Riddle me this. Classes began Aug. 22, and by Aug. 26, only four days later, UF students are expected to have decided whether they want to drop their course. If not, they have to pay for it anyway.
Last week, Iran and Russia reached a historic agreement that allowed Russia to launch military strikes from Iranian bases in order to “fight terrorism” and continue propping up the Assad regime. Considering no foreign military has operated from Iran since World War II, this was a considerable step forward for Russia and, as I see it, a considerable step backward for the millions of Syrians on the ground who feel firsthand the brunt of Assad’s regime. A Russia more involved in Iran and Syria is bad for everyone.
Don’t get me wrong: Michael Phelps is, indeed, one of the greatest athletes of our time. The man has pushed the limits of his sport, and as a former swimmer from a family of swimmers, I have the utmost respect for his contribution to the sport. That being said, it is time for Americans to stop turning the Olympics — an event created to celebrate all countries and their contributions to athleticism — into the Michael-Phelps-and-America Show.
I’m not an overly emotional person. This is obvious to those who know me well. But as I sit at my desk writing this column — my first for the Alligator — I can’t keep the tears from slowly streaming down my face and splashing onto my keyboard. Two weeks ago, my father passed away after a long fight with cancer. He was 53.
Illegal parkers, illegal drinkers and illegal immigrants: What do they have in common?
At the end of the “Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes” episode of “South Park,” Stan and Kyle are face-to-face with the evil force behind the town of South Park’s addiction to consumption: “Wall-Mart,” in the flesh. The town has been colonized with the irresistibly low prices and bargain deals of the “Wall-Mart.” The local community is disintegrating, because no one shops anywhere else. Stan’s father, Randy, is the town’s most helpless victim: a man who forsakes his job to work at "Wall-Mart" for the minute employee discount. In an absurd sequence of events — it’s “South Park” we’re talking about — the boys find themselves at the heart of South Park’s problems, as usual.
Most of the time, students find themselves engaging in activities that help them cope with the stress of college. Some of these include overeating, getting emotional or trying new relaxing experiences. Sadly, some of the students start to get involved with harmful activities that dissociate them from their anxiety.
Hello, everyone. To those of you who don’t know me, my name is Zachary Lee. To those of you who do know me and enjoy the column, I sincerely thank you for your time, and I’m glad you’ll be joining me again this Fall. To those of you who do know me and don’t like my column, thanks for reading it anyway. I’m grateful you read the column the way I watch Fox News: to hear the other side of the conversation.
No one calls me “Open Mike.”
Frank Ocean’s name will forever be linked to my languid, quiet Gainesville summers and feelings of intense disappointment. With so little to do in this collegiate ghost town, any word of the neo-soul artist’s elusive and highly anticipated second studio album was guaranteed to make my day. Ocean’s acclaimed debut studio album “Channel Orange” was the soundtrack of my waning high-school years and my personal introduction to how alternative rhythm and blues could sound and feel. “Pyramids” constantly streamed out of my car’s stereo, mixing with the sounds of teenage prattle and late nights on the interstate. So when the hype surrounding his next album began to reach a fever pitch, I was undoubtedly invested.
I am exhausted from the emotions of the past few days.
I could use this column to tell you how much I love Gainesville and the surrounding areas — places where you can swim in a cave at Devil’s Den, join the drunken zoo that is Midtown or watch thousands of bats fly into the sunset at UF’s Bat Barn and Bat House.
Over the past two years I’ve learned a lot, and it has been an immense privilege to be able to share my opinion with all of you once a week. I had my first opinion piece published in a newspaper when I was thirteen, and since then it has always been a thrill to see my writing in print, but also somewhat terrifying!
The health of our unborn children is at stake — if they are born in Florida, that is. Everyone should run for the hills, aka somewhere that isn’t flatland Florida. What with the sudden lightning storms that can crop up at any minute, the 14 cases of Zika infections found in the Wynwood area of Miami-Dade, the alligator attacks, the vicious road rage due to our standstill traffic and a host of other dangerous occurrences that happen daily in our “sunshine” state, nowhere is safe. Even the people here have been lumped together as the crazed “Florida Man.” National headlines read, “Florida Man accidentally shoots himself during job interview at elementary school” and “Florida Man attempts to smoke crack in ICU, almost burns down hospital.” It’s no wonder the people here are close to self-immolating.
In the opening scene of the adored Disney classic “High School Musical,” an eclectic set of multi-dimensional and well-intended teenagers burst out of a classroom in song, vividly expressing the excitement of the summer vacation to come. For those of you whose teenage blunder years were also not nearly as animated as this scene, there was one student made for us. In the back of the classroom, for the entirety of what is really just this obnoxious flashmob, an adolescent young man lays head-in-arms on his desk.
Smaller pieces create what we consider life. Therefore, understanding the building blocks of existence makes us not researchers, but rather seekers of understanding. These were the welcoming words of Dr. Juan Manuel Lopez-Alcorocho, the director of quality control of Amplicel, on the first day of my internship.
Throughout high school, I spent my weekday mornings watching “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” before having to catch the bus for school. As the complexity of classes increased, so did the need for a working knowledge for the world around me. But traditional news shows were too biased or analysis on economic policy was followed by the latest fashion trends. So, like many teens, I felt the best way to catch up on current events was to watch satirized segments to truly understand what was going on.
For the past seven weeks I have been engaged in an intensive language program, studying Yoruba for eight hours a day. I have studied and speak six other languages, including Swahili and Arabic, and I can say with complete certainty Yoruba is by far the most challenging and difficult of them all.
Solutions by The State News
