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January 25,1995
2
Campus Opinion
Editorial; Senior tries to keep perspective
by Teresa Latham
Embarking on my last semester as a
Meredith student has lead me to think
about my past, present and future. For
most of us, our life until now has con
sisted of education, with a side of food
service training. 1 truly cannot believe
how fast the pace of my life has be
come. When did I suddenly become
an adult? In four short months I am
supposed to be joining the masses of
students-tumed-walking-resumes and
make my mark in the worid of rent,
insurance, interviews, taxes, grocery
shopping, car payments, and business
suits. I am just not so sure about all of
this.
Through the majority of my life
thus far, I have had it relatively easy. As
a young child all my decisions were
made for me by my parents. As I grew
bit older major decisions consisted of
“Do I get the basic 8-pack of crayons or
do I aim to impress with the 64-pack
with the way cool built-in sharpener?”
In middle school it got much more
complicated, yet we still had the com
fortable guideline of if-I-do-what-every-
one^lse-isk)ing-I-ambound-to4)e-cool
thinking that almost every twelve-year-
old prartices.
In high school, life was getting
rough. We had to decide what kind of
person we wanted to portray. Let’s
face it, everyone was perceived as a
member of a category. You were the
Cheerleader, thejock, the Intellectual,
the Geek, the Joe Average, or some
other variation.
For the majority of us middle-to
upper-class high school graduates,
going to college was never really a
decision to be made. Our parents had
saved for it since 1973 and it was
known to be the “best time of your
life.” As well as the blatant fact we
were kids that only had two years of
driving under our belt, were just barely
old enough to be trusted to vote for
our elected officials and God knows
we probably wouldn’t have had a clue
what to do with ourselves if we didn’t
go to college.
For me, the future, until recently,
has never been somethingl had to give
a lot of thought to. In high school, the
goal was college. In college, the goal
was a major then becoming a career.
This is where the problems started.
Within the first two year of college,
a student is supposed to have gained
enough knowledge and experience to
choose a major. In other words, a 19-
year-old student is supposed to know
exactly what they want to do for pos
sibly the rest of their lives. Except for
those annoying people who have
known from conception what they
wanted to do, how is this really pos
sible for the rest of us? It was just a year
before that we had left the nest of our
parent homes with curfew and other
limitations because “we are not old
enough to make the best decisions.”
I don’tthink it is reasonable. Maybe
I just want to be forever a Toys-R-Us
kid, but seriously people, think about
this. Granted, I luve done a lot of
growing up in my years in college but
I have also been forced to make deci
sions I would have made better had I
waited.
'The answer seems to be clear to
me. I think that people should be
given at least a year or two to explore,
study and think before going to lunch.
For example, as extreme this may
sound to some of you, people at this
age would benefit much better to
spend that chunk of tuition money
and use it to read books you never
read, go to different parts of the world,
talk to different people, and within
this context a person will grow up.
see EDITORIAL
page seven
Meredith Herald
Editor in Chief
Christina Peoples
Layout Editor Shannon Peterson
Copy Editor Melissa Massengill
Features Editor Clarky Lucas
News Editor AddieTschamler
Photo Editor Jetson
Business Manager Carrie Shaw
Reporters Arinn Dixon, Ashley Peay, Kimberly Zucker,
Keri VanDoren, Kristine Stagg, Melissa Cloer,
Teresa Latham, MeaganCronauer,MarshaTutor,
Shannon SmHh
Photographers Laura Ross, Jan Seate
Faculty Consultants Garry Walton, Rod Cockshutt, Nan Miller
Adviser Paula Daniels
Editorial Policy:
The Meredith Herald is publish^ by the College throughout the academic
year. The paper is funded by the College and through advertising. The
opinions expressed in editorial columns do not necessarily reflect those of
the college administraiton, faculty or student body.
Letters to the Editor Policy:
Everyone in the Meredith community is invited to write a letter to the editor.
All published letters must be typewritten with contact name, address and
telephone number. All letters must be signed by the author, but names will
be withheld upon request.
The Herald reserves the right to placeany other article submissions on file
until needed or to choose not to print them.
Letter to the Editor: Meredith students
not immune to abusive relationships
Dear editor,
Yesterday, I was browsing through
the Herald, and I opened to the Ques
tion of the Week. The Question was
“Do you think that women in abusive
relationships should be prosecuted for
murder ifthey kill their husbands?” As
I read the answers, I was astounded at
some of the answers. I agree that every
case should be treated differently, and
every case should be prosecuted, but
clearly some cases are self-defense,
and therefore should carry no sen
tence. Every case has a story. This is
the story of my case.
First let me tell you a little bit about
Mark. When we started dating, Mark
was5' 7",andweighed210pounds. He
was solid muscle. He was gorgeous,
too. His parents and my parents are
best friends - yes, that’s right - they are
still best friends. I have never told my
parents that any of this went on. Our
brothers have played soccer together
for 7 years now. When everyone found
out we were dating, they couldn’t have
been happier.
Mark and I started dating when I
was 14 and he was 16. We started
dating in April, and in May, he asked
me to go the prom, which was in June.
I was so excited! Two days after he
asked me, I has a dance recital. I was
very nervous because I had a solo, and
Mark was coming to see me dance.
After the recital, he came back stage
with two dozen roses, kissed me on
the cheek, and told me how proud he
was of me. Well, Mark decided to
show me just how proud of me he was
that night. He raped me. Then he left
the house as if nothing had happened,
saying only that if I didn’t forget about
this, he would make me forget about
it.
Well, needless to say, I was scared
to death. I convinced myself that it
was all my fault. I had never had an
older boyfriend, and I thought that
this was just “how it was”. Before I
see LETTER
page seven