I Want To See Other People

                                                        An Elective on Perspective

                                                       by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson

                                                              

I Want To See Other People

Am I the only person who doesn’t trust herself? I’ve suppressed the little voice inside of my head that’s filled with respectable suggestions so long that I can hardly identify it. I’m suspicious of myself. I don’t know if I’m giving myself sound advice, or trying to set myself up. I talk myself into bad ideas and talk myself out of good ones. On numerous occasions I have acted as my own adversary. But, how do I fix it? I can’t tell myself that I would like to see other people. I can’t divorce myself. I’m stuck with the monster I created.

You know the popular saying, “I told God to protect me from my enemies, and then I started losing friends”? Well, I asked God to protect me from my enemies, and I started gaining awareness of self. Am I evil? Am I horrible? Of course not. Am I the person I should be right now? Of course not! Sometimes you have to step back and take a long hard look at yourself. During said look you should ask yourself if you’re the person you would want to meet; or would you be the person that you see from afar off and pray to baby, teenage, and adult Jesus that they don’t see you. You have to take yourself seriously in order to be taken seriously. If there’s something that you see yourself as lacking, it’s your job to fix it.

Life is like a box of chocolates? I think not. I’ve gotten some disgusting chocolates, but I still ended up eating them. Maybe that’s just me being a fat girl; but either way, they were still somewhat enjoyable. Life, however, is the total opposite. At this point in life I’d say life is more like a treadmill that you can’t turn off. It’s just you and it. If you keep the pace, you aren’t growing. If you get comfortable with what you’ve done thus far and stop, you start moving backwards. If you gather the courage and tap into your energy reserve to increase the pace, you almost kill yourself trying to keep up. What is my point? Kill yourself trying to keep up. That way you’ve thought yourself special enough to die for. That’s the greatest love story that’s never been told.

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective

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Put a Sock in it! Stop Complaining!

Put a Sock in it! Stop Complaining!

By UMES senior Kyla Bibbins

Sometimes I get so tired of people complaining. Now we all are guilty of an occasional sigh of irritability from time to time and that’s fine. But I need everyone complaining constantly over, any and everything to just PUT A SOCK IN IT! Not only does it show you’re unappreciative, it brings negativity to the world around you and its annoying!

Have you ever been having a great day, and then someone just comes up to you and complains to you  about everything that’s going wrong in their life and I mean everything from their nail just broke to their failing grade that the teacher supposedly gave them.  That feeling you get as a result of them complaining to you, you know the feeling that makes you feel a little annoyed and irritated, that’s called negativity! Oh and negativity is one of the most contagious diseases on the face of the earth, so when you sense it … Run! Negativity is spread as a result of your complaints so please think twice before telling someone how your internet is temporarily down in your residential hall and how this is making your life miserable, even though you can  use the internet in Waters or the library, until your internet is back up and working.

Now like I said, we all are guilty of expressing our sighs of frustration but please be mindful of what you are complaining of.  For example if you are a college student with no job why are you complaining that you don’t have money to go shopping? Stop complaining and get a job! Or here is another scenario, let’s say you have a class at 8 a.m. every morning and you’re not a morning person, instead of complaining that you have to get up at 8 a.m. how about you appreciate the fact that you woke up this morning, because, somebody didn’t have that opportunity. And please, please, please, stop complaining about food in the Café. I mean come on; they serve us lobster, shrimp, steak and crab legs multiple times throughout the semester. Of course they don’t serve it every day, but everyday there is something good to eat.  Just be thankful they don’t serve us Sloppy Joes and Hot Dog’s every day, because I have been to the café at other Universities and they make our Plateau look like a 5 star restaurant.

I hope I don’t sound too insensitive, because I do understand what it feels like to have a day where things aren’t working in your favor. But I am sick of hearing people complain about frivolous things! The fact that you spilled some juice on your shirt at lunch is not as important as the test that you have after lunch, so before you complain- PUT A SOCK IN IT!

Be Thankful,

Kyla Bibbins

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What's Next?

 

What's Next?

By UMES senior Kyla Bibbins

There are less than 70 days left until I will be another proud UMES graduate!  Lately the reality that this is my last semester as an undergraduate has been haunting me, I just keep thinking “What is next!?” Of course this question is one that I have been pondering for so many months now. But it is so difficult to make a decision when you have so many options.

 I feel like this is one of the most important points in my life and the choices that I make now will affect my future drastically. Maybe this is why I am so torn between deciding what path to choose after Undergrad, should I take the graduate school route, or take the career trail? I have filled out applications for both, but I still am not certain on my next big move.

I have received advice from many professionals about the matter, and all of them seem to, in their own way of course, tell me to make my choice based on what I find interesting. I wish I could just make my decision based on flipping a coin, that would be much easier. The only thing I have decided is to not stress about making my decision, I have a feeling that everything will turn out okay.

 

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Know Your Worth

Know Your Worth

By UMES Senior Kyla Bibbins

Headlining this year’s Homecoming concert was Hip-hop recording artist 2Chainz and Juicy J. I must say that the concert was very entertaining. Before the 2Chainz incident that led to his late arrival to the concert hip-hop artist Juicy J performed a few of his songs. Personally I am not a huge fan of Juicy J, but I do enjoy his music from time to time.

 Before I make my point, I want to make it clear that I thought his performance was very energetic and it was not bad at all! But during his performance he made a comment that made me look twice.  While on stage Juicy he made a verbal request for all of the (we’ll just say female dog’s) to come to the stage to dance. In the Hip-Hop world this phrase is not new so I don’t know why I even thought twice about what he said, but for whatever reason his remark didn’t sit well with me on this particular occasion.  I’m not sure why, maybe it was the sight of watching my peers bombard the stage to shake something for Juicy that made me uneasy.  It was like everything that we females usually frown upon was being overlooked because he was a celebrity.

He made his remark and to my surprise a large amount of willing young women expressed their interest in coming to the stage to dance. Personally that fact did not surprise me, what surprised me was that despite being referred to as a female dog they still eagerly went on stage and danced for this man that seemed to have no respect for them as individuals, if they got to close to him on the stage his body guards would push them back. I understand that they might have been a little excited to see Juicy J. But I hope next time they come across an opportunity to dance with a celebrity that they do it in the most tasteful, respectful way. I hope that they understand that the only way to be treated like a queen is to act like one and to know your worth.

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3…2…1…Slightly Move!

An Elective on Perspective

                                                     by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson

3…2…1…Slightly Move!

Direct action is to shift from the order of the day. Did you know that? I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that until I went to our Black History Month lecture by our UMES alum, Sherman Lambert. This shed light on my own partial commitments. Not being for something but not feeling strongly enough to speak out against it creates a blurred line so that you yourself no longer know where you stand, all boundaries erased. 

You have to feel out the situation to know where you stand! Well, while feeling out the situation you may compromise your own position because you didn’t directly oppose; rather, you endorsed it by default. If you’re not standing against, it would be too easy to assume that you are standing for.  

Indefinite terms leads to indefinite feelings which result in indefinite actions. Kind of like how most people think that “resist” means, “to crawl away and hope that it catches you.” When in reality, it means to abstain from, oppose, to stand against; just as “shift” doesn’t mean “slightly move” but to change direction completely. But, this is the world that practices half doing things. We half way love people and expect a full relationship. We half way take care of people and expect them to be fully sufficient on their own. We half way speak up and expect to be heard. We half way study and expect all of the credits. We half way work and expect to reap full benefits. We ease on down the road and expect full profit from our half way efforts. 

No one has ever made it to their destination only willing to make half of the trip.

Indirect action is to somewhat move from the order of the day. Now that sounds doable! That sounds much better than direct action. Direct actions require too much consistency and purposeful doings. In the words of my esteemed Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” Good observation, Sweet. I know I don’t have time for that. Although indirect routes lead you off course, onto a course that not even you can delineate, I think I’ll take my chances. We’re here to drift, right? I think not! We live in a world, in a universe, in the midst of space, and this world is spinning on its own axis to make its course purposeful, ordered, and direct. I conclude that even the most seemingly unbalanced wonders need precise groundwork in order to function and stay consistent. Don’t be afraid to make your actions purposeful and direct. The world can never fulfill its purpose believing it’s a motionless star.    

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective



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Calling All Hawks

An Elective on Perspective

                                                     by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson 

Calling All Hawks

I can’t take reading anymore emails about fatal events that took place on campus. 

This is a hawk alert. 

I’m calling all of my hawks; near, far, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, short, tall, etc. Why? My hawks are in trouble. The humanity of people can no longer be relied upon to yield morality and decency. Humanity is becoming inhumane. 

Anytime a man can come to college for a diploma, and leave as a flagged email, you have to question things.

Is this civilization? There’s nothing civilized about being stabbed in the chest while in a parking lot when you have a quiz Monday morning. He had a quiz Monday morning. How do I know? He was in my class. We had a quiz Monday morning. Judging from his GPA, he would have passed it. You’ll never understand how present someone’s presence is until you have to take their name off of the roster. Three years of tuition, studying, and prayers from a mother back home that was all for naught.

I’m asking, why are you here? No, really. The street life is popular. If that’s what you want, stay on the streets. Travelling and shooting is great, join the army. Having sex all day, although exhausting I’m sure, is pretty freaking awesome! So, join a brothel. But, if education is what you want, go to college. If you want to learn a better way, make a better future, and leave a better trail, take college seriously. 

Do you bleed maroon and gray, or do you just wear it? If you bled it you would count every diploma as important as yours and wouldn’t hinder anyone else’s access to it. 

But, I digress. This is college; conflict resolution isn’t a prerequisite.

I need my hawks to be present for not only ourselves but for one another. This campus should be so that if anyone wanted to hurt someone on university grounds they would have to conquer a campus of fighting hawks. Or maybe we’re called the fighting hawks because of what we do to each other. The worst part about the situation is that there were no gains, only losses. Four lives were irreversibly affected. One was lost, and three are wandering. What can we do? The people who weren’t even there? We can handle our business better so that no one else’s mother will have to be called on a Saturday night to be informed that their child is no longer a student here. Tuition is high but that’s not a way that parents wish to get out of paying it. 

There’s a cycle. Who’s going to break it?

 R.I.P Edmond A. St. Clair; aka Trini Wes.

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective. 

Funny Things Students Say

Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, Ph.D.

UMES Director of African American Studies

Funny things students say.

Kathryn Barrett-Gaines, Ph.D.

  

“I don’t know if my keys are clean enough to be in a baby’s mouth!”  I overheard this odd sentence while strolling in Central Park one New York day.  I enjoy the one odd sentence heard out of the context of its conversation.  One odd sentence is worth a thousand words.

I sometimes hear the one odd sentence on the UMES campus.  UMES has funny people.  I love funny people.

One evening in November 2012, I was walking past Kiah, carrying my inflatable globe.  My globe is really a beach ball.  I carry my beach ball world to all my classes.  My beach ball is a satellite view of the world.  I reject those globes which are plastered with a political map.  The actual world has no borders or lines.  The actual world is land and sea and clouds and living things.  To teach this idea is the reason I carry my beach ball globe. 

So, I’m carrying my globe in front of Kiah.  I pass a group of young men walking the opposite direction.  One clever young man says, about me but not to me, “That’s the original GPS, right there.”

That guy is funny.  I love funny people.  I hope that guy enrolls in one of my courses before he graduates.  Funny people are smart.  I love funny people.  I love smart people.

In fact, I hope he enrolls in my course on the history of black comedy.  I’m offering Black Comedy this Spring, on Thursdays from 5 to 7:30 pm.  We will read, think, write, laugh, and perform.  The course is HIST 489-201, Special Topics.  Black Comedy is a special topic.

I teach comedy because I can.  I can teach anything I like because everything has a history and everything teaches history.  I teach comedy because good comedians are important intellectuals who deal in ideas with their great minds.  Not all comedians are good comedians; my job as professor is to weed through and bring forth the good.

What is important in life?  Compassion, justice, and comedy.  Come by on Thursday evenings, Henson 1111, for a little of all three.

UMES Family!

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The Chick in the Bathroom Pic

An Elective on Perspective

                                                     by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson 

The Chick in the Bathroom Pic

Hey, guys! I’ve missed you. Hopefully the time we’ve spent apart has been as beneficial for you as it has been for me. I have been able to lay a good amount of my demons to rest. I’ve finally stood face to face with the person who’s wronged me for so long . . . the person who has held me back, put me into compromising positions, made me think less of myself, and at the end of the day, has kept me from reaching my ultimate potential. Alas, I’ve stood face to face with ME. Yea, that’s right! I’m the sick son-of-a-gun that’s been holding me back. In my professional development class last semester, a guest speaker said something that stuck with me: “Wherever you go, there you are.” Oh, the irony of it all. It’s that awkward moment when you’re looking for someone to blame, and you’re the only one standing there.

When you realize that your legs, and how far you extend yourself, solely determines how far you go, you are at that point where you are simultaneously boundless and liable. I have a great opportunity ahead of me. One that far outweighs anything I’ve ever had the chance of doing. My excitement, however, has been spiked with the mocker, self doubt. And oh, what a mocker it is. It’s that small voice in the back of your head telling you that although you have the tools, you are not capable enough to use them. Do you know what I said to that little voice . . . that voice that is incessant about making you throw in the towel before you’ve even started the race? That voice is a little nag that has to point out the fact that your cup, although half full, is half empty. Do you want to know what I said? “Shut the full cup!”

Because, you see, my cup is indeed full. In fact, it is pressed down, shaken together, and running over. The test is hard? You decide how long you study. The job is too early? You decide what time you wake up. Your woman is no good? You decide how long you deal with her. Someone has lied to you? You decided to believe them. No matter how far out of line someone else can get, it only affects your equilibrium when you allow it to knock you of balance. It’s inevitable that you will be negatively affected by other people. But it’s up to you, just as everything else is in your life, how you react. And yes, how you react determines the outcome; and many outcomes determine your future. Michael Jackson focused on the man in the mirror. I’ll start work on the chick in the bathroom pic. *Insert duck face* I am facing me, the good, the bad, and the hideous. I decide my future and I’ve chosen success. 

How far can you take yourself? 

Have you met you?

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective.

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Who Are You?

Who Are You?
by UMES Graduating Senior Kyla Bibbins

Who are you? Besides your name that was most likely given to you by someone other than you, who are you and what are you about? For some of us this question can be answered easily, and then there are some of us who may find the question difficult to respond to. At the beginning of my college career I was struggling to answer the question for myself.

When I arrived at UMES back in August of 2009, I thought I was confident and sure of myself. Until eventually the reality set in that I was about two hours away from home and away from the everyday influence of my family and friends.  To most people they would assume I was homesick, but I knew the feeling was deeper than me being homesick, my self-confidence was slowly starting to diminish.  It was as if I was all alone for the first time in my life. Almost everything that I was familiar to was no longer an aspect of my life. It was like I had to start over with everything that I had worked hard for in High school. In High school I did well with academics, participated in various extracurricular activities and had a job for most of my high school career. When I got to UMES, I did not have a job, did not know what extracurricular I wanted to participate in and I was doing “Ok” with my academics, but not nearly as well as they were in High school.  These factors contributed to me doubting myself. As much as I am reluctant to say, I was also kind of intimidated by some of the other students that seemed so polished and ready for college. I began questioning myself, my passion, my goals and my happiness.

So I began to explore ways for me to express myself. For me writing poems and writing rap songs made it easy for me to vent about my inside feelings. This form of expression was something that I enjoyed doing since I was about 14 years old. But it wasn’t until attending college that I felt I was comfortable enough to share my rap songs and poems with the rest of the world. This expression actually was a networking tool that allowed me to meet many people here at UMES.  I started to realize that by being true to my own interests and talents, everything started to fall into place. Through sharing my music I met people that told me about student organizations and campus jobs that I may be interested in.  It was as if everything that had once satisfied my self-assurance was now unimportant. What became most important to me was doing things that made me happy- writing poetry and making music. For the last two years I have continued to stay true to what makes me happy, I even changed my major from English Education to English so that I can take more courses that concentrated in Telecommunication. Some people frowned upon my decision and even told me that when I graduated I was going to be “jobless” or “broke”.  But I don’t care what other people think or feel, all I know as that I enjoy courses focused in Telecommunications , they make me happy, and when I’m happy I feel good and as selfish as it may seem, all I really want is to be happy.  Besides, I work too hard to graduate and be “jobless”, or “broke”.

 “Who am I?” I have finally come to realize that I am a result of everything I am passionate about. I am passionate about poetry, music and people.

Again I will ask you… “Who are you?”

Kyla Bibbins

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Bittersweet Time of Year

Terry Smith

Director of the UMES University Writing Center

Bittersweet Time of Year

This is a bittersweet time of year.  Two of my friends and colleagues here at UMES recently posted on Facebook about their sadness at reaching the end of the semester with their students, and I couldn’t agree more. 

It seems that activity after activity keeps reminding us of the end—the end of the semester, the end of our time with our current students, and, especially bittersweet, the end of our time with graduating seniors. 

On the last Thursday of classes, I had a meeting of my new tutors.  But, the evening before the meeting, I decided to include food and drink, so I invited the four seniors who are leaving me to attend as well.  And all of them did so. They enthusiastically told the newly hired four tutors of their positive experiences in the Writing Center, and all mentioned how much they would miss it.  It just reminded me of how much I will miss them. 

Oh, I’m excited for them:  Two are English majors who have been accepted into master’s degree programs in English, one is an Exercise Science major moving on to graduate work in Physical Therapy, and one is a Math Education major, who is moving on to prepare for a teaching internship. They were all treasured members of my Writing Center family whom I feel I have gotten to know well in the past four months.  I care about them; I’m invested in them.  They filled the Center with personality and taught me a great deal about what makes an effective Writing Center.  And I had similar experiences as several regular clients of the Writing Center told me that they were graduating that as well. 

Later that same day, I met with my final Honors Technical Writing class.  And what a group they were!  We had an incredibly positive semester, and I was incredibly impressed with their final projects:  instructional manuals on topics ranging from How to Prepare for a UMES Pageant to How to Write a C++ Computer Program.  I saw exemplary work from students with strong enough averages to receive A’s with mediocre projects.   But that shows who these students are:  young people with a true passion for and commitment to learning.  Oh, I’ll get to see most of them again, especially now that I am in the Writing Center so much, but I’ll never get to work with them as closely again.  Although not as painful, I was still sad to see that day end. 

I don’t know how the students feel, but I know how I feel about the end of the semester.  Certainly, I’ll be relieved to put the heavy workload behind me for a few weeks, but, like my colleagues, I will miss the wonderful young people with whom I have been working closely for the past 14 weeks.  Although I have been teaching a long time and have worked with many students over the years, the young people I worked with this fall in the Writing Center and in class are truly special.  Of course, I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about the students with whom I work this spring.

I wish all of the young people with whom I worked this fall a restful and enjoyable break.  And, when those who did not graduate return for Spring 2013 rejuvenated and ready to learn, I remind them to stop by to visit because I miss them already J.  

UMES Family!

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