2008 Woodie Awards
The season of fun, 99 cent PowerAdes and ... work?
Matt Schill--Dakota Student (U. North Dakota)
Issue date: 4/30/03 Section: Opinion
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(U-WIRE) GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Summer is already upon us. Thirty-two ounces of PowerAde in every available color are now available for 99 cents at most local convenience stores. The sun is mostly shining, grass is green (other than under leaf piles) and the trees are finally beginning to sprout leaves. The same repackaged movies are released with more explosions. Large trucks from grassroots construction companies fill the streets.
I can't wait. But I've yet to figure out why. Yes, summer is arguably the best season. It also opens opportunities in parks, lakes and tubing. It also brings full-time employment for most University of North Dakota students.
Yet here I am drooling at the mouth for an opportunity to punch in at 7 a.m. (which also means getting up at six). I thought jobs were something to bitch about and want to quit every other week. But here I am saying how work is like the second coming of Jesus. Ahh, green grass and the shade of a nice tree. Shouldn't the ultimate goal of students' summer break be about relaxation? No more homework, no more tests and no more professors complaining about how Pick-a-Prof ruins the student body's integrity. What ever happened to Alice Cooper's "School's Out for the Summer?" School's out with fever?.
As I grow older, summer has become just another season. Different from the rest of the year, the months of June, July, August and most of May in that the weather doesn't actually suck. But since I'm working 40+ hours a week now, I don't get to enjoy them. During the school year, if I wanted to skip class and go to the beach I could. Not saying I would, but I could (C'mon people, there's no beaches in Grand Forks, I can't skip).
Summer has become the season of money for students. With tuition on the rise, students must have some financial backing in order to continue higher education. Yet still, I look forward to summer, and still don't know why, even though I have to work or I'll have to work full-time for the rest of my life. And with the entire UND enrollment outmigrating back "home" for the summer, there's no one around. Friends have gone back to "the cities" because of higher pay. And traveling abroad is so hot right now. My social life, or what I call one, is completely diminished. Yet here I am pondering what I'm going to do this summer.
Mmm, disc golf. And I guess at the end of it all, it's change, which is new and different and more fun. And if I don't change, Alice Cooper will be playing at the North Dakota State Fair July 25 in Minot. Did I mention with Ted Nugent?
I can't wait. But I've yet to figure out why. Yes, summer is arguably the best season. It also opens opportunities in parks, lakes and tubing. It also brings full-time employment for most University of North Dakota students.
Yet here I am drooling at the mouth for an opportunity to punch in at 7 a.m. (which also means getting up at six). I thought jobs were something to bitch about and want to quit every other week. But here I am saying how work is like the second coming of Jesus. Ahh, green grass and the shade of a nice tree. Shouldn't the ultimate goal of students' summer break be about relaxation? No more homework, no more tests and no more professors complaining about how Pick-a-Prof ruins the student body's integrity. What ever happened to Alice Cooper's "School's Out for the Summer?" School's out with fever?.
As I grow older, summer has become just another season. Different from the rest of the year, the months of June, July, August and most of May in that the weather doesn't actually suck. But since I'm working 40+ hours a week now, I don't get to enjoy them. During the school year, if I wanted to skip class and go to the beach I could. Not saying I would, but I could (C'mon people, there's no beaches in Grand Forks, I can't skip).
Summer has become the season of money for students. With tuition on the rise, students must have some financial backing in order to continue higher education. Yet still, I look forward to summer, and still don't know why, even though I have to work or I'll have to work full-time for the rest of my life. And with the entire UND enrollment outmigrating back "home" for the summer, there's no one around. Friends have gone back to "the cities" because of higher pay. And traveling abroad is so hot right now. My social life, or what I call one, is completely diminished. Yet here I am pondering what I'm going to do this summer.
Mmm, disc golf. And I guess at the end of it all, it's change, which is new and different and more fun. And if I don't change, Alice Cooper will be playing at the North Dakota State Fair July 25 in Minot. Did I mention with Ted Nugent?