Read Harry Potter first

I am writing my column, two days after the deadline.

“But Maryia, you had the entire winter break to write it!” Two things to you: One, what did you do over winter break that you are judging me? And two, I have been thinking about what to write for literally two weeks.

This is my biggest problem with writing an editorial every week; I never know what to write! I love to write, I find it very therapeutic. When I am going through a lot of emotions, I usually sit down and just write my thoughts down. By the end, my thoughts are organized and I have realized things that I didn’t know about my feelings before. I used to write stories and poems, yet now I face writer’s block almost every time that I sit down to write this column.

I think my block stems from wanting to use this platform to discuss an important issue, like how students should have more say in the design of the new university towers or that we need to take the political power away from large oil companies. However, when I sit down I feel like I have nothing important to say.

My generation has become known for writing their immediate thoughts for all to see. And this is the problem. If we stop and think, we don’t really know how we feel about a certain issue. If we remove outside influences, whether that is parents, roommates, or tweets from favorite celebrities, we don’t usually stop to think about things, do research, and decide for ourselves what is important.

At a technical school like Stevens, we are only focused on our studies. Unlike liberal arts colleges, we don’t discuss philosophy or social constraints or world problems, at least for the most part. I’m not saying that we are all guilty of this. All I’m trying to say is that sometimes we need to stop being so focused on our personal career mission and look at the world around us.

We all joined our respective career fields for some reason. Sure, money is a part of it, but I don’t believe that is what drives us at our very core. Most of us want to have leave some kind of mark on the world, a legacy if you will — whatever that legacy is depends on each individual. How can we leave a mark on our world if we never look up and around us? What is going on in the world outside of our respective careers?

The whole point of this long-winded, rambling column is that we all need to be educated. I don’t mean that we should know everything. I mean that we should look at an issue, look at the facts available to us, and come up with our own personal opinion. We shouldn’t just let our initial emotions dictate us. Instead of letting the news (whether you watch NBC or Fox) or social media dictate what our brains are thinking.

I’ll put it this way: for the first four years of elementary school, I refused to read Harry Potter. I would say that I wasn’t interested and that I didn’t like it. In reality, I didn’t want to read it because my friend at the time didn’t think it was “cool” or whatever. And I let that rule me. It wasn’t until my mom brought me the first Harry Potter book from the library (basically forcing me to read it) that I finally gave it a try. And I loved it! Harry Potter is a very important book series to me, and has influenced me in so many ways. I can’t even imagine how different my life, and I, would be if I didn’t have my own experience and have my own thoughts and instead just followed what my friend said.

So basically, read Harry Potter first before you form an opinion about it.