When I walk down the Lawn on May 18 it will have been three years, eight months, and 23 days since I moved to Charlottesville, marking the longest I, an Air Force brat, have ever lived in one place.
IT'S DEC. 25, a day I've anticipated for the past 364. I wake up early - before my five other family members - and softly creep downstairs, an ongoing ritual from my childhood.
SINCE Sept. 11, the majority of Americans have been faced with tough decisions in their lives. Having never experienced such a large-scale national loss as occurred as a result of the terrorist attacks, we had no standard of how long to mourn, how much to mourn, and, most importantly, how long to wait before moving on with our lives.
THE AFTERMATH of the Sept. 11 tragedy has been a tough time, but one full of hope. The nightmare wrought by terrorists turned into a dream come true as the American people came together as one family to help those in need.
AS THE bus driver told us all - 100 bleary-eyed students reluctantly heading off to our 9:30 a.m.
IT'S EASY to go through your time at the University without wondering how things used to be.
I CAN SAY that I was on ESPN my first year at the University of Virginia. It was the nationally televised football game between the Cavaliers and perennially-evil Florida State.
TWO RECENT events remind us that every time something bad happens in this world, people love to regurgitate the same crap over and over again in order "effect change." When a child opens fire on his classmates, Americans shout, "Pass stricter gun control laws!" and, "Punish the parents for neglect." When crimes occur at the University, students cry out, "Install more blue phones," and police urge us to "walk in groups." For awhile, I accepted these battle cries in hopes they would somehow make a difference.
IF YOU haven't heard anything about the upcoming vote on the Honor Committee's proposed changes to the honor system, then you've either been living under a rock or have been riddled with the winter flu that's going around.
EVERY time you think you've seen the lowest of the low, the most ridiculous of the ridiculous, and the most frightening of the frightening, along comes something far worse.
