Happiness

 

 

           Albert Einstein shares his opinion about what it takes to make him happy, but that may not go for everyone. Each individual has aspects in their life that makes them happy. As for myself I have quite a few...

 

 

My twelve year old cat Creamy makes me happy. A nice bowl of cereal in the morning. A good hurdle race. Dancing out my feelings. Spending quality time with my boyfriend. Going home to visit my mom and sister. Exploring the city with my brother. Venting about anything and everything with my friends. Not working a lot, but getting a paycheck. Driving my beat up Subaru Sporty Spice. A pumpkin iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Sleeping. Watching endless amounts of Grey's Anatomy. Relieving my week with a crazy weekend. Going to watch the Yankees.

 

 

       I could go on and on about what makes me happy, but I won't. My point is happiness is personal. Everyone decides their own happiness. 

"Be peaceful. Be courteous. Obey the law. But if someone puts his hands on you, send them to their grave." - Malcolm X

Be peaceful. Be courteous. Obey the law. And if someone puts his hands on you, turn and give him your other cheek. This is what Christ says to his disciples. This is what I’m taught and convicted to obey because of my Christian faith. But of course I am human, and I hate and desire violence towards anyone who hurts me or my loved ones. Many times I thought Jesus was unjust. I thought he was being hypocritical. If God can send people to hell, then why can’t I “send them to their graves” too, like Malcolm X suggests? 

But every time I am in a conflict, I realize that I’m also wounded each time. The only way to heal the scars is to forgive people, and myself especially. Forgiveness is something that’s not logical. I guess it’s something of a spiritual act. Revenge is easy, but it’s also the easiest way to dig another grave: your own.

By Jesamine Lee

Be peaceful. Be courteous. Obey the law. But if someone puts his hands on you, send him to his grave. By Malcolm X

If you are provoked you have the right to stand up for yourself. But you should never be the instigator of violence. I’m all for peace and I have a hard time being aggressive but I acknowledge that sometimes being aggressive is the the only way to achieve change.

If you want to change something major in society and go against the system you need to be aggressive. I don’t believe that peaceful demonstrations can achieve major change. Even if some instances of history, like Gandhi, prove me wrong. If you want change be ready to pack a strong punch, especially against oppression.

But aggression on day-to-day life, like being stupid to someone just because they were mean to you first, I don’t believe in that. You shouldn’t let others’ meanness change the way you want to behave.   

Declaration of NYU's Commuter Students

We hold these truths to be self evident that all pupils are accepted on the same basis. And commuting is a financial and personal decision that should not be used against the pupil. We as pupils have the right to speak up and ask for changes that have not been provided. Not only do the unjust circumstances skew our ability to be equal to residential students, but have skewed our ability to do our best in the class. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations reduce us it is our right and duty in accordance with the Bill of Rights and free speech to request these changes. Such has been the patient sufferance of these pupils; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former of systems of New York University. The history of the present New York University is a history of repeated injuries. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused proper transportation

He has denied us adequately priced food

He has neglected to provide spacious working facilities

He has made us subjects to 5 am train rides

He has accommodated clubs to serve only to Residential students

He has denied us our rightful college social life

For taking away opportunities to establish networking sources

For demanding outrageous costs at our inconvenience

For creating a dispersal of funds which are in favor of Residential students

In every semester of these Oppressions we have endured these grievances with humble terms: Our endurance has been responded with repeated denial of adequate treatment. We are NYU students as well, and deserve the right to be treated with compensation of time, fair transportation, and warm meals.

We have, from time to time, made known our presence and important to NYU’s student life. We have reminded the King on multiple accounts the circumstances of our emigration and travel here on campus. We are not, in any pretension, wishing harm to our NYU Housing Brethren. However, the oppressions of the Commuter life have inevitably interrupted the status of our exams and class schedules. Professors and TAs too have been deaf to the voice of justice and camaraderie. We must, therefore, commute in necessity, and denounce the evils that have been burdened upon the commuter nature, and declare our rightful separation from past injustices.

We, the commuters of NYU, therefore have no other choice than to secede from the main campus of NYU, appealing to the supreme leader of the nation, John Sexton, and carry on with our studies into a newly established campus at a more reasonable distance to our residence. We solemnly declare and write out our departure from NYU’s main campus, as a newly established campus we reserve the right to fair treatment and acknowledgement of the NYU faculty. We resolve that as long as we are commuters we shall put forth all of our investments of education into the newly established campus, where it may be our tuition, student loans, or time.

By:

Georgie Fu

Wendy Tigre

Nikki Herrick

Maggie

"Two Birthdays, Two Lives"

It was my religious birthday a couple of weekends ago. My religion follows a lunar calender which pulls each annual event 11 days back from its Gregorian date. That gives me "two" birthdays every year, for the rest of my life. Two days for cake, for wishing, for copious amounts of phone-calls. Two days for celebrating and family dinners. This dichotomy between my religious life and my life in the outside world has always created this constantly shifting barrier that I haven't really gotten to understand. Its this deep method of role play that forces me to take two instead of one before every choice I make in life- looking through two totally different points of view at any time. I know what's expected of me in terms of my religious point of view. I know what conservative ideals I'm supposed to follow every day, and I do follow what I grew up learning- I pray every day, I attend events, I look to God for understanding. But the enticement of the open world reels me in with questions like "why am I doing this?" or "what does this do for me?" But then the tight cables of the religious world keep me grounded to the comfort of the old school ideas. Then again, the curious tendrils of the human world are always there giving me food for thought mysteries to figure out, among other dilemmas. Its that push and pull that I'm caught between; its that middle ground I'm searching for.

- AliAkbar M. Hassonjee

"Success has many fathers. Failure is a bastard."

Failure is inevitable. People are bound to make mistakes and occasionally hit rock bottom, maybe we may even hit the bottom multiple times within a short period. Failure might be a bastard, but it is there to provoke success. In an obscure way, failure might as well be one of the fathers of success. Success is not something that people are motivated to achieve unless failure is there to prompt action because one definition of failure can be inaction. A taste of failure is what makes success so sweet, so glorifying, and so right. Failure should not be looked down upon as often as it is because even the most successful still fail, as well as the smartest, the best looking, and the most talented. Failure is a great tool and guide to humans; it is a giant manual, personalized to fit every single human being. Failure is not only a father, but it is also a teacher. It teaches us who we are, who to become, and who to strive to be. Failure allows for improvement, discipline, and progress. Often times failure should be recognized and thanked because without failure, the world would be moving towards failure and stagnant on failure. I guess what I am trying to say is that success is dependent on failure, and failure is something so great and so humble that it exists only for the sake of success and probably nothing else.

- Georgie Fu

Success



 

     Success is the ultimate goal. In every aspect of life I strive for success; in school, my job, track, and my relationships. Some would call me a perfectionist based on my obsession with reaching success. I cannot even argue. I even call it a curse myself.

     Freshman year of high school is when I can say I was cursed. My whole academic year I did nothing out of the ordinary. I went to class, did homework, and studied for tests. At the end of the year I received a letter from the school inviting me to an honors banquet that named the top six students in class rank. "I must be just making it, that's nice," I thought to myself nonchalantly. I had always gotten good grades but I never perceived that I had the best grades. That is until I attended the banquet, and was notified that I held the first ranking, number one in the class. The second I saw that number one next to my name I was cursed.

     From then on I had a goal of keeping that rank. I wanted to be the best. I was neck and neck with the boy in the number two spot, Colby, a computer science engineering genius. The kid built computers for fun for god's sake. I was in for hell but I did not know it then. The next three years I spent slaving over my grades. They had to be perfect. Yet after all that time and effort I finished with a GPA of 101.39, behind Colby. I was the salutatorian of my class but does that mean I did not reach success?