As I sit in a dark green lawn chair overlooking the beauty of memorial hill, it’s hard to ignore the thoughts of doubt that creep into my mind. Have I taken advantage of this amazing place in which I live? Am I going to have any regrets? The uniqueness of the Pioneer Valley is one of the main reasons I chose to attend Amherst.
What determines our identity? Are we stuck with that with which we are born, a result of our environments and families, or do we have the ability to construct them anew? For Lana Del Rey, the answer is clearly the latter. Born Elizabeth Grant in New York City, the 26-year old singer grew up in Lake Placid until she was shipped off to boarding school at the age of 14 to deal with her alcohol addiction. Although born into a family of means, Del Rey continuously presents herself as struggling and eternally isolated.
Now that we’re substantially into the semester, and the sting of getting the boot from that first-choice class has subsided, it’s time to look back and rant on the confusion that is add/drop. We come to Amherst for one main reason: the academics. Our school provides the best teachers and they teach the best classes, so we agree to pay huge sums of money, time, energy and hard work. Why, then, semester after semester, are we subjected to a system that is not only inefficient, but also keeps us from taking those classes and learning from those very teachers that we chose this school for?
Fashion trends are everchanging; they can be hard to stay on top of, and even harder to understand how they started in the first place. A fashion “trend” is a particular look or article of clothing that gains popularity within a large group for a specific amount of time. The roots of a trend can be hard to pinpoint. However, many can be traced back to celebrities and other figures in the public eye. When an admired star (let’s say Princess Kate) is photographed sporting a new look, the item flies off of shelves within days.
