there was one show from my youth that shaped my love and desire for knowledge, it was the The Magic School Bus. Just like the students in that third grade class of Walkerville Elementary—guided by the ever eccentric Ms.Frizzle—I learned there is no such thing as a boring day, let alone a boring class.
Her students didn’t just read about symbiotic relationships between sea urchins and clown fish from a book… they became them. Ms. Frizzle immersed her students so deep into the topic of the day that they literally were the subjects. By following her lead, the students confronted their curiosity, got their questions answered, and found what lies at the end of the rainbow (this really happened in Episode 33). Now, remember back in your third grade class, how easy it was to allow yourself to be curious? Full of childhood bewilderment, |
there was no fear in raising your hand to ask the question burning a hole in the back of your head—What if? Why?
One of the great lessons that The Magic School Bus can teach us is what can happen when you dip your toes into the waters of unknown adventure. These waters of “unknown adventure” aren’t about climbing a mountain or whitewater rafting. They are about taking that music class you’ve heard so much about or taking an |
astronomy class to rekindle your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.
College continually tells us to “follow our passions”— but maybe we should all stop for a moment and think about what we have not taken on due to these so-called “passions”— by focusing so much on your “dream major”, what interests have you left behind? Did you really grow up wishing to be an accountant or chemist? I fully understand the constraints society has placed on us but I am here to tell you: don’t be afraid to relive third grade. As you rummage through OASIS to fulfill your elective requirements, I challenge you to take the classes you always wished were part of your curriculum. Be curious! Ignore the choruses of Koofers and Rate My Professor and listen to the wise words of Ms. Frizzle: Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy! |
A Friendlier Way to Print
written by sophomore Ellis Edwards
Have you had that moment when you are on your way to class, and then you realize that you forgot to print out something? Then, you make the third floor sprint in the SLC or stand in the line at the Tate Print and Copy Center? I understand. I also understand the fact that less than ten cents a copy doesn’t seem like much, but it can add up over time! Since the continued goal of this column is to highlight useful and awesome technology, I get to tell you all about a nifty website I’ve been using recently. It’s called PrintFriendly.com and it is one of the most straightforward and useful tools in my unbearably cheesy toolbelt of tech.
As the name suggests, PrintFriendly.com is for printing. The basic idea is that web pages and online articles are cluttered. We have learned to tune out most of the ads, sidebars, and navigation features of a website out of necessity. Unfortunately our printers don’t think like we do. We have all dealt with this. You rush to print a three page article for class. It turns out to be an eight page article filled with web page nonsense and ads. PrintFriendly offers an easy way to clear the clutter. |
By copying the web address or installing a browser button, PrintFriendly will take out all of the website junk you don’t want to print. You can click a button to remove images from an article or even scroll over individual paragraphs to remove them. It helps you slim it down to exactly what needs to be on the printed page. This is a handy little site. It has saved me a lot of money at the SLC and even more of my own paper and ink at home. And imagine the environmental impact if we all printed one or two fewer pages each time we print! Saving money and the world? Check.It also has a great PDF mode if you want to download or email a copy of your cleaned up document. You can save even more paper and ink by not printing at all. I use this feature most often for slimming down research paper sources.
If you like going green and saving some green (bet you’ve never heard that one before!) then you should spend ten seconds with PrintFriendly every time you print. It is easy to use and you’ll feel like an environmental superhero. Check out the video on their site for more details. I hope you enjoy printing friendly! |
• • • • • • Subconscious Stereotypes: What Are Yours? • • • • • •
written by Samantha Jones
Black. Asian. Hispanic. White.
What is the first image that pops into your head? Would you consider that image a stereotype? The chances are high that, unless you have a friend who completely fits the image, you subconsciously subscribe to certain stereotypes. As a member of Creative Consultants, the student-run PR agency hosted by PRSSA, I have had the opportunity to do a prejudice reduction workshop with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) team at UGA. It brought up aspects about who we are and what traits we identify with. For example, I had the opportunity to explore traits that I have built into myself are from watching, with admiration, my single mother manage; who raised me while working full-time and getting her undergraduate and master’s degrees. Growing up with a single mom led me to view women and independence in certain ways. As I began to have these realizations during the |
workshop, I began to reanalyze my own identity. If I could not put my identity into a neat predictable box, how could I do that to other people?
During the workshop, participants were asked to list the groups that they identified with and to state how those groups may have influenced shaped the people they are today. We addressed prejudices and stereotypes participants may have built over the years; some interesting stereotypes were that black women are loud or Southerners have an adversity to wearing shoes out. The workshop is not a program for people who think that they have a problem being racist and prejudice against other groups. In a sense, everyone has been programmed to stereotype certain groups and make associations about certain qualities that group may have. However, when forced to look a little harder, I realized that the things I disliked about a group were actually the things I admired about them. The experience was cleansing. Being forced to face the unjustified identities and |
stereotypes that I carry with me made me look at the people I pass on campus in a completely different way. I now recognize the power of intentionality; the way a stereotype can be destroyed by making the effort to get to know someone who I had previously categorized.
Who was the first person you thought of when you read the word “stereotype”? I challenge you to find a way to talk to them this week. That sorority girl, or a homeless man downtown- we all have someone that we have written off. Then, I would love your feedback. Take it from someone who has had many stereotypes destroyed, there is nothing like the moment when you realize that you were completely wrong about someone. If you are interested in exploring what this workshop offers- at http://www.wix.com/ncbiuga/home. Updates of organization events are also available via Twitter, @NCBI_UGA. |
TCB Challenge Winner: Anna Lynn Carroll
" Application is everything. Now what does that really mean? It means
that when you face your biggest fear and defy everyone's expectations,
you never stop facing your fears, regardless of how big or small they are.
It means that when you realize you can impact someone's life by just loving
them, you make that your number one priority. Once you choose a path of
joy, everything else on your to-do list will fall into place. It means that when
you see beauty in rare form, you realize that there is beauty in everything. You
just have to look for it. Application is everything."
Check out other TCB Challenge submissions and write your own here.
that when you face your biggest fear and defy everyone's expectations,
you never stop facing your fears, regardless of how big or small they are.
It means that when you realize you can impact someone's life by just loving
them, you make that your number one priority. Once you choose a path of
joy, everything else on your to-do list will fall into place. It means that when
you see beauty in rare form, you realize that there is beauty in everything. You
just have to look for it. Application is everything."
Check out other TCB Challenge submissions and write your own here.
Print and play the Athens themed crossword puzzle. Find the solution here.
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