As I perused my Facebook timeline to find photos from a skinnier and more athletic time in my life, it came across my mind to check my old MySpace account. I have some great pictures on there, I thought to myself.

During an obnoxious process of resetting my long-forgotten password — which I only got to after resetting the password to my long-forgotten email (aZn_Sp0rtz_ gurLxx or some embarrassing name like that) — I was asked the security question, “What is your favorite color?” I thought, easy, blue!

But alas, it was not so.

My complicated adolescent self had to write some obscure shade called “synthetic ultramarine.”

Finally, I made it into my MySpace account. Good grief, has that site changed since 2007. What I had come to learn after this educational excursion turned out to be a universal truth that we all already know … we were all once idiots.

I mean, I knew I was angsty at 16, but I thought I was a pretty cool kid overall. Boy, did my image of my past self drop 10 flights of stairs.

Who knows what I was thinking when I reposted the chain letter about the bloody 6-year-old with no legs hiding under your bed. It couldn’t possibly be because I actually believed he would come into my house and kill me if I didn’t repost it in 13 seconds. Of course not. And I couldn’t possibly have thought that reposting the I-love-Jesus-forward-this-only-if-you’re-a-true-believer bulletin would prove my undying faith and keep me from getting bad luck for seven years.

Oh, but I did.

And after I got over my initial shame, I concluded that everything was okay. I reminded myself that all of this was just a necessary part of life that everyone goes through. However, after that relief, I came to another realization — I’m still ignorant.

Everyone is. Our friends, our professors, Romney, Obama. If we combined the knowledge of every human being on earth, it would amount to an infinitesimal grain of stardust compared to the vastness of all existence. We only inhabit this moment of time and space that we call the present, but really there’s everything that came before and everything that will come after us, and of these matters, we have little knowledge.

We know so little, yet we are naturally inclined to feel that our perspective of the world is the correct one and that the way we do things is the way that makes the most sense — true objectivity has never been mankind’s strong suite.

But this kind of ignorance is not completely bad.

In fact, our brains would probably explode if we tried to comprehend everything in existence.

The good news is that our perpetual state of unknowing drives us to keep growing, keep striving and keep moving forward. It’s how we were designed — to go through this natural undulation of peaks and troughs, cycles of feeling like we’re on top of the world followed by feeling like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.

It’s how we stay confident in ourselves yet are simultaneously humbled so that our pride doesn’t swell and go unchecked. Not knowing everything gives us the drive to continue learning and working toward a goal, yet it also reminds us to stop occasionally and appreciate the flowers that we know won’t be there forever.

It’s how we’re able to look back at our old selves and see how far we’ve come, how we’ve grown from dorky teenagers to more mature college students. It’s because of this ignorance, this unknowing, that we are able to look to the past with a clearer vision of who we are and also work toward the future with hope that we will become better versions of our present selves.

So, MySpace, thank you for being with us in our early years and providing us a window into our past — even though some of us would rather forget the pictures of our terrible bright red lipstick phase when we thought we looked so hot. Facebook, good job recording the present and connecting us with friends and family around the world.

To whoever’s next in line, I hope you can fill some pretty big shoes.

JHUNEHL FORTALEZA is embarrassed to still have a MySpace. Tell her your social network woes at jtfortaleza@ucdavis.edu.

Today, former President Bill Clinton will speak on the Quad at 10:30 a.m.

It certainly says something about UC Davis that we are a destination for a well-known political figure. While Clinton’s decision to visit Davis is likely related to the proximity to the state capital, the fact that UC Davis is becoming a more prominent and successful university certainly played a part in grabbing Clinton’s attention.

This year, UC Davis was named the No. 8 public university in the nation by US News & World Report and ranked No. 3 (tied with UC San Diego) within the UCs. It’s exciting to see UC Davis recognized for its excellence, and Bill Clinton’s visit is yet another form of recognition for our school.

Regardless of political affiliation, every student should be on the Quad this morning, taking advantage of an amazing opportunity to see national politics in action on our very own campus.

The upcoming election could easily change the lives of every college student in America, so college students should be showing that they care. We hope professors understand if their classrooms are pretty empty this morning.

The Davis College Democrats should also be commended for coordinating with the California Democratic Party to organize the Bill Clinton event. It’s encouraging to see student groups being proactive in getting important information to the students.

So, Mr. Clinton, welcome to our university. And students, we hope to see you out there this morning.

The UC system saved my life.

I was diagnosed with stage one Wilms’ tumor just before I turned 3 years old, and I was treated at UC San Francisco. After having the affected kidney removed, I continued onto chemotherapy, receiving treatments every other week. I am now proudly cancer-free and dealing with minimal long-term side effects to treatment such as small teeth and diminished abdominal muscles on my left side.

For cancer patients and their families, having more high-quality cancer centers across California is a necessity, and communication between pediatric cancer experts and regular cancer professionals is vital, especially for children transitioning into adolescence and adulthood. Being a childhood cancer survivor, I am excited to see that the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center connected its pediatric center with the main location.

It is a sign of progress that pediatric and non-pediatric professionals are making an effort to connect and communicate. It will surely make a difference in some young child’s life — fewer long-term side effects to treatment and more years ahead.

Jennifer Sheffield

UC Davis sophomore mechanical engineering major

The editorial board’s accusation in its Thursday editorial that ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling “unlawfully” attempted to remove former Senator Yara Zokaie from ASUCD is misinformed and factually inaccurate.

Zokaie’s actions — completing her coursework and graduating from Davis last spring, and enrolling in an outside law school this fall — necessarily entail she has resigned her seat.

ASUCD Bylaw 703.2 states that only enrolled students may serve as a senator and Section 3 of the ASUCD Constitution states that graduate and professional students may not hold an elected or appointed office in ASUCD. These are in addition to university employment rules specifying that only undergraduate students may be student employees — a category that includes ASUCD senators.

Although ASUCD has traditionally allowed for a grace period of one quarter after completion of coursework to continue employment, Zokaie exhausted this option when she did not enroll in this calendar year’s Summer Session.

The “bylaws” that the editorial vaguely claims Sterling violated simply do not exist, and the premise that Zokaie, after leaving Davis and enrolling as a law student at another university, can somehow have the luxury of choosing whether or not to resign is nonsensical.

The reality that Zokaie is no longer an ASUCD Senator is evidenced by the fact she was removed from university payroll due to her non-student status — something entirely outside the control of any ASUCD official.

A commonsense understanding of university and ASUCD policy would clearly lead to the conclusion that Zokaie has resigned, de facto, by virtue of her actions.  Since Zokaie has resigned, the Elections Committee is required to commence a count-back election, and if no student is eligible to serve from the count-back, then Sterling must post the vacancy for a specified period of time, after which she will make an appointment with the ASUCD Senate’s confirmation.

This is exactly what Sterling is lawfully and responsibly attempting to do. Contrary to The Aggie’s specious assertions, the ASUCD Court has no stipulated or required role at any point in this process.

To the best of our knowledge, the editorial board determined it was unimportant to seek out Sterling’s justifications.  While the board is free to do as it pleases, it should have made a good-faith effort to listen to both sides before calling her actions “ridiculous.”

More worryingly, the board appears to have been co-opted by one or two sources with a political agenda, and relied solely on those sources in condemning Sterling.

The students deserve better from their newspaper.