Life after School

By Wesley Collazo
Staff Writer

While the future is full of possibilities, it is always important to remember that success will be met with challenges. By preparing for those challenges, we can place ourselves on the path toward achievement.
Image courtesy of www.yapa.org.au.

The traditional design of school goes like this: get good grades, get into a great college, graduate with a degree and boom! You are now in the career you have always wanted.

However, this is a misconception from beginning to end. Many students are “lucky” or fortunate with the fact that success or a career comes at an early age. For others it is a constant struggle not just after graduation, but throughout their entire education, even starting as far back as high school. Many businesses are in a slump with the economic state, and so many jobs are not available. Trying to master life, career and business today is a struggle, and for many it will be an even bigger uphill battle.

Building a future from your college education is not as easy as it once was. The state of the world is making it difficult for young entrepreneurs to succeed. Students across the nation pour so much into a college education, striving to achieve that career that they have dreamt of since elementary school, in return only running into road blocks that no one could ever anticipate.

For example, as a communications major, my ultimate goal/dream is to open a successful public relations firm that serves to the masses across the board. Realistically, this will be a challenge.

Without selling myself short, I still realize that my dream may never happen. I am fine with that.

However, many students I have observed seem determined to conquer their field. They end up getting so consumed in being successful, that in return they are actually losing the battle. To help, one thing that needs to be addressed is the perception of achievement when you finally receive your college degree. Going through school I was always told, "go to college, receive that degree and you will be successful". Seem a bit far-fetched? To say the least!

There are ways to make the transition into your career easier. One way is to experience the inevitable struggles you will face in the future, through others today. For instance, I have joined forces with an up and coming clothing line business that is in its early stages. I work to help them develop their audience, and shed light on their products as a whole. It is a struggle to have all the ducks in order, but I see this as an opportunity that can potentially help me out in the near future.

Having a firsthand view of the struggle to establish a business, I can live vicariously through my employers, and learn to better prepare myself for the hard times I may face when I work towards a business of my own.

Because of this, I have realized that not only what I learn in classrooms will help me in the future, but that ultimately, having experience is the vital ingredient to success. I now know that mapping out a plan ahead of time before entering college will be highly beneficial when you are gearing up for the start of your career.

Continuum 29: Special - Politics in Connecticut

Visit the Continuum page

Graphic courtesy of ctlocalpolitics.net

With the 2010 elections only a few weeks away, host Brandon T. Bisceglia tells stories from the campaign trail revealing the ways in which Connecticut politicians interact with the people, the press, and each other.

Part 1: The Narrative of Rick Torres

Part 2: Poll Fables

Part 3: A Stolen Laugh

Part 4: An Honest Ad

Part 5: Negativity

Part 6: Lawsuits Don’t Matter

Part 7: Millions of Dollars for You

Powered by Podbean.com

Continuum 28: Behind the HCC Library / Boughton & the Tea Party / Pandemic Flu in Bridgeport

Visit the Continuum website

Library Associate Jennifer Falasco carefully applies a special glue to the binding of a book that has begun to fall apart.
Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Part 1: News – HCC Museum Closing, Veteran’s Center Move, Women’s Opportunities in Math/Science, Men’s Center Open House, ECE Food & Clothing Drive, CJ Club Presents Sarah Tyman, World Music Performance, Psychology Information Sessions, Salem Trip, Transfer Fair

Part 2: Behind the HCC Library – Host Brandon T. Bisceglia speaks with Library Associate Jennifer Falasco to find out how HCC’s library gets and keeps track of its books. Falasco also discusses her lifelong background with libraries, as well as some of the differences between public libraries and academic libraries.

Part 3: Boughton and the Tea Party – Last week Democratic State Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo criticized Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Mark Boughton because of several Tea Party rallies he’s attended. Boughton’s association with these groups represents a tightening alignment between Republicans and tea party groups – a relationship that may have both positive and negative impacts on the two factions.

Part 4: Pandemic Flu in Bridgeport – On October 11, 1918, pandemic influenza was reported to have infected 147 Bridgeport residents within 24 hours, and had killed the city’s police commissioner. It was the height of the worst flu outbreak the city – and the world – had ever seen. That same day, a new committee was formed to staunch the spread of the disease in Bridgeport. The efforts would come too late for the pandemic, but would inform public health policies into the twenty-first century.




Powered by Podbean.com

Continuum 27: Club Budgets / Institutional Research / Blasphemy / The Death of County Government

Visit the Continuum Page!

Part 1: News – Author Sergio Troncoso, Safe is Sexy, Madonna y El Niño, SCORE

Part 2: Student Senate Updates – The September 23 meeting of the Student Senate produced a lively discussion about the process of securing club budgets, resulting in an extension of budget applications until October 14.

Part 3: Institutional Research – HCC’s official student count for the Fall 2010 semester was 6,197, another all-time enrollment record in a string of records that have mounted since Beacon Hall opened in 2008. Director of Institutional Research Jan Schaeffler talks about the meanings behind the numbers, her dual jobs as researcher and teacher, and other projects she’s working on.

Part 4: Blasphemy - September 30 is International Blasphemy Rights Day. The benefits of the right to blaspheme include the unimpeded dissemination of scientific discoveries, freedom of religious choice, and are even tied closely to the ability to criticize government.

Part 5: The Death of County Government – On October 1, 1960, the Connecticut General Assembly formally abolished the last vestiges of the state’s county government, making it the first in the country to do so. This level of government, though integral to the original formation of the colony, slowly turned into an ineffectual shell of its former self.

Powered by Podbean.com

East Coast Residents Should Anticipate Large Earthquakes

By Michael Bednarsky
Arts & Entertainment Editor

The Atlantic Northeast might one day be an infamous victim of Mother Nature.
Courtesy of www.datpiff.com

We live in the New York metropolitan region. Most of us are ignorant of the different routines of those who are far away, certainly with weather. When we think of California, for instance, the idea conjured up consists of beautiful girls, beaches, medical cannabis, and earthquakes.

Be sure to ponder that last one: earthquakes. There are several scientific studies regarding California's literal connection to the remainder of the United States; one day it will separate, and plate tectonics are mainly to blame.

A lot of people around here will go about their day at the usual rushed pace without much thought about earthquakes, but they would have to think again. We are overdue for an earthquake: a damaging, malevolent, and terrain-rearranging earthquake. Not “we” as in Bridgeport, or even the state of Connecticut. “We” as in the entire East Coast, combining New England, the Tri-State Area and even Canada.

Last June, a minor earthquake occurred between Ontario and Quebec, which trickled down into upstate New York, reaching all five boroughs of New York City. According the NY1 News Channel, the earthquake lasted for only thirty seconds, with a magnitude of 5.5. For some, this brought fears connected to their memories of 9/11.

Clearly, we are not impenetrable, but my how fortunate we have been with earthquakes! On the other hand, we have had our run-ins with hurricanes. The most-destructive hurricane for us was the “Long Island Express” hurricane (also known as the “Great New England Hurricane”), back in 1938. Places like the aforementioned California deal with natural disasters frequently, and midwestern states like Kansas take pride in the weather dilemmas that formed their history.

We, however, have a slate that has been sparsely tarnished. In 2008, New York Magazine announced that is it only a matter time before we have another issue, noting that New York's worst earthquake was near the Rockaway Peninsula, in the borough of Queens. This was in 1884, with a magnitude of 5. Another dilemma like this, especially in Manhattan, would cause financial setbacks that would deteriorate the environment and universal image of the location for some time.

We are less likely to be attacked by Mother Nature through earthquakes mainly because of the landscape. There's a reason why Western states are more prone to being hit. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates rubbing against each other, which perpetuate pressure, and the eventual split of the Earth's surface.

Parts of California are located on either the Pacific plate or the North American plate; the whole state is exposed to a fault line (the infamous San Andreas fault), making the ground a larger threat than in other areas. Los Angeles, one of California's many legendary cities, is about only fifty kilometers from the San Andreas fault, with smaller fault lines through the metropolis as well. After absorbing these details, it's obvious why the West Coast has a surplus of earthquake events.

It is near-impossible to guarantee when another earthquake will take place on the East Coast. A journalist is not well-equipped enough to predict it, unless there's a heavy interest and experience with weather present. With me, this is not the case; I am only delivering a cautionary announcement of what is to come.

Do not fear the future, though. When a state like California can work through natural disasters with ease, there is no reason why we cannot follow suit.

Any thing that happens will be worth talking about, and if an intense earthquake here is in my lifetime, the first thing I will remember will be writing of this article. Until then, I will enjoy or at least tolerate the weather near my residence, and patiently wait for the potential headline news.

Beyond Face Value

By Tori Centopanti
Editor-in-Chief

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org

“Lock jaw.”

I was branded with that dreadful nickname in high school. To my dismay, it caught on like wildfire and it stuck.

It didn’t even make any sense since it literally means what it says: a locked jaw - being physically unable to open your jaw. On the contrary: I’ve been called a loudmouth and told
I don’t know when to shut up.

The reason people teased me was that my lower jaw—and teeth—noticeably protruded out further than the upper. A birth defect I had absolutely no control over.

Girls were ferociously cruel about it.

A lot of them would ask if I had been punched in the face. No matter what my rebuttal, their grand solution was to “pop” my jaw “back into place.”

I would ask why they hated me so much. Surely I must have done something wrong to incur their wrath. The answer was always the same: “I just don’t like you.” Once, a girl even wrote “you’re ugly” in every page of my notebook when I wasn’t looking.

So much for sugar and spice and everything nice.

Nothing ever escalated in physical violence, but it was always a possibility. I had seen plenty of other girls get into nasty, ruthless fights—both on and off school property. One day, as students made their way to the buses, I watched as my main antagonizer seized another girl by the arm, flipped her into the air and slammed her backside into the pavement.

It all happened in less than two seconds. The only thought going through my mind was, “That could’ve been me. What if that had been me?”

It was a real-life production of “Mean Girls,” except more brutal and heartless. I lived in a near-constant state of fear.

Some of my tormentors went so far as to approach me in public and threaten to beat me up, right then and there. I couldn’t ignore someone who was in my face, hoping they would go away. I didn’t want to ignite any violence, but I also didn’t want to seem weak.

So I did the only thing I could think of: I reasoned with them. I debated that I had done nothing to offend or wrong them in any way; that there was absolutely no reason for us to fight.

It worked every time.

But I still dreaded going to school, a place I should have felt safe. School officials did nothing to alleviate the situation and I knew that I might not be able to talk myself out of every confrontation. Walking around town with my friends gave me anxiety—adding to the stress my mind and body were already under.

From a stranger’s perspective, the only things my jaw affected were my confidence and self-esteem. Little did they know that was the very least of my problems.

The real trouble began in sixth grade. I felt nauseated almost every day, a pattern that continued well into high school. I’d get acid reflux and heartburn no matter what I did. By the age of 20 I had a stomach ulcer, which is most common among senior citizens.

I couldn’t do anything that involved running because it made me feel sick and I had trouble breathing. My grades in gym class slipped and I stopped trying. I became a regular in the nurse’s office.

At first nobody believed me, not even my own mother. Everyone thought I was faking, because let’s face it, that’s what kids do. My underbite was normal up until middle school, when the misalignment of my jaw visually presented itself and then grew more pronounced.

But it wasn’t until I started high school that I was officially diagnosed with mandibular prognathism, which simply means that the lower jaw projects out farther than the upper. My orthodontist explained that since the mouth is the beginning of the entire digestive system, having a severe prognathism—like I did—ultimately led to medical and dental problems.

At just 14 years old, I decided that something drastic had to be done. That’s when I discovered orthognathic surgery, better known as corrective jaw surgery.

I wanted the surgery. But ultimately I needed it.

Preparation for the surgery was much longer than I had anticipated and my patience wore thin.

I wore braces for over four years and had all of my wisdom teeth extracted at once. The latter resulted in a rare complication: an abscess—a type of infection—developed in my throat, which almost completely closed up. I made it to the hospital just in time.

I figured if I could survive that, I could handle the hurdles that lay ahead of me. How wrong and naïve I was.

I underwent corrective jaw surgery in February 2008, and recovery turned out to be a more grueling process than I had imagined. I was the picture of misery. My jaw was wired shut for five weeks. I couldn’t talk or eat. Breathing and sleeping were practically impossible tasks.

I felt as if I had been through hell and back enough times to qualify for a frequent visitor pass. But in the end, every horrifying second was worth it.

I was certain that once I had the surgery, my “lock jaw” would be old news and the bullying would stop.

Once again, I was proven wrong.

Rumors that I had facial cosmetic surgery began circulating. I was appalled that anybody would say something so cruel and ignorant without any facts or proof.

I can’t lie: the surgery did improve my looks, but that was just icing on the cake. The most significant benefits I experienced were medical—not aesthetic.

The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeries’ website states that “While the patient’s appearance may be dramatically enhanced as a result of their surgery, orthognathic surgery is performed to correct functional problems.”

I’m living proof of this.

I can properly chew and swallow my food now, a simple feat that so many people take for granted. I’m finally able to eat food I’d been physically unable to before, like steak. My breathing has vastly improved and I run regularly for exercise—without getting sick.

I truly believe that my experiences have made me stronger and more open-minded, and I am grateful for that.

Not everything is at it appears, but most of us rely on sight as our main perception of the world around us. We can help it, though, if we try. A conscious effort has to be made to not judge a book by its cover, because everyone has a story worth telling.

Next time you see someone and find yourself making assumptions about them, or tearing them down in your mind, stop. Take a few seconds to think of how you’d feel if you were in their shoes. Teasing someone about their appearance and calling them names may seem innocent, normal and even amusing at times, but when you’re on the receiving end of it the fun stops.

It’s our differences as human beings that make life interesting. No two people in this world are exactly the same. Shouldn’t we celebrate that?