A Blog on McConnell Center Life

Some people fall asleep. Others fall in love. I just fall.  Georgiana Sook Class of 2019 Frequently, like it’s a favorite hobby or a trend I’m trying to start. “First day with your new legs?” is a question I got asked a lot growing up. Sometimes there’s ice or uneven pavement to blame, but usually it’s just me losing my balance unexpectedly or tripping over my average-sized flat feet. I always manage to land on my pride.  Silly-shaped bruises decorate my pale skin like temporary tattoos— gravity’s way of reminding me to keep things colorful and quit taking myself so seriously. In the past year, I have fallen down three sets of staircases and up one. I have to say, I never fully understood the value of carpeted stairs until I fell down wooden ones. Traipsing down the staircase at 2am, trying not to wake slumbering housemates, and then it happens— I miss a step. As if to make up for the one I missed, my body comes into full contact with every remaining stair, cr...

Nicole Fielder Class of 2019 Hi, my name is Nicole Fielder, and I am a perfectionist.  There are two sides to the coin of perfection, making it great for the inevitable interview question: “What is your greatest weakness?” Playing the perfectionist card in that setting is appealing because it’s often considered a strength that’s veiled enough to pass as a weakness and land you a job. But I find myself on the negative side of that coin more often than not. The prospect of attempting something and it not turning out perfectly debilitates me, so much so that I couldn’t even write this simple blog post for more than a week after the deadline. I had a laundry list of completely viable blog topics and drafts staring back at me from their well-ordered home on a Google document, but I scrapped all those because they weren’t good enough. Because I’m not good enough. College has shown me what my mom meant when she chided me for identifying as a perfectionist, cautioning me agai...

Natasha Mundkur Class of 2019 John Quincy Adams once said, “Men must be ready; they must pride themselves and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasure, passions, and interests, nay, their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society.” In Adam’s deeply intelligible description of the bind that connects man together with other men and community, he is inherently describing the confines that create a functioning society and government. However, at a certain point, we must call upon ourselves to question the extent to which we are willing to forfeit our right to personal privacy for domestic security. To lightly elaborate, in order to protect the outlined rights and agree to form a community "for the mutual Preservation of their Lives, Liberties and Estates (property)," (Locke 295) individuals surrender their natural power to act for self-preservation "to be regulated by the Laws made by the Society, so far fo...

Jeremy Ball Class 2017 This semester, as a part of my McConnell class’ China course, we were required to attend two lectures from the Center for Asian Democracy. One of the events I attended detailed the democratic countries in Asia, and specifically, those that practiced Islam as their major religion. The speaker implored us to challenge the widely thought, but terribly misconceived notion that countries that practice Islam cannot be democratic. As a student who has spent a great deal of time studying the Middle East and its politics, I found this lecture to be very refreshing and intellectually valuable. As a society, an unfortunate amount of people have this notion that Islam and the conservative nature of that religion equates a totalitarian government. And while some countries do indeed fit this mold, one can look at a number of Asian nations to refute this claim. Consider Indonesia, one of the world’s most populated country and a Muslim majority nation. This country’s gover...

Claire Gothard Class of 2019 Type A, perfectionist, obsessive, bossy. Each of these words has been used to describe me at some point. Considering just yesterday I re-planned my 4-year schedule for the second time this week and did an entire group project by myself, I can definitely see where they’re coming from. I’m the person who schedules meals and activities months in advance. My agenda knows my life better than I do and it freaks me out that my family still hasn’t finalized vacation plans. This is my life – obsessively planning my next steps and revising them to be more realistic or fit unforeseen changes.  College is a nightmare for my planning side – all of a sudden, I’m still up at 6 AM because I saw a couple friends in the (community style) bathroom, started talking, and only stopped once that we all realized it was probably bedtime. Spontaneity is not something that comes natural to me. I want to know at least four hours in advance if we are planning any s...

Bridget Kim Class of 2019 I am lounging comfortably with approximately forty of my favorite strangers in The Poetry Room, a cozy haven tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Ekstrom Library. It is a drizzly weeknight that holds the promise of adventures slightly short of miraculous, and my friends and I enter the world of anger and passion and the perfect amount of pretension that is a poetry reading. The poet calls up shameful and sobering images with her resonant, relatable voice. She is fabulous. She makes me think, but what I am left mulling over a week later does not seem to be her powerful presentation; rather, I continue to ponder on what happened right before she began speaking.  It was a small incident. Fairly unremarkable. Laughing with the gals I came with, my eye happened to fix itself on the book nestled in the hands of the boy in the third row. The euphoria that overwhelmed me upon realizing the book was my incontestably favorite one remains difficult to d...

Easton Depp Class of 2019 Head down, eyes glossed over. Absorbed into virtual reality Ignorant of actuality Seasons pass, the world changes. Yet, on we walk, unaware. I’m likely more guilty of this than most people. I constantly catch myself on my phone when I shouldn’t be. It has become a bit of a joke among my friends. My girlfriend asks for my phone when we go on dates so she has my undivided attention.  I think I owe her that. As a society, we have become entirely too invested in our electronic devices. Yes, I understand that people are texting us, and that our clan has just finished raiding a village, and the funniest picture just got posted on Twitter, but the outside world can and should be appreciated as well. For example, you could spend your time watching the antics of the hundreds of squirrels on campus. They get up to quite a bit of mischievousness, and it is always a challenge to find the white squirrel. Alternately, people-watching never fails...

Isaac Feinn Class of 2019 In wake of a tumultuous season for United States politics, both the Left and Right can agree that 2016 will be a year of vital importance for the direction of our nation. As if the presidential race were not creating enough tension, we must also face filling the Supreme Court vacancy while our current president closes his term. This issue introduces conflict for Republicans and Democrats alike, but this post is meant to persuade the Right minds to fill the vacancy with President Obama’s nominee. The Republicans currently argue that Americans should have a say in the next Supreme Court Justice via electing a new president to make the decision, but this argument does not take into account three important points:  First, it is the Republican Party’s responsibility . As the highest legislating body in the United States, unmatched in prestige, importance, and selectivity, an intentional and prolonged vacancy is both embarrassing and harmful. The purpos...

Miranda Mason Class of 2019 What do we get out of the study of political science?  Bias?  Cruelty?  The field doesn’t seem to advance the goals of society, because politicians act in the same brutish and petty way their predecessors have for hundreds of years. For the most part, politicians make big promises and big money, and repay the citizenry with a meager portion of their promises and a lot of anger.  Mr. Smith may go to Washington, D.C. with big plans, but he will never achieve everything he hopes to, because there is conflict around every corner.  To a degree, being a politician means crushing the goals of other people in order to implement one’s own.  No one is exempt from this quality of political life, because even the kindest of representatives still stands as the worst enemy of someone else’s agenda.   We have a system filled with conflict which has become so polarized that people across the nation are full of hatred of their fell...

Sidney Cobb Class of 2019 When the world first heard of Dolly, a sheep and the first successful clone in 1997, we reacted simultaneously with awe and fear. From successful cloning to other genetic research, scientists are on the verge of being able to alter human DNA to eliminate future medical problems and conditions that may be passed on genetically. This development will have an extensive impact on the field of medicine, and arguably be the most influential invention of our lifetime. With new genetic engineering, we will have the capability to protect our species from cancers, sickle cell anemia, and other genetic diseases. However, although I recognize that numerous positive outcomes would emerge from the development of genetic manipulation, I fear they will also be accompanied by various long term negative consequences. The popular science fiction movie, Jurassic Park, outlines the potential negative consequences of humans altering nature. Although this is a piece of f...