Last week, I went to the last chapter meeting of the year with Beta Theta Pi. Alongside wrapping up Fraternity business for the year, we had our graduating members will items down to younger members to keep them in the fraternity and impart some wisdom to the chapter.

It was a long ceremony, but totally worth it. Everyone willed great things and had amazing stories to share with the chapter. But personally, one person stood out: Dwolfe

Daniel “Dwolfe” Wolfert is the ideal human being. He’s hilarious, a good singer and has just too much sass and snark for most people. He is awesome and Puget Sound is losing an amazing individual by letting him graduate this Saturday. He’s been an incredible contributor to Beta this last year, pouring his blood, sweat and tears into the chapter despite not being asked to.

What he had to say to the chapter almost had me at tears. He declared his love for the chapter. Dwolfe essentially said that all the hard work he put in this year was representative of his love for us. He even referenced some lyrics from the song he wrote and released this year, “The Horizon is Ours.” (By the way, it is an AMAZING song, check it out!)

Through the dark, I can see the dawn I am running to.

He said that we were the dawn he was running to. Beta was the light at the end of the tunnel for him. That’s how much we meant to him.

Dwolfe, I’ve only known you for a semester, but the experiences I’ve had with you will last a lifetime. Wherever you end up in life, make a RUCKUS.

After a semester’s hard work of scouring the internet for writing positions, I landed an internship at Forcechange.com. The first thing I did when I heard the news was fill out the online acceptance form. The second thing I did was to leap up from my chair and do a happy dance. This happy dance was a disco with a lot of bouncing. If my sister could have seen it, she would have teased me mercilessly. Because that’s what sisters do.

Forcechange.com is a site that publishes petitions for progressive causes like social justice, animal welfare, and the environment. My first petition was an appeal to the mayor of the City of Victoria, trying to get them to stop dumping their raw sewage into the ocean. As you can imagine, raw sewage does not mix well with marine ecosystems. And Victoria currently dumps over 34 million gallons of it into the ocean every day. Not good.

This internship is something I’m excited about doing for its own sake. Even if I wasn’t trying to build up a writing career, I would still want to do it because the causes it works for are important. What I’ve discovered about myself through my semester of job searching is that I don’t want to be in it just for the paycheck. Don’t get me wrong. The paycheck is important. Right now, I’m saving up for my independence.  I live with my mother and I’d like to get my own place. But eight hours a day five days a week is a long time to spend on something I don’t care about.

So my advice to all you new graduates heading out into the world is to try and find something that interests you. That and don’t get too discouraged, it may take a few months but eventually you will land something. And when you do, it’s okay to cut loose and do a happy dance.

Disclaimer: This post does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the other What We Do bloggers, the University of Puget Sound or any of it’s representatives.

Puget Sound claims to be an open and accepting campus.

But is it really?

Yes, the school is constantly working to be as inclusive as humanly possible for people of all races, genders, sexual orientations and many other identifiers. And I genuinely respect that. I’ve never seen the effort that the school puts into inclusion in any other sort of institution. I can’t deny how admirable it is to strive to include and accept everyone.

But I can’t help but see some hypocrisy and feel a bit of cynicism.

I work for Student Programs in ASUPS. We are responsible for bringing performers onto campus for everyone to enjoy. Well, the programmers do, I just do sound and lights for said performers.

Anyway, hanging in our office is a framed poster from the 80s or 90s of a lecture in the Fieldhouse from James Watt. James Watt served as Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan. He is infamous for being one of Reagan’s most controversial secretaries. An extreme conservative, Watt was described as “anti-environmentalist” and infamously banned The Beach Boys from playing a concert at the National Mall because they “attracted the wrong element.”

“The Courage to Be Conservative”

So why do I bring this poster up? While I may not know how the event went (I mean a riot could’ve broke out and the school had to remodel the Fieldhouse, I dunno), but the fact that Watt came here says a lot. An extreme conservative came to probably one of the most liberal colleges on the West Coast.

Someone like that coming to UPS would not fly today. There’d probably be a protest….there’d definitely be a protest. The protesters might try to (and probably would) bar people from entering the venue. In general, the response would not be good.

Why?

Because he has a different ideology? Because Watt doesn’t support what you support? Because he has a different opinion?

So what am I trying to get at? It’s hypocritical that the Puget Sound community brands itself as open and accepting. Most opinions that don’t follow the majority’s are crushed.

Google defines “Liberal” as “open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values” and “Conservative” as “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.” Is Puget Sound a liberal arts college? Or is it a conservative arts college?

I am not a conservative. I consider myself liberal. But a friend of mine got to ranting and raving recently about this topic and it just stuck. The idea bounced around in my head constantly. I had to get it out, I had to write about it. I’m sorry if I offended anyone.