Opinion

Vincent Van Gogh, one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen, never lived to witness his own impact. During his life, he only sold one piece of artwork because he didn’t believe he was good enough. And now the world knows his name. Why? Because his sister-in-law decided to share his story. A story that not only changed the art world, but the lives of individuals. Van Gogh has inspired millions to chase their dreams.

A sense of guilt often arises when tasks are procrastinated until the final moments. Turns out it’s not as bad as it seems. To shake up public opinion on procrastination, I decided to focus on the positive aspects hidden in those last-minute tasks. Everyone procrastinates: students trying to survive deadlines, adults drowning in work, or anyone tired of the same old time management talks. Even though people do it all the time, everyone seems to regret it. But procrastination can be phenomenal if we just play our cards right. Putting things off will lead to great ideas, help us ditch perfectionism, and keep stress levels in check. It’s time to see procrastination in a positive way.

When someone has gone through trauma in their life, they have things that trigger those feelings again. For me, my trauma comes from my dad passing away when I was 11. I can still remember the feeling of seeing my mom get the call on September 26, 2016. Seeing her collapse to the floor when she heard the news... your husband is gone. Someone we so deeply loved was just gone. My dad lost the battle to skin cancer. Something that is so serious can happen because of something so small, tanning beds. We need to stop going to tanning beds because it increases the risk of skin cancer, and makes you age quicker. I have experienced this in my own life through my family and we should do what we can to prevent these issues.

Provo has long been infamous for its horrific parking situation. On far too many nights, BYU students living in Provo’s apartment complexes find themselves in an impossible quandary: arriving in their car back home at their complex, only to find that there are absolutely zero open parking spots, even on nearby streets. Students are on most days forced to either circle the area for potentially ridiculous periods of time waiting for a spot to open up, or risk parking in a restricted area (or worse, being towed and required to pay an additional nearly half a grand simply to get their car back). Besides blatantly overselling their parking passes, complexes profit off of this dilemma even further by charging exorbitant rates for guaranteed parking spots.

You turn the key. VROOM! The engine revs to life. As you stomp on the gas pedal, the car screams, rocketing forward, tires squealing. Each shift is buttery smooth, and the sound keeps crescendo-ing and then dropping with each gear change. The landscape is now whipping by, the car roaring, and you feel alive, invigorated, excited. This is what an electric car can never replace. The raw feel, the sound, the experience of driving a combustion engine car is all simply irreplaceable.

'Why books (...) hated and feared? They show the pores of the face of life.' (Bradbury 82). The famous line from Ray Bradbury’s book “Fahrenheit 451”, outlines the reasoning behind the mass burning of books in a dystopian world. Bradbury’s novel explores the government’s fear of a world of individual thoughts and opinions, to such an extent that it leads to the destruction of the world’s history and knowledge. A dystopian world that may not be far from our own if we don’t take action.

'Warning: understanding the five love languages and learning to speak the primary love language of your spouse may radically affect his or her behavior.'

At almost every birthday party, every church event, and every activity in between, I ignore the refreshments given to every other attendant and turn to my backpack, where I have a small variety of snacks. While everyone else has pizza or cookies, I enjoy some chips or fruit from a lunch bag. I have to carry my backpack everywhere I go, as it also contains my medicine. Having food allergies is rough. I am always on alert and always checking food labels. Every time I go to someone’s house, I have to ask about how everything was made, and I usually end up having to look through their fridge for something safe, which is always awkward even when they were the ones who told me I could.

In the world of sports and overall health, getting stronger can feel like climbing a tough hill. When I was growing up, I was immersed in sports, and my journey to gain muscle growth was a continuing challenge for me that resembled navigating challenging peaks and valleys of athletic pursuit. During my basketball off season, I stumbled upon Creatine Monohydrate (CrM), that showed promise in assisting me with my size and strength. However, there were various warnings for potential side effects across different articles often disagreeing with one another. Even my mom was very skeptical of this supplement, and this combination delayed my action to purchase it. Eventually I became impatient, and I gave CrM a shot. After only a month of consumption and weight training, I saw significant increases in performance, and I was led to do a deep dive into this strength building supplement.

When COVID-19 first started, everyone was looking for something to do in quarantine. People gained new at-home hobbies: baking, painting, exercising. In addition to these new hobbies, downtime was turned into screen time. I found myself constantly on my phone and on social media. I became obsessed. I would spend most of my screen time on my many different social media apps. I started using social media as a guide on how to live: what food to eat, how to dress, how to workout. I would get recipes and workouts from influencers in hopes to look like them. Even though I wasn’t with my friends, I knew they were doing the same things. We would send each other “healthy” recipes or workouts or posts of pretty girls in our grade. We might not have realized it, but we were comparing ourselves to the people we saw on social media for the better or for the worst. I was constantly looking at myself in the mirror and most of the time believed I was not good enough because I had the image of social media influencers on my mind. I started weighing myself and tracking my calories. I was proud when I ate under 1,200 calories in a day. Although I have made changes, this body and food outlook still affects me today.