A Blog on McConnell Center Life

By Trey Stephens        The last time I addressed the readers of this blog, I spoke about the wildly underrated destination of Detroit, Michigan. This time, in a new twist for my Underrated Travel Destinations series, I will not cover a place, but yet a travel company. That company is none other than Azamara Cruises.      Azamara Cruises, or as I will herein refer to them, Azamara, is a boutique cruise line that positions themselves in the small ship premium division of cruising. To explain that distinction, the cruise market is broadly divided into four categories of cruising. The largest is mainstream cruising which includes lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and MSC. The next category up is considered premium cruising, which includes lines like Cunard, Princess, and Holland America. The third category is small ship premium, which is where Azamara finds itself competing against lines like Oceania Cruises, Viking Cruises, and Windstar. Then, there ...

By Leo Tobbe At the end of every day, I come home to my apartment and vent  to my roommates about the state  of our country. I’m horrified by  the actions of ICE, I’ve lost sleep over the Epstein files, and the  AI bubble seems on track to burst right around the time my  friends and I graduate and enter the  labor force. Still, I keep an American flag hanging in my living room, right  above the TV. My roommates  asked me once why I insist on  keeping it up when all I do is rant about everything wrong with our country. The answer, I think, is best illustrated by South  Park’s response to 9/11 and  America’s subsequent invasion of  Afghanistan: “America may have some problems, but it’s our home. Our team. And if you don’t want to root for your team, you should get the hell out of the stadium. Go America. Go Broncos.” Right now, our team is competing halfway across the world in the Winter Olympics. Two hundred and thirty-two Ameri...

By Connor Price      I did not grow up religious. This fact about myself is one that tends to surprise the folks I disclose it to, especially if they are from out of state. A kid from the outskirts of a small town in Kentucky ought to have been, but it was not my experience. This part of my identity is something I have struggled with throughout my life. It caused me to feel excluded from the community of believers that surrounded me. I grew up being asked the same questions and being given the same answers. How could you not? You can’t be serious. You are going to Hell.      It hurt, but it didn’t matter. I was raised to be logical, and from my perspective that did not include religion. I was against the very existence of a god because it simply could not be. So how could it be that some people grow up outside of religion and manage to fall into it later in life? Is it community-seeking? Fear of punishment for sins long dead? Weakness somehow? One of us mus...

By Keely O'Bryan   In October of last semester, I had the opportunity to attending the 76th Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Each year, SCUSA is organized around a defining theme, and this year’s focus was  The Foundations and Future of America’s Global Power and Influence . The conference delegation was divided into several roundtable groups, each centered on a specific policy issue, and my group focused on U.S. policy toward China. China presents a particularly complex challenge in U.S. foreign policy. One of the most significant obstacles is the ideological divide between the U.S.’s capitalist economic system and China’s communist political ideology. Although China’s economy no longer operates as a fully communist system, as it allows citizens to lease land and operate private firms, the state continues to exert control over key industries and retains ownership of all land. China also plays a central role in the global e...

By Clara Heberling      I still remember the day I found out Santa Claus didn’t exist. During one of my fourth-grade art classes, a girl loudly proclaimed her disbelief in him, prompting about half of the class (including myself) to vehemently defend the classic Christmas figure. Later that day, I told my mom the story, expecting her to laugh and shake her head. Unfortunately, the pained expression on her face told me all I needed to know, and my nine-year-old self saw her beliefs crumble in front of her eyes.       The story may seem dramatic, but, at the time, it was. I bawled for hours after I found out, and I was despondent for the next several days. Reflecting on my disproportional response, it is now clear to me what this moment marked: a departure from my ability to hold blind faith. I grew up in a religious household, and I’d been taught from a young age to believe in God and, more broadly, in the Catholic Church. As silly as it...

By Harper Hall      From Curious George to The Hunger Games to Jayber Crow , I have read an insurmountable number of books in my nineteen years of life. I learned to read at the ripe age of four, and once I realized that words on a page could take me anywhere in the world, I was unstoppable. I devoured books from my school library, often visiting before the scheduled time for my class because I needed another fixation. Reading sparked my love of learning, through acting as a stepping stone for seeking more knowledge.      Today, fewer and fewer children are reading books. A study from the National Assessment of  Educational Progress (NAEP) conducted in 2023 found that only 14% of teens say they read for  fun daily, compared to 27% in 2012. Additionally, an article from the New York Times published  in 2025 found that most high school students are only assigned to read one to two full books a  year. Students are often being assigned exc...

By Grace Fields  Everyone has their favorite TV show. It could be serious or funny. You could watch it alone or with friends. Regardless of the genre, it is your comfort show. My roommates and I have recently found our new favorite show to watch together. Every Thursday night, like clockwork, we bundle up on the couch and turn on Traitors. This series is one of the most entertaining and innovative reality TV shows of all time. Like many things in life, it has unexpected life lessons to take away. The premise of the American version of the show surrounds a large-scale game played in a Scottish castle. Reality TV stars compete as “Faithfuls,” completing missions to build a cash prize pool, all while they try to identify the “Traitors” among them. Traitors “murder” Faithful nightly to steal the final prize. In this season, Rob Raush (Love Island), Lisa Rinna (Real Housewives), and Candice Basset (Real Housewives) were the Traitors. Throughout the first half of the season, they have ma...

By Caroline Bergin I was recently scrolling through Substack, a media platform that is a mixture of blogs and video content, looking for recipes as I usually do, and I came across a list of questions. The article headline was “Unboring Questions to Ask Someone”. I thought I would try answering some of them myself. What is something you changed your mind about this year?  We aren’t very deep into the year yet, so this is kind of a hard question to answer. I would  say I changed my mind about not really liking the cold. I’m sure you all became very  tired of the snow and biting wind, but I can’t lie I kinda loved it. Sure I complained about  it too, but that doesn’t really mean anything. I think the cold has a special quality that  makes me feel alive. When I breathe it in I can feel it in my lungs and it reminds me that I  am really there experiencing life. One morning this year, it was like 20 degrees out and I  genuinely walked to class smiling so bri...

By Ozy Anyanwu I have been watching the Grammys for as long as I can remember. This three-and-a-half-hour-long show has always stolen my heart, and my favorite memories with my sisters involve sitting on the couch, grabbing our snacks, and watching the Grammys together. Thank goodness FaceTime exists, because 2025 was the first time I watched the show alone from my Kurz Hall dorm room. But luckily, I got to FaceTime my sisters the entire time and give live updates on my opinions. The most controversial award, Album of the Year, always manages to ruffle some feathers, which is why it’s saved for the very end of the show. Luckily, I have a good attention span, so I’m willing to watch the whole way through. However, as a Grammys enthusiast, I have very strong opinions about the show, particularly regarding Album of the Year. And I plan on talking about my personal pick for Album of the Year. In 2025, Beyoncé took home the coveted Album of the Year for her country album  Cowboy Carter ...