College in a Nutshell. . .

Up until this point, college has been a painfully uphill battle for me. I used to fight myself everyday to stay in school because in the end I knew that you need a degree to be successful in life. I used to hate going to classes, even though I kept my 4.0 GPA and I would use my hatred for college as an excuse to drink myself silly on the weekends.Even though I am graduating early and only spending 3 years in college, so far it had seemed like the longest 3 years of my life. Lately, maybe because the end is drawing near for me or because I am finally settled in here at Coastal, being in college doesn’t seem so bad anymore. These are some tips to help you get through those rough patches when you are thinking about quitting school and joining the circus has become your only other option:

1. Join clubs. I know that everyone and their mother tells you to join clubs when you get to college and clubs might have been dumb in high school but they are definitely the best thing in the world in college. Ever since I joined the club Field Hockey team here, I have had a steady group of great friends that only gets bigger every time I go out. It even gave me the confidence to join a marketing club and become the secretary!
2. Get active.Going to the gym is a great way to meet new happy people. The gym is always packed with new people and it is a great place to make new friends.
3. Talk to people in class.
   I am a really introverted person and I hate talking in class. It took me the entire semester to start talking to people on the last day who I am now still friends with! I never made that mistake again. You never know who people know or where you will see them outside of class so make an effort to talk to the people around you and make friends. I promise they won’t bite.
4. Attend sporting events.
   Show some school pride and meet new people while you are at it! Tailgates, basketball games, baseball games the opportunity to see sporting events is endless and they are usually attended by friendly students who love showing off their school pride.
5. Get a job.
   Yup, you heard me get a J-O-B. This might sound horrible on top of all your homework but on campus jobs are usually pretty easy and flexible with your schedule. Jobs are a great way to meet people and if your job is good, usually so are your co-workers.

War on Cops. . .

I know that the war on cops is a really hot button issue right now but coming from a largely police oriented family seeing this controversy unravel before my very eyes is extremely hard to watch. As a the daughter of a police officer I am proud to say that my father fights day in and day out to enforce the law and keep people safe.

I remember in elementary school when teachers would go around the classroom asking the profession of everyone’s parents, I was always the proudest in saying my father was a police officer in the NYPD. Even after he retired from the NYPD and became an Anne Arundel County police officer in Maryland I was never shy to admit that it was my father’s duty to keep the people of our town safe.

I remember when I was younger hearing all the stories of my dad putting those who broke the law in jail, catching bad guys, and going on car chases. He was my very own living superhero. I did not get to see him much while I was growing up because of his work schedule trying to provide for our family and loving every second of being able to protect people with his job but I knew he was making a difference.

Lately videos keep surfacing of “police brutality” and each video with its polarized set of comments gets harder and harder to watch. Every day my dad goes to work I am scared that he will be the next victim of a “police brutality” viral video just because he is trying to do his job or protect himself. It is impossible to be a police officer right now and feel safe. It is even hard to be family members of police officers without feeling the backlash. Not just anyone can become a police officer, they are special people placed in their position because they have a passion for protecting people and upholding the law. All this “black lives matter” and victimization of criminals needs to stop. If you commit a crime there will be a punishment no matter what color skin you have.

Everyday that my father goes to work I am still proud and I have no problem admitting that my dad is a police officer. As people begin to disrespect and disobey police officers it becomes more and more evident that you cannot sustain an environment in which there is no one to enforce the law. There needs to be repercussions when the law is broken, otherwise people will just assume they can get away with anything. People may hate on the law enforcement but when someone is breaking into your home they are the people you are going to call.

I hope that this war on police officers will end soon, because it puts so many innocent lives at risk. No matter what, I will always be proud to wear my dad’s shield numbers and I will never be afraid to admit that my father is a police officer.

Dates….

Recently I went on a date (granted I haven’t been on a date in a while) but I did not think the dating world had changed that much… Boy was I wrong. I thought we would possibly go to dinner and movie? Nope, I was wrong. I tried to take a nice stroll on the beach… that lasted 5 seconds. We decided to try and see some live music but where did we end up on this first date you ask? On the couch, where I could have been by myself but instead now felt the pressure to entertain.

Dating has really evolved into something quite interesting over the past few years. With all these women’s movements about being seen equal to men, the idea of women “sleeping around” is no longer as much of a taboo as it used to be. College culture is also seen as a great time to “experiment” and hooking up with random people every weekend just seems like a common cultural practice.

What happened to taking a girl out on the first date? What happened to the staple of dinner and a movie or a picnic? Can a date with “netflix and chill” even be considered a date? All these hookup apps and sites like Tinder or Plenty of Fish do not really help the situation either. It seems like taking someone on an actual date without the thought of getting anything in return except good company is too serious for most people now a days.

So here’s a little tip to the guys out there, real dates need to make a comeback asap. Sitting on the couch not talking and watching a movie does not count as a date. Expecting something from a girl because you took her to dinner is also not acceptable.

Here is what should be happening, people should be spending less time focused on how hot the person they are seeing is because they want to brag about their hookup and focus on getting to know people’s personalities. It really isn’t that hard to invest a few minutes into talking with someone to get to know them. If you don’t like their personality but you think they are nice to look at that is probably not a good sign for your date or possible relationship. We need to stop considering “Netflix and chill” as a real date and work on being creative for dates. You could picnic on the beach, go play mini golf, do anything other than just sitting around watching dumb movies and waiting for the other person to make a move. If we keep adding to this hookup culture, it is only going to get worse. I for one will not partake in this and I think I will go back to my wine on the couch until the guys my age decide mature…. I might be there a while.