the future

               I know this is a blog dedicated to all thing college sub culture but this is something that really made me wonder if I was wrong the whole time. As many of you will most likely do over the course of you college career I volunteered for a event that really was important to me. It was the yearly star events for the school club FCCLA, a club that I was president of when I was in high school. The event is held not too far from the university campus and is a way for the members of the club to showcase their talents and abilities to bring the values of FCCLA in their lives. Since when I competed in the events I was from a new school that barely was able to make this club a reality I preformed the senior creed. Which is just me standing in front of three judges, reciting  the creed of FCCLA in a confident manner.

                But as for judging it is a completely different ball game. I was given a category to judge that was all about focusing on children and their lives. As I looked from the other side of the table I saw the nervous look on the faces of the students as they tried to sell their project that most started a week ago on and I had lost hope of seeing anything that remotely interested me. Until a entrant in the junior category entered the room to present her project. The person who stood before me was a little 8^th grade girl who was afraid that her project wasn’t good enough and that she would fail. But as she spoke I saw the brilliance and commitment in what she was doing, unlike the hastenedly thrown together crap I was handed before.

                She had thought up a program that would collect all the used and broken crayons from schools and recycle them to cut the waste. She collected over 33 pounds of broken crayons that would normally been trashed. Then she sorted, melted, remolded and distributed the crayons to elementary school classes.

                I know it is not much and it is not something that would save the world but just the fact that one so young went through the thought process to put together this whole project it what took me back.

I have gotten more faith in the state of promise shown from the younger generation.

-John a college student

a.k.a. the new ZEN of memphis

hello to my undieing followers

I'm just being a little stupid at the moment since I just got a new laptop and I am in love with it. If you can be actually in love with a machine that is, maybe it is considered a strong like. well whatever it is I like it I looking forward to pushing this baby as far as it can go. I am going to take the whole thing past laws it was never meant to break and see just what kind of damage I can manage to do.

-John a College Student

Hookah? tell you what it is

                If you have been on campus I’m sure you have heard that word at least once before. But unless you actually know what it is I’m sure you sit and wonder what is a hookah anyway. Is it a type of food or dance or maybe a type of club? To save you the trouble of looking it up and being really confused by the answer you get I will just tell you.

                A hookah is a pipe sort of like a large bong with hoses. But we are not talking about using illegal substances in this post L maybe next timeJ. You smoke flavored tobacco from it in hookah bars while you lounge in an almost Zen state of mind. The closest hookah bar to the campus is called oasis, I know you have seen it and wondered what it was there’s your answer. The first time I went I didn’t really know what to expect from it and I was ok with that because I was trying new things and it was exciting to me. I sat down to a table surrounded by sofas and waited on the pipes to be brought to us. I already was relaxing to my ‘chill point’ before the pipe got to us.

                As the pipe arrived I was wondering what to do with it, but luckily I had friends with me that had been there before. They showed me how to put the plastic tip on the end of my hose so that we could start smoking. As I took that first hit it was just like breathing air, I felt nothing but as I tried to tell my friends I noticed the smoke coming from my mouth. And I was amazed at how smooth it hit, and how I tasted fruity pebbles as I blew out the smoke I was now as Zen as a monk. We smoked for hours which I don’t recommend for people who have never smoked a hookah before because you will end up with a horrible headache which is curable by putting something cold on your head. Just a little hint from me to you, in case you decide to try over doing it one time.

               In case you are still on the fence about if you should go then think this over, they have a cereal bar. I know random but there is a bar of different cereal and it is all you can eat you just have to buy more milk. Still need another reason? There is no tax in this place and it is meant for hanging out with your friends.

Eat, Smoke, Be Happy

-John a College Student

Shiny Shiny

I know this post is really late and I planned on having it posted long ago but some things came up.

                Look around campus and you will most likely see this familiar glint of metal on skin know as a piercing. Look close and wonder what possessed them to mutilate their body, but mesmerize at the beauty of it. Think how much did that hurt and imagine you with that piercing that you always wanted but for some reason you never got. That’s how  I felt all my life, I saw a piercing and I knew without a single doubt in my mind that I wanted one of my very own, but because of who my mom was I knew that was about as possible for me as getting a tattoo with her permission. While others slept with images of sugar plums dancing in their heads I, images of me with a nose or eyebrow ring ran through mine.

                College is all about self-discovery and if you fear the world it can be a scary place for you. My first piercing I got when I was 10 years old and it was only my ears so it was not too drastic, but the tedious task of putting in a removing of my ear rings soon was boring to me and I let the holes close.

                Ok past aside, when I stepped onto the campus for the first time I was amazed at all the people that had piercing in places that my school would have expelled me for. Almost instantly I knew that I would finally get the piercing I always wanted, since I was around like minded people. I worked up the courage to go to one of my new friends on campus and he told me that he could do my piercings all I needed was a ring to put in. I obviously was not in my right mind but I went to the mall and bought a pack of nose and eyebrow rings, and went to his dorm room. Yea I said dorm room, but what made me feel better was the fact that he had a sterilized set of equipment including new piercing needles and skin clamps. If you are not getting a piercing at a shop do not get at all if the piercer doesn’t have new still in the sterile sealed package needles (common sense) and watch them open the pack of needles. He prepped the area (my left nostril) and told me to hold my breath as he pushed the needle through my nose. The second I felt it touch my skin I started to have second thoughts about the whole thing, but before I could say anything it had already started. I felt a rush of pain as the needle pushed through this thin layer of cartilage but it would be worthless for me to let it start without finishing it since I would have experienced the pain for nothing. It bled and hurt more than anything I had ever felt but it was still not over the ring still had to go on and I still had weeks of turning my ring so that it would not heal around the ring itself. That was pain that would cause your eyes to water and you the wonder why you did this in the first place.

                Unlucky for me two weeks after my piercing I caught a cold. I couldn’t blow my nose because I was pulling the ring every time. So I made the decision to take out the ring and get better knowing that I had at one time experienced the world of piercings. And if you’re wondering why I got nose and eyebrow rings, but only talked about my nose piercing I will tell you. After all the pain I felt from my nose piercing there was no way I was going to get the eyebrow done lol.

-John a college student