Building On Higher Education
In the coming weeks, many students will begin the process of graduating and entering the workforce. Others will begin graduate school, have internships or summer jobs or perhaps spend a few months in relaxation before they prepare for these things. The Great Recession has taught us to get the best and highest paying jobs possible and many have searched for the best opportunities they can find. The result is that students have asked themselves which route will be best for them. Where will they find the most job security, the best salary and the most prestige. These are important, practical…
Senior Reflections: Time (Well) Spent Throughout College
There’s a mystery to time. There’s too much of it one day, then suddenly, there’s not enough left. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice of a certain Wonderland would say. My time at Emory has left me far more quickly than I thought it would. At times, four years doesn’t seem like enough. There’s not the time to do everything! I wanted to shout on those days when I lived in Woodruff Library, buried up to my nose in homework. I didn’t go to half the events I wanted to go to on campus. I didn’t study abroad. I never made…
Senior Reflections: A.J. Doesn’t Talk About Graduating
It has been a sincere pleasure to serve as your humor columnist this year. Rather than tell you about anything worth hearing, I’m going to tell you about humor. Someone asked me the secret to humor. I told him a few choice quotes from some funny people. Then I said, “I am quoting these people because I don’t know what humor is. I just know I’m only funny when I’m trying to hide something from everyone else.” I’ve never posted a secret to the website “Emory Secrets.” Even anonymously, I don’t want to tell anyone anything outright. I believe fear,…
Senior Reflections: Growing From All Kinds of Experiences
It was a Friday morning around 11:55 a.m.; I’m walking into my psychology class 10 minutes late holding only a pen and a piece of paper. I’m wearing athletic shorts (with no underwear on), a sorority tank top and to top it all off — I’m barefoot. At this moment, I really had to take a step back and question my life decisions. We’ve all had similar experiences, ones in which the only way you can get through is by reminding yourself that at least it will make a good story one day. Stories you will tell for the rest…
Senior Reflections: Atypical, Unexpected, and Worth It
Last weekend, I visited my best friend at another top university. I arrived Thursday night and didn’t see a sober person again until I returned to Emory Sunday evening. The experience was jarring and a reminder that the 1962 classic “Animal House” lampoons a world that does exist on college campuses. I know many people who think that this is the only world you should experience in college. I’m not one of those people. When I graduate in May, I will do so knowing that I have carved out my own unique college experience. I dedicated my entire college career…
It’s All Going To Be Okay
A year ago, I sat in front of my laptop tasked with reflecting upon the last four years of my time as an Emory student. Today, I sit at my desk in Washington, D.C. wondering where all of that time went. As a graduating senior, I was terrified of a lot of things: finding a real job, figuring out how to do my taxes and cooking. A year later, I’m a (paid!) intern doing work on women’s political participation globally, I submitted my 1040EZ form to the IRS and I still have no clue how to cook for myself. Let’s…
Contemplating the Days Before Graduation
I have no idea where I will be two years from now. I have no idea whether I will have finally declared my Economics major, or whether I will be continuing my education or looking for a job. I have no idea whether I will still be sitting with the same people for lunch, whether the friends I have now will be the friends I celebrate graduation with. I have no idea what it will feel like to be finishing college. The very thought of graduating scares me to death. I can only imagine, no, I cannot even imagine what…
On Doing Good
It’s the end of the academic year. Before long, most of us will be turning in our final papers and standing up after finishing our last exams. Some will be returning for another year of study, while others will be continuing on to the next phase of their lives. Whatever we will be doing next fall, we will be doing it in a world that is vastly different from the one that most of us knew just a few years ago. It seems that over the past five years, the world has grown more embattled and conflicted. Violent conflicts have…
Contextualizing Advice
More years ago than I care to admit, I sat and listened to a fairly well-known TV actor give an inspiring college graduation speech about life stories and working in the creative arts. Here is what I wish he would have said. It’s entirely possible you will find yourself several years out of college unemployed. Even if you are employed, it may not be the job you wanted or thought you would have. It may seem beneath you or it may be outside your field of interest. No matter what the situation, focus on developing skills that are transferable across…
Our Opinion: RHA For the Last Time, Enough is Enough
This election season, the Residence Hall Association (RHA) has seen four different presidents and far too many appeals to list. We at the Wheel feel that this endless parade of RHA presidents, cheating allegations and, we must say it, shenanigans reflects terribly on RHA and student governance at Emory in general. To recap the madness: following a general election on March 28 in which neither College sophomore Akshay Goswami nor College sophomore Jessica Simon achieved a majority of the vote, a run-off election occurred between Goswami and Simon, where Goswami ended up winning the re-vote. After this happened, Simon accused…
