Opinion

As my time at UC Davis as an undergraduate and as the Aggie Pack emcee comes to a close,I thought it would be appropriate to say a formal and fond farewell to you,the students.After all,my undergraduate experience would not have been even close to what it was if it was not for the Aggie Pack you created.Together,we have successfully ushered in Division I,opened Aggie Stadium,beaten Stanford11times and have brought Aggie Pride to a new level.All in all,we have created a tremendous community of Aggies.

As much as I sometimes refuse to acknowledge it,I am graduating in a matter of weeks… days,really.Time seems to go faster every hour and I’m not sure there are enough days left to do and see all the things I will miss in Davis.I think that’s a good thing,because it means I’ve found things I’m sad to leave behind.

Editor’s Note:This column originally ran Oct.27,2008.When I wrote it my grandpa was dying and I wasn’t sure what to do.I ended up writing this column,which helped.Many readers contacted me to tell me that they were touched by the column,so hopefully they won’t mind reading it again.I feel like it still holds true.

Readers– as this is the last column the hard-working and parsimonious gang atTheAggie will let me publish this year,let me say its been one king-hell of a ride writing for you.My coverage of the obscure and important,I hope,has helped you to see more elephants in the room than a schizophrenic pachyderm.

This past Memorial Day weekend I did something I’ve never done before.And no,I didn’t take three consecutive body shots of three different liquors off the bellies of three different sorority girls for three days straight; I wasn’t on houseboats,sorry to disappoint. Instead,I went to Raging Waters.But more on that later.

Ladies andgentlemenof the class of2009…wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future,sunscreen would be it. But I have a lot of column left,so I will offer you more.The rest of my advice,though,is a wholly owned subsidiary of my experience,and may or may not have any applicability to yours and may or may not get you into a lot of trouble.

America is a strange nation. She is a country that produces the very best and the very worst, whether in political, economic or cultural aspects. Everything and anything happens in America. Take its politics. America’s politics are bitterly partisan, often divided around staunch, sometimes less-clear, battle lines. Republicans and Democrats represent the dual extremes of two highly polar positions, but swing moderates, special interests groups and think tanks also exert influence. Thus the process to win votes are frequently organized and mechanized.

This weekend I told my parents I was“camping“ and got in a car then got on a boat then got on an island that essentially beat the crap out of me.It was awesome.There was much (okay,maybe just some) concern raised last week over the issue of whether or not ASUCD should use school funds to fund Safeboats,something ultimately designed to act as a raging First Aid kit for the little drunk college coeds on Lake Shasta.I kind of doubt that anyone was actually against the idea,they just didn‘t want to support a weekend of extreme drunkenness and dangerous activity.

Everyone agrees that creativity is an important quality to have in order to succeed in any profession.Not only that,creative individuals positively affect the whole world,as did Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.There is no doubt that creativity indirectly benefits mankind,but is this intuitive notion correct? How could writing poetry or doodling cartoons assist Albert Einstein with his role in the creation of the atom bomb? Clearly,it wouldn’t help him in any significant way.There is a certain creative process that needs to be exercised in order to translate meaningless ideas into useful ones; I call this type of creativity: “constructive creativity.“ Here are5tips to being more creative in a meaningful way.

I‘ll usually write my articles about intense outside world-related things (swine-flu racists,the new chancellor not making sacrifices,racist republicans,LGBT rights,racists in general).And I‘m sure the majority of you don‘t really care– unfortunately. The end is near,this is my second to last column for the year and I want to try to spin this article to something more college related.With spring fever and summer love almost indistinguishable in this Davis heat,a lot of us get confused about what‘sreal and what isn‘t in college relationships.

In case you guys haven’t figured it out yet,classes are over in eight days.For those of you who aren’t graduating,you still have at least one more wonderful year to experience the greatness that is Davis and absorb everything college has to offer.For those of you who are graduating,thank goodness we’re almost out of here.I mean,Davis was great and all,but I’m so tired of school right now,I can barely make myself sit through the rest of my classes. In any case,I learned a lot here.I’m not just talking about what I got out of my classes.Although,if we’re being honest,a lot of what I spent the last four years learning and writing papers about really isn’t useful in real world situations.At least I have some interesting cocktail conversation.

Every day we are bombarded with ambition-probing questions forcing us to think about our future lives in the “real” world.These questions are usually intended to be facilitators of harmless conversation,but they often cause us to develop misconceived notions of success. Well,these questions can come in a variety of forms.