Students

CHUCK.E.CHEESE vs The Library

There is something magical about buying stuff.

One may argue that receiving things for free trumps purchasing goods any day... but earned ownership over a new item, satisfies us in a way that is quite pleasing. Apparently, there is a "pleasure center "in the brain goes off when we buy something.

CHUCK E. CHEESE taught me this long before I owned a wallet. After playing countless games of Ski-Ball and Whack-a-Mole, I learned that I could earn enough tickets and exchange them for a new toy car or putty in a cup that made fart noises when you pushed it down.

Work + Earnings + Transaction + New Toy = A happy kid. This formula not only rings true for 7 year-olds, but supports and defines our culture. I recently learned from my professor that Economists call that happiness "Marginal Utility". Maybe its just me but that doesn't sound very happy..."New Toy Happiness" sounds more fun. Whatever you wish to call it, I discovered how much I missed that feeling when it was denied at the library last week.

At first it felt pretty good to walk out of the library with a new book that I would have otherwise bought. But something didn't feel right. Effortlessly checking out the book for free held little reward, and even though I saved $25, I realized; I didn't want to give the book back. I wanted to read it and keep it on my bookshelf, even if I never read it again.

Maybe it was greedy of me to want to keep the book. Maybe I'm brainwashed by consumerism. Either way, I have two weeks to return all 242 pages or else I'll be fined... and there is nothing magical about paying late fees. And I'm pretty sure the "pleasure center" of my brain does not go off when I pay for something that I don't even get to keep;  the "angry center" goes off instead.

michael.f

Allow me to introduce myself......

My name is Tanikia Thompson and I'm a Media Studies major. I graduate May 9th! This is a huge accomplishment for me due to the fact that I am a first generation graduate. The popular question of my life right now is "What are you going to do after graduation?" Well, I recently went to a Career Fest and a few companies showed interest in me. One of those companies was Target. They wanted to interview me for a retail management postion, but I declined. I know what you are thinking, "How can she decline a possible job in today's economy?" I didn't want to start something that I knew my heart wouldn't be into. Right now my top choice is grad school. The University of Illinois at Springfield has an amazing Public Affairs Reporting program. If I'm accepted I will have my Master's in one year. I will also be equipped to be a successful Broadcast Journalist and take the torch from Oprah (if she ever  decides to pass it on). Besides Broadcast Journalism I have a love for acting. After graduation I'd love to be apart of a few productions during the summer. Well, that's all for now. I'll be writing soon.

Love Always,

Tanikia

 

Poem of the week: Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Blonde March

 I have a love-hate relationship with March.  Lion or lamb, it comes in and I hate it every year.  It's rarely sunny, usually packs at least one nasty snowstorm, tends to be incredibly damp, subjects me to at least one day of "Oh, you don't have to wear green, you're already Irish! Where's your 'kiss me' button?" and worst of all, it flirts.

Yes, flirts.

I have been to high school.  I have lived at college.  I have seen flirting at its best and worst.  And March is the worst, like that blonde in high school you knew that couldn't walk past anything with a Y chromosome without trying to seduce it.  March is that blonde.  Blonde March.  It saunters in after meek little February and sort of waggles its fingers at you, batting its eyelashes and beckoning you to hope in its promises of Spring.  You think it's safe to break out your flip flops and short-sleeved shirts.  Maybe you even take a walk outside without a jacket.  And then it hits you with a snowstorm.  You are left outside, be-flip flopped, jacketless, in the snow, like all good romantic comedies.  Or a Hemingway novel.  Rejection.  Ouch.  

Today, however.  Oh, today.  Today is payback for two weeks of rain and sub-freezing temperatures.  Yesterday the high was 61 degrees.  Today it is 73 and sunny.  North Park is celebrating in full force:  walking to my apartment from class, I was greeted by one Tom Rorem (our resident troubadour if anyone deserves the title) standing on the roof of his two-flat with his guitar, singing across the campus scene; I stumbled into the middle of a glow-frisbee golf tournament on the Greenspace when exiting the library around midnight last night; I have seen more people in jeans and flip flops walking to class in the past 45 minutes than I have seen in the past six months.  It's a North Parker's delight.  

Class levels will go down today in favor of greener pastures and sunlight, for tomorrow bids a 50-degree high.  Again with the Hemingway and the rejection and the flirting.  Come on, March!  Seriously?  Maybe we need to have a RDT.  I'll meet you in the gazebo...things usually turn out for the better there.

-Cynthia Lambert