High and Mighty

By Peter Glagowski
Staff Editor

Headaches and frustration are about all have around my friend…

Hanging out with friends can be the pinnacle of one’s night. Ending a particularly rough day with people who accept you and will lift your morale definitely hits the spot. But I’m sure we all have that one friend who just doesn’t know when to be quiet or just doesn’t understand that his personality is demeaning to others.

This can be one thing when they are slightly immature or just want to fit in badly, but when you’ve been friendly with this person for close to 5 years and they still have a superiority complex, you know something has got to give.

My friend pretty much views himself as Christ Jesus, so anyone else is below that image. We can’t make fun of him, we can’t offer advice to him and we always need to listen to his complaints about person A, B, C and D.

I have a hard time trying to figure out exactly where his behavior came from. I remember meeting the kid back in 2002 and he wasn’t so high and mighty, but in the past year he has become intolerable.

One of my older friends recently met this kid and suddenly they were enemies. There is no real reason behind this fracture, but hell if my friend doesn’t see fit to run his mouth every time he’s near me about my older friend. He even expects me to take his side, especially when my older friend is much closer to me.

What really brings my piss to a boil is how my friend not so subtlety brags about his girlfriend. He thinks he is disguising his comparisons cleverly, but we all know that he is simply saying, “HAHA, I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND YOU DON’T!” First of all, I don’t want to know about you and a girl together and second, why does having a girlfriend matter? Are we suddenly lesser people because we don’t have significant others?

On the subject of girlfriends, what I don’t need to hear is someone’s sexual history, or more specifically, their present sexual activities. While I’ve blocked out a lot of what my friend says, I can’t shake things like, “I enjoy foreplay a lot!” or “I think I pulled my groin last night.” Why is that proper discussion for friends?

Another thing that I’ve never understood is how my friend has to belittle his brother at every step. His brother says one word incorrectly and suddenly he needs to be thrown to the wolves. We even played a prank on him that ended up resulting in, “I WILL POISON YOUR DRINK!” What makes matters worse is that when we revealed it was a prank and gave him his actual food, he never apologized. So now he’s not allowed to make mistakes?

My friend’s poor brother probably has to be on the brink of suicide. I’ve never seen any actual fists go flying, but my friend may be close to that. I remember one night when my friend asked for his brother to retrieve his laptop in the other room, yet his brother refused. My friend stormed out and dropped so many curse words that a sailor would blush.

If you get this kid started about something he enjoys (like a particular movie or video game series) and you will never hear the end of it. We all have no clue what he is even talking about, but he’ll drill it into our heads until blood is flowing from our ears. Then if we say anything bad about it, we get instant retaliation.

So what is my secret exactly? Well, I’ve never brought these complaints to my friend’s attention. While I have tried stopping him from condemning his brother so much, I’ve never been able to just out right say, “I can’t stand your behavior you inconsiderate ass.” I cannot stand being around this kid, yet I’ve endured this torture for 5 years because I’m weak.

The only real solution to this kind of problem would be to confront the person. If they really are boasting at every turn, there is no reason to sit there and take it. You can also try and avoid the person, but that is only covering up the problem (even if it seems to work).

Is there any absolution in this? Possibly, but I do need to write these feelings to at least let others know that it is okay if you are having mixed thoughts about one of your so called “friends.” No one is perfect and we all have someone we just cannot stand to be in the same room with, so do not feel awkward if this same situation has happened to you.

Carpe Diem, Housatonic

By Dan Otzel
News Editor

Don’t let this happen to you.

Image courtesy of emptyeasel.com.

“I will die in my grave dreaming of things I might have been.”

WARNING: Do not let this become you.

“Time is passing me by and I am letting it.”

Or this.

“Sometimes I feel like my college education was a waste.”

These three quotes were taken verbatim from postcards currently residing on the first floor of Lafayette Hall.

After my moving experience viewing the PostSecret exhibit that’s being housed here at Housatonic, I was left with a true feeling of remorse for some of the poor souls who had let their opportunities slip so gently through their fingers.

According to the HCC website, “PostSecret (is) an exhibit of people’s innermost secrets sent to, and organized by Frank Warren. The exhibit, which has traveled the country since opening in Washington, D.C. in 2004, consists of anonymous postcards, many of them handmade, on which people have written their innermost secrets. Warren has culled some 400 postcards from the more than 250,000 he’s received for the exhibit.”

It will run at the Housatonic Museum of Art until September 13, 2009.

Many of the postcards in the exhibit are from individuals who have had a front row seat watching their life float meekly by. They are not happy with the people they have become and, it seems, their life, up to this point, has been shallow and depressing, at least on some level.

At HCC, we are students committed to the proposition of furthering our educations and becoming better people – in all facets of life. We have the golden opportunity to come as close as possible to mapping out the life we want to live. We have the golden opportunity to avoid regretting our life’s path.

“Carpe diem” is a Latin phrase meaning “seize the day.” Originating from a Latin poem by Horace, The Columbia Encyclopedia describes the expression as “a descriptive term for literature that urges readers to live for the moment.”

With the Housatonic Community College student body swelling to over 5400 students, I would like to urge each and every student to “live for the moment” and make the best of the opportunities that present themselves here.

“I always wonder how my life would be different if the littlest things hadn’t happened. And if I had the guts to do half the things I wanted to.”

Do not let this become you.

“I’m trying to figure out exactly what it was that made me lose my voice.”

Or this.

For, as one anonymous postcard advises:

“If you’re waiting for a sign…this is it. Do it. It will be amazing.”

Carpe Diem, Housatonic.

The "Secrets" Issue of Perspective

Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing some articles that some of our Horizons wrote with the loose theme of "Secrets." These personal essays were inspired by the recent PostSecret exhibit at the Housatoninc Museum of Art. You'll see that these essays cover a wide range of topics and offer a range of approaches to the basic assignment.

Enjoy, and feel free to offer your own perspectives by clicking on the "Comment' button.

Student Senate President Kirk Wesley’s Welcome Back Address

At the first general meeting of the Student Senate for the fall semester on September 17, 2009, President Kirk Wesley gave a Welcome Back address to those in attendance, laying out his vision for the representative body going forward. Listen to the audio version of the address, or read the transcript below.

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Kirk Wesley, 9-17-09:

All right. So, we’re going to move on to the first order of business.

I would like to welcome everyone back to school, and back into student activities. This is, obviously, our initial meeting of the Student Senate for the Fall ’09 semester.

This, in my opinion, will undoubtedly be one of the greatest, eventful semesters in Housatonic’s history in regards to student activities and events, because of the dedication and commitment that the student clubs have already shown early in the semester in getting things together and getting things organized. It is evident from the Welcome Back party that the Student Senate is focused on trying to promote a good on-campus lifestyle for the students here, outside of academic purposes.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar, I would like to just state what the Student Senate does, and what work we do here.

“The Student Senate” – this is coming out of the Constitution of the Student Senate – “The Student Senate serves to promote good citizenship and harmonious relationships throughout the college and the community, serves to provide a forum for student representation, and to provide orderly direction of college activities. The Student Senate assists the office of Student Life in the allocation and distribution of the Student Activity Fund.”

Now, the Student Activity Fund is what we all pay when we register here as students, whether part-time or full-time. And as that sentence says, we help with the Student Activities Director to help allocate the funds to the student clubs.

Now, what I would like to say is that we are right now in a very opportunist position, because we have the chance right now to right a lot of wrongs that have been…that have happened in the past. Things that definitely, that I’m not going to go in depth with…but those who are familiar know, and who don’t know – thank God you don’t know.

So, we are in a very good position right now to set a very good tone for future students, future activities, and future events that will take place here at Housatonic. I want everybody to step into that role, and let’s set the pace and pave the way for future students here.

I also would like to say that we are the Student Senate, so we are students here at Housatonic Community College, and we are here in a forum to represent the students. So it’s essential that we are looked upon as that. As students, we are all here learning and growing as individuals. So we’re not going to always get things right, and things are not going to always go perfect as we would like. That’s part of the process of growing and learning as human beings, and especially as students.

So, with that being said, I would like for all members of student clubs and all student clubs to try to work with us as we work with you, be patient with us as we grow and continue to get comfortable in our positions, and we will do the same with you.

I really think right now, at this point in time, that’s it. I mean, we’re here for you guys: the student clubs, the student reps, the student leaders of this great college. So please help us as we try to help you.

And that ends it. (applause)

Continuum 13: The Lab Wiki

Dr. Kathleen Cercone, Professor of Biology at HCC, talks with host Brandon T. Bisceglia about her flagship project to develop an online safety lab manual written by students using the collaborative internet software known as the wiki. She also describes her own background with computers, and the importance of being familiar with internet tools for students.

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Continuum 12: Slater for City Council

In the first episode of the Fall 2009 season, host Brandon T. Bisceglia is rejoined by Horizons Opinions Editor John Slater to discuss Slater’s bid for City Council to represent Bridgeport’s Black Rock district this November. Slater discusses his entry into the formal political realm, his campaign so far, and how his experiences at HCC have helped him along the way.

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