OPINION
|
COLUMNS
Finding the time to unwind
By Ryan Williams | September 11, 2018Time: 1 a.m. Location: 3rd floor Perkins
Time: 1 a.m. Location: 3rd floor Perkins
Dear Noah, Mazel Tov! You’ve survived O-Week and your first two weeks of college!
I’m usually not a confrontational person. Honestly, most interpersonal communication kind of terrifies me, and I will go to great lengths to avoid it (hence the existence of this column).
Duke is a hot spot in this September—not because of the temperature (which tends to make people chill, by the way)—but because of pressing controversies.
For first-years at Duke, stress comes in various forms: making friends, struggling in class, missing the bus
I have heard every one of my friends speak to the fact that Duke has made them feel terrible about themselves some point.
This past week, I made a trip to Dublin, Ireland, where I will be studying abroad for the next three and a half months.
Editor’s note: As advice for the Class of 2022 has piled up in recent weeks, The Chronicle staff took it upon ourselves to answer all the most important questions first-years could have.
“I have no idea how I got in here.”
Swing districts. Purple regions. The mythical undecided voter, who has yet to choose between Clinton and Trump one week before the election.
Last Spring, Duke announced that incoming first-year students, aside from those in varsity sports, would no longer have the option to choose a roommate.
It’s October, 2010. The cool breeze, a harbinger of the fast approaching autumn days, brushes against your pre-pubescent body.
Think you know us? You have no idea.
“Lowered expectations mean that everybody’s happy.” This was the quote one of my best friends from high school chose as their senior quote.
When I was a kid, I never dreamed of being a princess. I never wanted to be a firefighter, a policewoman or even a superhero.
The last time I went to Shooters was mid-March. Until then, I felt relatively safe when I “rolled Shoots.”
Today, my dad asked me if I remember how I felt exactly two years ago, during my first week of my freshman year.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” This is Socrates’ whole method reduced to a refrigerator magnet, but its insight is profound. We cannot live well if we do not shake ourselves out of our complacency. We must question what we are doing and why. If we haven’t interrogated our beliefs, how can we know them to be true?
There is a difference in noticing that you are not like everyone around you and feeling like those differences ostracize you. Noticing my own Blackness comes when I recognize how little Black people there are in the social circles I find myself in. Whether it be my social group, my major, my extracurricular clubs and activities, or my work-study job I am constantly noting the disproportionately low number of familiar faces in a concentrated environment. These moments, however, are not what concerns me about Duke’s commitment to Black students.
Because of their significant resources, influential alumni and academic authority, elite universities play an outsized role in influencing public discourse. Reflecting the importance of elite colleges in our culture, the general public lavishes them with praise, attention and, occasionally, anger. Primarily, the focus is on the actions and attitudes of the young adults who attend these institutions. This preoccupation not only calls our national priorities into question, but is also absurd. What other demographic in modern America is nitpicked like college students? To date, I have not read an article about the dangerous ideas of McDonald’s employees. Obsession with higher education and its students stems from a powerful belief—a belief so powerful that it calls into question whether or not colleges are “secular” institutions.