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In just four years...how we've grown!

The "F Word": Future, Part I

Two days ago, I graduated from college.

Now I'm sitting here on a chair at my parents house in Lima, Ohio (not Peru - contrary to the Twitter confusion we had earlier) wondering when I'm supposed to start feeling like an adult.

I'm one of many of my friends who does not have a solid plan. Yes, I have a pending nomination for a position teaching Math in Sub-Saharan Africa. But, nominations come and go. I might not make the deadline. I might have to wait for another nomination, and wait a few more months until I leave.

I'm accustomed to being busy. There was a reason I was involved with 3 organizations while I was in college. Geez. "While I was in college." Past tense. Scary. I have several projects and plans for while I'm home. I have a bag full of cloth and t-shirts that will hopefully soon become a quilt for my grand little [pending me learning how to use a sewing machine]. I want to update my blog and create a website for personal and professional branding. I have offered my services as a tutor to the Economics and Math teachers at my high school. I will be attending summer soccer practices for my old high school team to help them get into shape [pending me getting in shape...] I have emailed the President of Allen Economic Development Group, a private/public ownership dedicated to economic growth of the community, to see what kind of opportunities they might have available. I want to get a part-time job. I want to take my little sister on college visits. Oh, and I want to take some time to visit friends and spend some time relaxing at my lake house.

Pre-graduation, I thought my resume was packed with all sorts of leadership experience and relevant work. Now, I question myself. Am I impressive enough?

The only way to know is by throwing myself out there and trying to make a difference in the only way I can at this point. The economy is awful, jobs aren't available - we all know this mantra. But that's no reason to sit at home and do nothing. I grew up in Washington, D.C. which made me cut-throat and motivated to be the best. I went to high school in a small town, which made me innovative and creative in the ways I avoid boredom. Time to use both of those attributes to create something powerful.

Recently, I've become obsessed with Soul Pancake.

Backstory: I am new to the Twittersphere, and I've just started Twittering regularly (maybe a little too regularly...). I follow @rainnwilson, star of one of my favorite shows, The Office, and a hilarious actor. While many people follow celebrities @perezhilton for his gossip, or @britneyspears, who can't possibly say anything intelligent, Rainn's Tweets (following someone on Twitter makes me feel like we're on a first name basis since I get to see all their thoughts...) are not only knee slapping, but also insightful (Others include @jimgaffigan and @michaelianblack, for example).

Rainn tweets at least once a day about Soul Pancake, so I felt like I had to explore it. And it's glorious. It was partially created by Rainn Wilson. Here's his description of it on the What is Soul Pancake section:

We want to make discussions about Spirituality, Creativity, and Philosophy cool again. Were they ever cool? I have no idea. But it seems like a good idea. We want to engage the user to “Chew on Life’s Big Questions”™. (I was kidding about the ™ symbol; you can use that phrase however you want. Even to sell frozen taquitos.) Where do you go on the Interwebs if you want an irreverent, fun, and profound take on God and Art and the Soul and Faith and Beauty? Fox.com? Maybe. But maybe also here at SoulPancake.com.

We provide some rockin’ content (interviews, blogs, challenges, contests, features, and more), but it’s really all about having YOU—the SoulPancake community—bring this site to life. Say what’s on your mind. Be real. Talk about WHY WE’RE HERE. And if I say something that offends you, let me have it.

Just remember: Life is a rich, weird, difficult experience. So join us as we go on the spiritual and artistic journey that is SoulPancake.

Make discussions about Spirituality, Creativity, and Philosophy cool again? Sounds like a GREAT IDEA.

Today's post was particularly thought-provoking. It started with a quote:

"A GOOD WRITER POSSESSES NOT ONLY HIS OWN SPIRIT BUT ALSO THE SPIRIT OF HIS FRIENDS." —NIETZSCHE

Then, it asked the reader to come up with a five-item list of people who influence your art and how.

Hm. Sounds like quite a challenge.

I would never go as far to call myself an artist. My art includes graphs of supply and demand, and what happens when you shift said curves. My art includes my [arguably] fabulous sense of humor. My art includes creations in the kitchen. My art includes my love for travel, exploring new cultures (from a new country to a new-found shop around the corner), and combining the two in the most efficient, educational, and cheap way. My art includes cuddling up with a good book and enjoying it for its content. This seems like a good place to start.

Economics

After 4 years of studying the major that makes people gasp, swoon, and faint, I found Professor Jerry Miller. He has a passion for Economics. He has a sense of humor with his students, and isn't afraid to call us out or make fun of us. I walked into his class the first day of Mathematical Econ - the scariest class I've ever grown to love. He said that we were to complete problem sets, and he would call us randomly to the board to do problems in front of the class while he asked us questions about our work. He forced us to think out of the box. On nights before the exam, you could find the entire class at the library in the study room fighting over markers to correct each other on the white erase board, wondering to each other, "What would Jerry be thinking?" Everyone in that class is now best friends. I didn't get the best grade in the class, but he taught me a deeper love for the field of Economics when I was considering blowing it off completely post-graduation.

My class will be getting dinner with him tomorrow night.

My sense of humor

Easy. My mother.

Never have I met someone more sarcastic, or with a more biting, at-the-expense-of-others, evil sense of humor than my mother. She invented the "Ohhh...too soon." While I try to tone it down a bit and avoid making random strangers cry, I've started to see that our senses of humor are becoming more alike. I'm even starting to laugh like her. F my L.

Cooking

My grandpa on my dad's side. He hailed from Siciliy and not only ignited my love for the Red Sox (he was the biggest Boston fan I've ever met - he passed away weeks before they won the World Series in 2004. He was definitely up there making stuff happen), but definitely has been the inspiration for my cooking. Most of my memories of him either include watching Boston games or him in the kitchen with an apron on.

Some of his dishes included pasta with giblet sauce (Google giblet. Yeah. He made it delicious). He marinated different types of meat in marinara for hours and hours, and served it over pasta. Even though he hated Spiedies (Google them too. My all time favorite food), he still made them delicious. If I end up half the chef he is, I'll consider it my life accomplishment.

Exploring on a budget

My grandpa on my mom's side is the kind of guy who, when discovering a restaurant has free refills, will order one glass of pop for a table of 4. And I love him for it. I'm fairly sure that my knack for finding deals came from him. I spent countless hours driving through the countryside and scouring antique stores for the best bargain. Where else would I have learned how to travel efficiently?

The world of literature

As much as I hate to admit it...my dad. He used to make me read for literally hours every day from when I was in 3rd grade. I read some really mature stuff. I remember thinking Animal Farm was a really dumb story about pigs, and crying through The Yearling. But, something must have rubbed off. I can't get my hands off books. I'll read anything, fiction and non-fiction, from Harry Potter to The World is Flat. The only acception: Twilight. Seriously, it's 400-page drivel about over-hormonal teenagers, some of whom happen to be vampires. Give. Me. A. Break.

Yeah, so after writing this, I realize that most of these are family. I think that's fitting, seeing as I'm trying to be as unlike them as possible.

tragedy after tragedy

This week alone, there have been 5 shootings around the country. Taken from BBC:

Sat 4 April: Father is suspected of shooting dead his five children, then himself, near Seattle

Sat 4 April: Gunman kills three policemen in Pittsburgh before being wounded and captured

Fri 3 April: Gunman kills 13 people at an immigration centre in Binghamton, New York state, then apparently shoots himself

Sun 29 March: Gunman kills seven elderly residents and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, then is shot and wounded himself

Sun 29 March: Man kills five relatives and himself in Santa Clara, California


What is this world coming to? The last few years have shown us several university shootings, which is insane enough, but now nursing homes? People killing their entire families?

I remember watching Amityville Horror, the story of the DeFeo family who was found shot and killed by their son and brother, Ronald. His explanation? He was possessed by a demon. Religious beliefs outside, that is literally the only rational explanation I can think of for doing such an awful, awful thing.

I pray that this week isn't so devestating. I don't know if I can take any more bad news.

OU/Miami Rivalry...

...if you are liberal with words enough to call it a rivalry. Our inferiors in Athens seem to care a lot more about the so-called rivalry, while we generally just ignore them. Probably for the best that they stay away. We don't want any of their infectious diseases.


OU's lame attempt at a slam on my beloved University, written by the ENTIRE EDITORIAL BOARD of their paper. Clearly, it takes that many OU students to create enough brain power to write such an article:

Miami University sucks. That isn't a statement of opinion - that is a scientific fact.

Take Oxford, Ohio, the earthly site of that university. Oxford sucks. You know what's a fun thing to do in Oxford? Leave. We don't want there to be any mistake that we're insulting the town, so let's be honest about what we're looking at here: eight dozen brick buildings in the middle of a cornfield. From there, the Miami equation is simple enough. Pull 15,000 teenagers out of their local Sunglass Hut, toss in a porn shop a few miles down the road and call it a day. The result is the kind of thing you wouldn't want your mother to see because it's just too dirty. Something like the hellish product of a one-night stand between Old MacDonald and Paris Hilton.

Want to get acquainted with the Miami Boy Experience? Throw on some Brooks Brothers and your upside-down visor and get ready to keg-stand for the next three hours straight. By midnight you'll be ready to stumble out, maybe crash your Escalade into a drainage ditch and possibly even take a swing at a cop.

And sorry, boys. We know you're at least making an attempt to appear presentable, but Neutrogena was never meant to be used by men, no matter what you heard during The O.C. commercial breaks. Ask an OU man - he doesn't even know what conditioner is.

Then there are the legendary Miami girls. We could rag on them easily enough, but we won't. Those girls already have it hard enough, what with Miami boys chasing them, and books not making sense to them.

Even Miami's student groups suck. Such as the Miami University Radical Student Alliance. Upon hearing the name, you might imagine this is something awesome, like an alliance of students who drink liquor and swordfight on skateboards. You'd be wrong. This is just Miami's "Students for A Democratic Society" group. Yeah - we know even ascot-wearing dandies want to feel edgy once in a while, but what's with the name? This group is about as radical as spending spring break in your family's stable, slowly brushing knots out of a horse's mane while you deliberate whether or not your body might be the Wonderland John Mayer is crooning about through your iPod headphones.

Of course, if you go to Miami, this is probably a deeply familiar scenario.

Looking back into Miami's history is an uncomfortable experience. It's like looking through your neighbor's family photo album and learning that his great grandfather was - literally - a Nazi. It's no secret Miami's founders originally called themselves the Redskins, and even drew up a tasteless, feather-headed American Indian stereotype for a mascot. It wasn't until nearly two decades of thinly-veiled racism had elapsed that somebody finally called them out on it.

They eventually settled on "RedHawk," which, it turns out, isn't even a real animal. It's easy to imagine they arrived at the name by asking third graders to write down their favorite animal and color and then drew words out of a hat.The whole thing actually came about because they needed to find a new way to use hats that wouldn't muss their perfectly tousled hair.

Anyway, do they really think they can get off the hook that easily? Who do they think they are, the PC police?

If there's one thing Miami got right, it's Green Beer Day. If they want to dress in OU colors and vomit into "uptown" urinals at 5:30 in the morning, who are we to stop them? We can't help it if everyone's catching green fever. Green Beer Day is like the college equivalent of a 24-hour, beer-induced Freudian slip, and the message is clear: OU rules. Miami sucks.


First of all, try reading this out loud. The wording makes me cringe. Wah wah wah. You "suck". Give me a break. We're aware of the preppy Miami stereotype. Be original, for god's sake...

The best are the comments, which can be read below the article, and are basically an assortment of embarassment and apologies to Miami for the imbiciles who wrote this.

Our response:

To the Ohio University Post's Editorial Board:

I write in response to your Feb. 25 editorial ("We do it better: As OU's biggest rivalry heats up, Miami is still anything but cool"), which haphazardly assailed Miami University. Our student paper's editorial board refused to pen a response, the reasoning being something about having class and a shred of decency. It's sad the only program worth attending at OU (didn't get into Miami?!) can only produce a muddled, unfunny challenge to our university's prestige. As a favor, I will demonstrate how it's done properly:

My cheating ex-girlfriend attends OU. We broke up because she is stupid and ugly. I only call her cheating because she is a student in the engineering department. For her term paper she even copied former graduate students' misspellings.

I recently ran into an old high school friend, who went to OU, at the local Bath and Body Works, where he works. I pretended to be interested as he explained why OU's girls' volleyball team is better than Miami's. "We're rivals, you know?" No, I didn't. The average Miami student thinks our rivals are the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, Notre Dame University, Ohio State University again and then OU, in that order. You can be our rival when you get a hockey team. Maybe if your university's president had turned down that bonus…

I often hear from my cousin that the Halloween party in Athens is "off the hook." I asked her how many friends she invites into town to share in the festivities. "Just one. The university only gives me one guest wristband!" Nothing says wild and crazy like letting your administration put attendance quotas on your parties.

In your article, you mention Green Beer Day as a Miami student's day to wear green and pretend we go to OU. Okay I'll bite. We imagine you do start most weekdays with copious amounts of alcohol in an effort to numb the pain of living in Appalachia. Hooray for vomiting into urinals! The janitor at Skipper's confirmed this is indeed an OU tradition (class of '86 BTW). Oh, and speaking of accomplished OU alumni, those two guys who made Enzyte, the penis enhancement pill that was really just a placebo-they were Bobcats.

Finally, in response to your article's mention of our university's old mascot: Yes, the name Redskins is belittling and politically incorrect. So we changed our name, and we currently work with the Miami tribe to restore their language, display their artwork and offer scholarships for their young people. How fortunate Native Americans never inhabited the area around Athens, Ohio, knowing the land would some day be needed for an average academic institution serving middle-class, stoned, suburban underachievers.

Do I even need to touch on average SAT scores?

Take a shower to wash this one off. It would be your first in a few days.

SLAM.

My favorite comment on our page:

"Personally, I'd pay the OU article zero attention. When I was at Miami, OU was simply a giant party that happened to have a school attached to it. We'd roadtrip to Athens a couple times a year and pillage their women, who had much looser moral standards than their Miami counterpart. OU...not to be taken seriously."

Finally, I'd like to quote an anecdote from Phillip R. Shriver's "Miami University: A Personal History":

...in 1931 Jean West, a student from a farm in Scioto County, Ohio was denied further attendance at Miami because she failed to make sufficient progress toward a degree. Jean West did not accept her dismissal from Miami, and, with the encouragement and support of her father, she brought suit against the University...in the opinion of her father, testifying before the Court of Common Pleas in Butler County, if her daughter didn't have the smarts to graduate, it was up to Miami to see that she got the smarts and graduated. The university's case was that it had done its best to educate her, but Jean would have to do the rest for herself.

In the Appellate Court, the argument of Miami University was upheald, and Jean west was not allowed to return as a student. She promptly applied to Ohio University and was accepted, thereby elevating, as one wag suggested, the academic standards of both institutions simultaneously.

Miami > OU. It's a historical fact.

tomfoolery

I generally use my blog to broadcast my silliness and other such ridiculous thoughts, stories, and adventures. Nisha, on the other hand, is the epitome of someone who uses her blog to share her beautiful and intelligent words and thoughts. And she's gone far with it! She's taken it to the level of having her own ".com", which to me, is the indication of success in our wonderful world(wideweb). She's literally become my online idol. I get excited when I find out my friends read my blog. She basically has celebrities following her every word.

I met Nisha through AIESEC, and we became closer as we both took on a great amount of responsibility within the organization. There are few friends I have who have watched me grow and experienced the changes I have gone through over the last few years. I feel I have done the same with her. One of AIESEC's statements is that it turns regular college students into change agents and leaders. Nisha is a perfect example.

Before you start thinking we're having a love affair (or are we? ANSWER: No. I'm very committed to my "wife" Ilana, another amazing AIESECer I admire, though she's been in Spain and away from me for over a year), I'd like to share the point of this tell-all infatuation post.

I get made fun of by a lot of my friends for keeping a blog. For having a Twitter. It's difficult to put into words why I want to share my thoughts, feelings, and stories with the world - especially in this day and age, where it's dangerous to put anything online, lest it be found and misconstrued by some future employer. But here I sit in my apartment in Oxford, Ohio, pouring my heart out as quickly as my fingers will type. Truth is, I want to make a difference in the lives of those who read my blog. Ok, that's a little bit of an overshot, but I really do want to.

Back to Nisha. She has given me (and all her other readers) 25 ways to use your blog and social media to create change. Reading this post inspired me to stop posting about jackalopes (ok...maybe I'll still post about jackalopes, but only because they're awesome) and start writing about things that matter - to me, and to other people.

Don't worry readers. You should still expect silliness. It's in my nature.

I just sent in my medical forms for the Peace Corps and should be leaving in July for 2 years of tomfoolery in Sub-Saharan Africa. If internet access is available, I will be blogging about my experience. Before then, I must set some goals for my blog:

1. Find a better forum than Blogspot. No offense, Google - it's easy to use, but I'm looking for a little more class.
2. Make my blog look better! Maybe a picture banner? Suggestions of what to make it of? I'm thinking frolicking jackalopes...
3. Follow some of Nisha's advice on pound out a few of those 25 ways...