By: Lauren Brose ‘15

For everyone who’s gone through one before… breakups suck. It’s as if your best friend dropped from the face of the planet and now, suddenly, you no longer have that go-to person to talk to about everything. I am in no way a relationship expert as I have been fortunate enough to have only experienced a breakup once. Still, I remember the awkward period of time where I had no idea what to do with myself— or, as I now put it, my newfound freedom. There’s a number of things that I recommend doing as well as not. I’m not ashamed to admit that revamping my life after nearly 3 years of being in a relationship was pretty scary at first. But, with a new mentality and my real best friends by my side, I was able to experience my best year ever.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

Break probably came and went too quickly and now you find yourself back at school to face the responsibilities you may have neglected or even forgotten entirely. The workload might be intimidating to tackle, but if not now, then when? Finals end and summer begins in a mere 52 days which is ample time to be productive and fun.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

There’s a tried and true saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This bit of wisdom does not, however, advise, “When life gives you lemons, tell everyone how your whole life is tainted with a distinctly acidic lemon flavor and how you are just so burdened by the weight of these lemons and that their lemons could not possibly compare to the lemons you’ve been dealing with.”

By: Judy Lee ‘17

There’s been a lot of talk about sexual assault and domestic violence with Valentine’s Day and the upcoming movie, Fifty Shades of Grey (which is a whole other can of worms), as there should be. In my opinion, these are morose and heinous topics, but also a reality of the world we live in. By keeping silent, victims will continue to be hurt and abusers will not be stopped.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

January is coming to a close and I have one question: have you stuck with your new year’s resolutions or have you forgotten all about them already? Don’t fret if you already gave up because according to Forbes only 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions this year.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

We’re all guilty of these college sins and we know all too well that we are better off without them. Take a leap of faith and demolish these nasty habits one by one with me.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

What exactly is the difference between an extrovert and an introvert? Most speculate that introversion is synonymous to shyness and being an extrovert means you have a very outgoing personality. I agreed with that statement until I did a bit of digging around. I became interested in this topic because I never identified myself as a full on extrovert although between the two I was definitely more so that than an introvert. I most precisely identified myself as a mix between the two. Friends would say “Lauren don’t be ridiculous you’re not a shy person at all” and although I wasn’t the shyest at the very least, I identified with a lot of the attributes I assumed an introverted person—that being, a lesser outgoing person—would possess.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

Last week I posted Part 1 of this two-part piece. Today, the story continues.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

So I am standing at Study Hall, the newly remodeled 2-9 off of Hoover that serves draft beer, sandwiches and shareable starters. It’s Saturday and USC is slaughtering Colorado at our home front. An older male wearing a Colorado shirt approaches me and my boyfriend and strikes a conversation. I learn he went to USC undergrad and is currently a grad student at Colorado. After getting the fundamental details of our backgrounds out of the way, he asks if I want to hear a joke. I love jokes and I am not easily offended—why not? He says: “What’s the best thing about duct tape?” By choice, I am not going to finish this joke because I do not advocate rape jokes of any type—but nonetheless he delivered a rape joke to me, a female. I was disgusted.

By: Lauren Brose ‘15

Thanksgiving break is just weeks away. Many return home to be reunited with family but most importantly we have a ton (and I mean TON) of Netflix to catch up on. It seems like the norm these days is the watch Netflix when you’re not in the mood for human interaction. Ironically, when I go home to see my family we utilize Netflix as a means for getting everyone in the same room to enjoy quality home entertainment. Whatever you use Netflix for, consider some suggestions that I have received from family, friends and my personal (and eclectic I hope) taste.

By: Kelly Kinas ‘17

There has been a really big push within the past year for sexual assault awareness and prevention. Trust me when I say, I feel much safer now that some of the guys around campus are educated on what rape and sexual assault are. Unfortunately, people are still gonna rape others and still sexually assault others, either out of ignorance or because they are horrible people. This blog post is for that horrible situation or if one of your friends comes home from the night claiming to have been sexually assaulted or raped. This is the guide to helping the person who has been assaulted and getting them to help if they need some.