I love the walk of lights and all, but after a long semester I could feel my brain begin to unpack as soon as I left school. I visited a friend and saw a new city. I caught up on Bones. I rode my bike from my house to the beach. I worked my way through the contents of my stocking (chocolate tastes better when it is shaped like Santa Claus). I read books that weren’t for class and breakfasted with real news instead of Gawker. This is all a big step up, sanity-wise: I am a decent specimen of my suite in that by the end of exams, I could work only while listening to YouTube recordings of the Red Army Choir. I’m not sure whether this came from the feeling that I could write papers if they could march across the steppe or from the conviction that they would find and kill me if I slacked off. Life is better now.

But since the ball dropped, stress has been creeping back in. Gchat bubbles reappear and shift back toward red. “Zoe has seven internship thingies to finish ACK.” “Andrew where is my calc grade????” I’m the same—although there’s a still a trip between me and the start of classes, I’m flying back to NYC tomorrow. My parents and I spent yesterday driving around depositing paychecks, buying triple-hole-punchers, and replacing the battery in my watch (that store also sold throwing knives and hip flasks, but my father did not seem to think either was a worthy investment). My to-do list grew by a foot, and I am suddenly rushed. Among the people with whom I’ve spoken, there’s an emergence from cocoons. I don’t know if I’d actually wish the break longer, and there’s still a big chunk to go, but… it looked more like nirvana on December 17^th.

I guess the ex-VP decided to celebrate his invention of the internet by taking some time off to cruise around the lecture circuit in a private jet and invent what is commonly referred to today as “global warming.”

According to NPR, robots that have scoured the sea are reporting home that the water hasn’t actually gotten any warmer in the past five years, and when it comes to global warming, “it’s the oceans that really matter.”

As in, that’s where all the proof is. And the proof isn’t there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Proving that an appeal to fear will trump a call to our highest virtues, Hillary Clinton pulled off career-saving victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas last night. While she gained a net 17 delegates (three times the total of tiny Rhode Island), she demonstrated that her ship has not sunk entirely. After last night’s primaries, Barack Obama is still the clear mathematical leader, but HRC isn’t to be counted out. Heaven help the Democratic party!

After dinner, the owner of a nearby Dominican restaurant explained why he is for Hillary:

1. Barack’s middle name is Hussein. “Hoo-sain, Hoo-sain,” he repeated. Clearly, he must be receiving contributions from Islamic terrorists.
2. The economy was in tatters when William Jefferson Clinton took over from George Bush, who started a war in Iraq. Now that another Bush started a war in Iraq and the economy is roiling, the only person capable of solving the problem is another Clinton.

This sort of choose-your-own-adventure, street corner politics is akin to spotting aliens on the back of a $20 bill. Absurd, right? Masonic conspiracy theories and hidden councils of the illuminati seem ridiculous, but only because we go to school with them–and they ain’t such bad blokes. Clearly, the issues don’t matter. Swiftboating and Internet rumors are a much better way to decide the fate of the free world.

The real winner is John McCain, who locked up his party’s nomination with a four-state sweep. While Hillary and Barack continue trashing each other until the Democratic Convention in June, Mad Mac can have more Sedona barbecues and build a war chest while “the kids” fight it out over Pennsylvania. The outcome is sure to be a bitterly-divided Democratic party and legions of disenchanted independents. With that to look forward to, I can only say Democracy is great, if it works in my favor.

File this under rant:

In the past 45 minutes I’ve witnessed several people’s lame attempts not to acknowledge me in passing. As it occurs I can see the thought process at work. “Hmm… am I going to say ‘hi’ to this person? He dated so and so, or so and so doesn’t like her, so… nope.”

Once you’ve decided not to say “hi” there are the trusty standbys, such as pulling the cell phone out at the last second, looking at a crack or absentmindedly picking your nose, all of which allow one to pass in silence. They all work, but they all piss me off.

I’m not saying I’m the best at this. I know a lot of people on campus and as often as not I’m totally spacing out as I go about my business. There are also several people I would just rather not acknowledge, but as the son of an African immigrant, the worst offense you can commit is not saying hello when you see someone. It’s almost as if you deny someone their humanity when you don’t greet them, which is why it vexes me when it happens. I’m an egomaniac and I want everyone to acknowledge and admire me at all times.

One of the things that makes college so great is living close to your best friends. One of the things that can make it a drag is that your least favorite people are also in close proximity. In the ever-shifting landscape of collegiate alliances, betrayals and casual hookups it can be hard to known whom you should be friendly with. As a general rule, unless you have beef, you’re obligated to a simple gesture. If you recognize someone, you say hello to them or at least acknowledge that you see them. This goes for former classmates (discussion sections especially), members of organizations or teams you were a part of, and Facebook friends. If you don’t want to say hi to someone, don’t have them as a part of your online life. When people I know don’t say hi to me, I cull them from Facebook. I don’t want to deem anyone a “friend” who would ignore me in real life.

The matter of dating complicates the picture a little bit. Is it alright to say hi to friends of your ex? There shouldn’t be a problem–you’re both human beings. You both know something about each other. Even if the breakup was my fault, I still believe it is important to show a little courtesy. I look even worse if I can’t make eye contact with someone just cuz I broke up with their friend. Let’s stop taking ourselves so seriously!

Despite our rushed, stressed out, overachieving lives, we’re not the only people in them. Sometimes we wish folks would miraculously disappear and save us the trouble. If you know someone and haven’t got a problem, at least say hello. You might brighten someone’s day if you do, and ruin it if you don’t. Now that you’ve read my rant you’re free to ignore it.

[Miles Lennon, GS '08, started TextWorks, LLC last year. Read him every Thursday, and find out what he's learned along the way.]

If you have not already experienced it, the final two years of your stay at Columbia will include what I like to call the “Columbia Career Crisis.” Just after you feel as though you’ve finally hit your stride—you’ve declared your major, your friends are for the most part in place, and you feel more or less at home—you are forced to think about your life after school ends. Unfortunately, the job search is highly competitive, requires an enormous amount of resume-packing preparatory work, demands a lot of time, increases stress tremendously and leaves you unsatisfied until you have obtained your target position. However, these aspects are all common knowledge and are, frankly, just part of the process. They are almost always unavoidable and I would not amount them to a crisis. 

The reason I call it a crisis is because I fear many Columbia students see the job search process with immense, often peer-influenced tunnel vision. Admittedly, I state this without any statistical  or empirical evidence; I am speaking purely from my own experiences and from my observation of others around me.  

I, too, once saw the process with tunnel vision, knowing exactly what I wanted to do: finance. I laid the ground work with various internships, spent hours fine-tuning my resume and cover letters and conducted mock interviews religiously. I managed to secure a summer internship, which resulted in a full-time job offer. But when it came time to accepting or rejecting my offer, I had a change of heart and decided to start my own business.

I realize that sounds very extreme—it is. But that is an entirely different story. The point is that in doing so, I have met and continue to meet business professionals from a broad spectrum of industries, some of which I didn’t even know existed. I have become a student of the developments and trends in emerging fields that are fascinating, but not well known or publicized. As a result, when I reflect on the way I went about my job search, I see just how many avenues I simply never cared to explore.  

The purpose of this article is not to evangelize student entrepreneurship or suggest that the finance trajectory is not a respectable one. Rather, I want to acknowledge that many Columbia students may be viewing the job process through the eyes of their community, and subsequently missing out on opportunities that are more exciting or better fitting to their personalities.

When asked the dreaded question, “What do you plan to do after school?” I often hear the response, “I guess Law School,” or “finance because there really isn’t much else out there.” I believe that these responses are much more problematic than we choose to think. It’s a crisis because all students should have the opportunity to experience how good it feels to be doing or pursuing something that they truly want. 

In order to solve this problem, I encourage students to willingly exercise patience and foster curiosity–to meet new people and explore new opportunities. Recognize that external influences may force you to view your career with tunnel-vision, and counteract it. Set up meetings with professors, family friends or parents of friends. Find out what these people do, explore it for yourself and see if it’s up your alley. Simultaneously, I ask that the community balance the impact of the finance-law school-med school-grad school hammer that often beats us over the head with influence from a diverse group of industries.  

-MILES LENNON