50shadesofjmc

ON THE AIR – W.FM

College radio stations have always been an avenue for students to express their idea, introduce new music to the world and act as a literal voice for the student body they serve, and Whitworth.FM at Whitworth University is no different. With a long history dating back to 1977, Whitworth.FM has had many periods of success and setback, but continues to attract listeners.

While Whitworth.FM, then known as KWRS went on the air for the first time in the fall of 1977, it had been a work in progress since 1974, when then freshman, Jon Flora, saw a flyer on a bulletin board in McMillan hall where he was living advertising the radio club. While at the time the radio club only consisted of discussion about the popularity of the radio platform, Flora saw an opportunity for his campus.

“I went to the president of the university at the time and pitched to him the idea of starting our own campus radio station,” Flora said. “He was very interested in the idea of having our own outlet of ideas and opinions, and from there I was able to get the support of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the student body, and a few of the stations in town.”

After going through securing the rights to the station, the materials for broadcast and promoting the station, KWRS hit the airwaves in September 1977. Three years of hard work had finally paid off for Flora, who had been acting as the stations general manager at that point for three years without a single word being heard by listeners.

“This large accomplishment was able to be brought to fruition by the enthusiasm for this new medium that we exploring and nothing this big had really come to campus yet,” Flora said. “That is when I first really put my education to the test and it really took all of my problem solving skills and communication skills to get the station started because at that time, there were not too many people around to help me.”

Once Flora graduated a year after the stations first broadcast, the station began to progress into a station that mirrored the other popular stations that were being broadcast in Spokane at the time by incorporating music and talk of subjects other than world events like entertainment, sports and opinions. The station had become a full-fledged medium for the students to get not just the attention of their peers, but also their community at large.

After hitting a stride for 30 years, and being part of the wave of success that the majority of college radio stations had received, in 2011 KWRS was pulled from airwaves after limitations in the schools budget and declining listenership. While KWRS lost its ability to broadcast over actual radio waves, KWRS was able to become an Internet radio station, and was reintroduced to the student body several months later as Whitworth.FM, with the ability to be heard by anyone around the world.

At the same time that KWRS was transitioning into Whitworth.FM, radio club member sophomore David Dennis brought more idea of transformation to the station, this time by revamping the station itself.

“When I joined Whitworth.FM, all of the equipment looked like it was the same stuff that was used when the station was started and everything was always a mess,” Dennis said. “I went to the Associated Student of Whitworth University (ASWU) meeting where clubs requested funds and requested $12,000 so we could purchase new equipment and the resources to makeover the studio because I knew that if we were going to keep going, the station had to reflect the professionalism that we wanted to convey.”

After the funds were approved, Dennis spent his remaining years building the new radio booth, while also getting the new station of the ground.

“It was a hard transition from being an actual radio station that you could listen to in a car, to being only on the Internet Dennis said. “For awhile it felt like this wasn’t going to work because we had to remake our website and promote the show as something new to campus because we no longer had the legacy of the old station, but all came together because of the staff.”

Dennis was so adamant about making the new broadcasting booth perfect that he stayed after his graduation to add the finishing touches to his work. Staff members like current general manager, Danny Parker, say that seeing that level of enthusiasm really set the tone for how he wanted to run the station, and that knowing the effort that alumni like Jon Flora put into starting the station sets the tone for the entire staff.

“Every time someone goes and does their show in the booth, I want them to know the sweat and that went into making the desk you are broadcasting from and the time it took to get the money for the soundboard you are using,” Parker said. “I’m graduating in a few weeks and I want to be able to see the station still going strong and evolving with whatever comes next in technology and society, and I think a big way that can happen is to respect that path that was laid for us by the alumni of the station and make sure that level of work is always present in what we do.”

Parker hopes that his newly appointed successor, Jordan Runk, will be able to carry on the legacy that was started 38 years ago with Jon Flora.

“I always want the general manager to bring a sense of fun to the staff,” Parker said. “I always remind the staff that whether or not this is something you want to do for a career, a hobby, or you are doing this just for the credit, this is something that you will remember doing for the rest of your life, and that if 38 years later we are here because one guy saw a flyer, we can have more of an impact than we think.”

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STUDENT PROFILES

(PHILIP MAHUGH)

While many students may cringe at the thought of adding a radio show on top of a full course load, sophomore Philip Mahugh decided to take on the challenge. Currently in his second year of being involved with Whitworth’s radio station, W.FM, Mahugh has taken what was once an escape from the stresses of a difficult of his biology major, and made turned it into a creative outlet for his interests and opinions.

“When I first heard about the opportunity to enroll in the radio class and have a show on W.FM, I was nervous because being a biology major, my day doesn’t have much free time,” Mahugh said. “I saw how well managed the station was and took the chance of starting a show, even though I had no experience or idea of what I would talk about.”

Mahugh enrolled in the radio program in September of 2013 and by October his show, Indie While You Work, had broadcast several shows. Mahugh was shocked at how what he thought would be a once a week chance to speak his mind and play the type of music he wanted people to know about, had turned into a full blown hobby. With a month of experience under his belt, Mahugh was ready to be a bigger part of the station, and asked the general manager, Danny Parker, to give him a chance at something bigger.

“After doing my show for a few weeks, I started getting more involved in making master playlists for the station because I saw that there was a big need for them,” Mahugh said. “I made, and still make playlists that are hours long that play when no one has a show that is on the air, and it turned out that was what I was really good at.”

While making playlists for the station that mainly consisted of indie/alternative music helped him discover his passion for radio, Mahugh began to feel that his next role for the station would be to have the voice of the Whitworth student body heard more through his show.

“I started talking to a lot of my friends and they all kept saying that radio doesn’t reflect the voice of the student body like the newspaper or the yearbook does,” Mahugh said. “In an attempt to change that, I would tell everyone about the time of my show, and tell them to come and talk about anything with me, and surprisingly it worked. Even though it was only 20 people over the course of the school year, that was 20 people who were able to express their thoughts.”

While listenership has plateaued over the last 3 years, Mahugh plans to play a more active role in increasing the number of listeners next year by making W.FM an outlet for students to literally speak their minds.

“W.FM is such a badass thing to have on campus and it isn’t taken advantage of at all,” Mahugh said. “My goal for next year is to promote the station more heavily through primetimes, and more events like dances and mixers. I want everyone to know that whether it’s playing music for an hour or ranting about politics, W.FM is there for you to express yourself, and that it is the best feeling in the world to feel like you have people listening to what you have to share with them.”

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(JESSICA NUGYEN)

Diversity is a word that is used at Whitworth University, frequently in a sentence in which the lack of the aforementioned word is being discussed. It is also the word that junior Jessica Nguyen immediately thinks of when she looks back on her experiences with the campus radio station (W.FM).

Of Vietnamese dissent, Nguyen had hoped to see other minority voices like herself represented on W.FM when she arrived to Whitworth last year and signed up to be a part of W.FM. Upon her first class session, Nguyen noticed that the diversity she had expected was nowhere to be found. Still, excited at the opportunity to expand upon her interest in talk radio and bring variety to the station, Nguyen dove headfirst into all things radio.

“When I first started my show, I was one of I think three other people in the class who weren’t white,” said Nguyen. “Everyone seemed really excited that finally there might be someone who would bring in a take on things that wasn’t the Caucasian, Christian and conservative perspective.”

As Nguyen began to craft her show, The 12 Percent, exposing the campus to a sound that she felt it was lacking became one of her main missions, and trying to attract a new set of listeners began to feel like a goal that was within her reach.

“I want to honor the W.FM legacy with my show by bringing old but new sounds to the students at Whitworth,” said Nguyen. “I know that the type of music we often play usually attract a certain group of students but through W.FM, it is possible for me to share the experience of throwback music with not only those particular students but others outside of that group as well.”

As she gained more experience and confidence, Nguyen began to notice that most of the shows that received the largest amount of listeners were the shows in which top 40 music was played on a loop, and felt that it was time to switch up what listeners had come accustom to hearing.

“W.FM does a great job of walking the line of playing all the songs that are popular at the moment but also incorporating fresh and underground sounds as well,” Nguyen explained. “However, some times the music falls heavily into the popular category and so I take it upon myself to push it back the other way and try to expose listeners to up and coming artists because to me, college radio is about promoting the voices that haven’t been given the chance yet to make it big and be played everywhere.”

Well known artists like Foster the People, Of Monsters and Men, Walk the Moon and Frank Ocean are among a small group of artists that were assisted in their transition from indie to mainstream listeners through the help of college radio. University stations continue to act as a platform for potential breakthrough for beginning artists and Nguyen would like play a part in discovering the next breakthrough act through playing music that has yet to find an audience.

“I think it would be so cool if we were one of the first places that a song or album was played that ended up becoming really big,” said Nguyen. “By incorporating more diversity into our playlists, the chance of that happening increases so much, and how cool would that be if we discovered the next great singer and they thanked us for giving them their big break?”

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(STEPHANIE SOULE)

College radio can serve as a platform for someone to express themselves in a way that they may not be comfortable doing when face to face with someone. For sophomore Stephanie Soule, being involved with Whitworth’s radio program (W.FM) as a co-host on the Bruce Jenner Ruined My Life show, has allowed her to break out of her shell while on air and gain experience with speaking her mind without worrying what someone may say back to her.

“When I get on the air and start talking, I somehow start to find my inner diva, and I am way more brave than I am in my daily life,” said Soule. “I wish that more people knew how great of an experience it is to have the ability to talk about whatever you want for an hour and not have to worry about how someone feels about it because you don’t know who is listening at that moment.”

For Soule, W.FM started as favor for a friend who asked her to join them for their show, and has since turned into something she looks forward to every week when she is able to put on the headphones in the booth and talk about her favorite moments from the past week in entertainment and social issues. Soule feels that if more people were aware of how big of an impact that a campus radio station can have on the student body, that Whitworth would feel less of a community that hides behind a curtain of pinecones.

“I have friends that go to big schools like Washington State and University of Oregon, and their campus stations are super popular because they have almost every type of student represented through their variety of shows,” said Soule. “Their stations are what a good portion of the student body turn to when they want campus information, new music and news of the world, and they have so many people turn in because there is a show for every student. At Whitworth, that reach is limited due to the amount of people who take advantage of being involved with W.FM.”

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CLICK HERE FOR EPISODES OF THE 12 PERCENT!

There are not many things than I get more excited for than going to see a movie that I have been obsessing about for months. The smell of the movie theatres, the overpriced snacks, the waiting in line to buy a ticket and walking swiftly into the cinema to get the best seat are all things that bring me pure joy. I don’t know when my love for movies started, but it seems that all my life, I have been enthralled with anything having to do with going to the movies, and with summer being the time in which most of the biggest movies of the year are released, I look at the summer months as Christmas, but for several weeks. This summer, Mad Max, Avengers 2, Jurassic World and Minions, look to take all of the money that movie goers have set aside for their viewing pleasure, and while many wait for summer to come so they can spend time outside doing anything under the sun, I wait anxiously for summer to come so I can spend time in a black theatre.

Religiously since 2007, I have woken up on Sunday morning and checked the weekend box office for 5-10 minutes. It is a ritual that gives me some strange form of satisfaction. Seeing what movie came in first and made the most money, which film bombed this week, and what film surprised and made more than it was predicted to. I could tell you what movie was the biggest movie of every year going back twenty years, and while many would think that is a useless skill, it is one that I pride myself on because it is a hobby that I have stuck with since I was in middle school. Learning about film, box office and anything having to do with movies makes me happier than anything else in my life because it is something that many others that are my age are knowledgeable about. Maybe it is the fact that I finally know something about a topic that not many others do, but telling someone how many Oscars that Titanic won make me feel like the smartest person in the world, and at the same time, the biggest nerd in the world.

If I could have my dream job that would pay me as much as any other suitable profession my parents would approve of, it would be working for Box Office Magazine, and writing articles about what is happening in the world of cinema, because I know that for the rest of my life, I will be a lover of film, and respect it just as much as I respect politics, activism and any other art form out there. The world of film is one that has constantly surprised me, and always keeps me interested; something that any other field has yet to do in my short 21 years of living. If I could sum up my love for movies, it would be with a quote from Walt Disney. “Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”

In my third year of college, I didn’t think that there was much left to learn. I thought that at this stage in the game, that all that was left to do was finish my degree and start the process of paying off student loans and freaking out about trying to get a real world job. Boy was I wrong. This year has been one of the best in my entire life (that I can remember) and I have grown into a person that I didn’t think was possible. When school started in the fall, I moved into East hall with the feeling of sadness because I would not be living with my roommate from last year who I had loved living with, and who was one of the biggest reasons that I had a successful last two semesters. Instead, I would be living with someone who I barely knew, but decided that I would just keep things surface level, and accepted the fact that this year would not be as great on the friend frontier as last year had been. What happened as a result of my attitude was that I became very close to a group of friends that last year I had only been a friend with on a basic level. Over these last two semesters, I have had the luck of getting close to a group of guys who I thought I wouldn’t have the privilege of getting to know on a deeper level. We have become so close that we will be living in a house next year together, so in short, my idea that I would have a horrible year in terms of interpersonal relationships failed.

Another element that shaped me for the better this year was the fact that my family finally let me off the hook and let me be an adult for the first time in my life. Up until this past year, I had been treated like I was away at a boarding school, and that I needed to be checked on 24/7 to make sure that I had not burned down anything and that I had remembered to do my laundry. This year, my parents made the decision that I wanted to talk, that I could call them, not the other way around. They made it clear that it was time for me to start building my own life, and that I couldn’t do that if they were constantly there as a guardian that prevented me from making mistakes. In my life, the times in which I have been able to make a mistake are the times in which I have learned the most, so to have that cord final pulled from parent to child was like I was finally away at college, six hours away.

Finally, this was the first semester in which I stopped caring about what people thought about me. How cliché to say right? In reality, that had been one of my biggest concerns until this year, but realizing that making myself happy, instead of everyone else, is what has helped me feel like my time away at college is something that I can actually enjoy and be proud of because I am doing it on my own terms, not the terms that are dictated by what my peers or parents want to see and hear.

This year has been the best year away from home that I have had thus far, and while it will be hard to top it next year, I now have the ability to function as closely to an adult as I have been in my life, and I now know that putting ones self before others, will result an overall happier Ryan, and an overall happier life.

DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend. It’s the person that is there to make everyone else look better. Reading this, you might think “Well, I am definitely a DUFF.” It’s true, you are a DUFF. Everyone is. Someone will always be better than you, or prettier, or nicer looking. It’s not about drowning in your insecurities, it’s about owning them. Accepting your flaws and learning to be happy with who you are. This is the message that is at the core of the film that is being hailed as the Mean Girls for a 2015 generation.

The movie DUFF’s protagonist, Bianca, travels through this difficult journey which is set off by her discovery that she is a DUFF. She is used by other guys in order to get into contact with her two very beautiful best friends. She is not acknowledged or known by many people despite the fact that she knows them and they know her best friends. So she breaks it off with her best buddies and turns to her (dare I say it?) really cute next door neighbor who she is absolutely not interested in (we all know where that’s going) in an attempt to correct her DUFF status.

He coaches her through talking with guys and dressing the part, but a problem appears in the form of the typical evil without reason popularly gorgeous girl, Madison. Who also happens to have a very strange on again, off again relationship with the man candy who’s trying to help Bianca, Wesley. Bianca endeavours to improve in order to form a relationship with her crush, Toby. However, Madison catches Bianca during her training trying on clothes at the mall with Wesley. Her confidence boosted, Bianca tries a few, lets say seductive, moves on the mannequins along with some love confession practice with the mannequin as Toby. It doesn’t turn out well. The video of her antics quickly spreads through the school, leaving her quite by herself.

Will Bianca’s love towards Toby prevail? Could Wesley be starting to fall for Bianca? What is Madisons problem? The modern high school students attachment to technologies, the changing social groups, all integral parts of modern high school life. In fact, I think this could be similar, if more suited to our age, to the movie Mean Girls with quotes like “amazeballs” and “DUFF” becoming as popular as pink on Wednesdays.

What defines a sport? Is it something that involves physical exercise? Something that involves mental exercise? Something that you practice? Is it the viewership? Is it the amount of sponsors? All of these questions have left many around the world thinking, should gaming be considered a sport?

The United States, China, the United Kingdom, South Korea and many other countries have recognized gaming as a sport. This line of sports is called eSports and is not a single game, but it is made up of many popular games, such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite and countless more.

Robert Morris University in Illinois is the first school in the United States to offer scholarships for gaming and is one of more than 100 colleges and universities with competitive eSports teams.

The competition is fierce to the degree that some gamers are able to make a living at it. There is a regular season for each of the popular games, as there would be a regular season for football, in which professional gamers play for money and live in a ‘gaming house’ with their teams.

Of these houses, professionals will spend five to nine hours each day, seven days a week, honing their skills in preparation for their next game or tournament. By comparison, the average professional basketball player trains around five to six hours a day, six days a week.

There is another way to make a living through gaming other than becoming part of a professional team. Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez is 24 years old world famous gamer and makes about $950,000 per year. He owns a line of gaming gear and is a regular streamer on Twitch.tv, which is a live-streaming video platform where anyone can view gamers streaming their games.

If you wonder who in the world would waste time watching people click buttons on fancy light-up keyboards and mice, the 2013 League of Legends World Championship attracted 32 million online viewers, more than double baseball’s World Series and even trumping game seven of basketball’s NBA Finals. The 2014 League of Legends World Championship attracted 40,000 fans to Sangam Stadium in Seoul.

eSports is still a growing market and similar to many sports teams, has sponsors. There are both big and small companies exploring the new market of gaming such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Alienware, Red Bull and Nissan.

Social Media has been buzzing over the designers of Dolce&Gabbana and their recent statement about not supporting gay marriage and artificial insemination.

While doing an interview for Italian Magazine Panorama, Domenico Dolce made an unforgettable statement.
“I am not convinced by those I call children of chemicals, synthetic children, rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog,” Dolce told the magazine. Gabbana added, “The family is not a fad, in it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

Dolce discussed how he grew up in a ‘traditional’ family, with a mother, a father and a child. That’s how he sees fit of what a family should be. He feels a child should never be taken away from their mother. He also states that he is aware that there are other types of family structures out there, however, he does not agree with that family life style and believes in his traditional views.

The singer, Sir Elton John was outraged (having two sons of his own through I.V.F) by the designer’s statement and decided to make a statement of his own to speak out on the matter. He took to Instagram and made it known to Dolce&Gabbana how disgusted he was on the designer’s statements.

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic.’ Shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at I.V.F. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again,” said John.

Included in John’s post on Instagram was a hashtag that said, “#BoycottDolceGabbana.” Soon after the post went viral on social media, with several followers; including celebrities, standing behind John’s statement. Many other celebrities followed John’s footsteps and posted their own statement on social media regarding their disgust and disappointment of the designers blatant disregard for acknowledging children that were created through I.V.F as ‘actual children’ or as an un-natural way of creating a child.

Threats were made on social media of wanting to burn the designer’s clothes and take no part in anything the designers create from this point on.

It’s appalling to think that Dolce and Gabbana, who are openly gay men, have such negative views on same sex marriage and the right to raise a family if they so choice.

Not to mention this type of behavior will do nothing but bring down their business. It is one thing for someone to come out and make their views known on a matter that many not agree with. However, it is another for Dolce and Gabbana, who are such well known and successful designers to make such a poor judgment call while representing their business.

I’ll admit, I waited till two days ago to watch the film that won Best Picture at this years Academy Awards because I was skeptical of any film that could win over the Imitation Game. I knew little about the film, but after watching it, I wish I would have known better and checked that box on my Oscar ballot.

Despite winning multiple Academy Awards, the sheer existence of “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” wasn’t a known fact to everyone, which isn’t all that surprising if you think about it.

The latest film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu is far from a sound example of mainstream cinema, as videnced by the fact that it began with a shot of Michael Keaton floating in his tighty-whiteys. On top of this, the film’s marketing campaign appeared to rely more on positive word of mouth than elaborate advertising, so its under-the-radar status is understandable.

The real question when it comes to “Birdman” is whether or not it stays true to the hype that was bestowed upon it by both critics and audiences. The answer: it does without effort, proving that its Best Picture win was everything but a misfire.

“Birdman” can be most accurately described as a two hour roller coaster, putting the audience within the fragile mindset of a man whose own ego is engaging him in fierce psychological warfare. We follow him as he struggles to put on a Broadway play as a last-ditch effort to prove he isn’t an irrelevant, washed-up actor not only to everyone around him, but most importantly, to himself.

The entire movie boasts a self-referential vibe throughout, as it offers commentary on the film industry, the pitfalls of success and even Keaton’s own career, as both he and his character Riggan portrayed superheroes at the peaks of their respective popularity.

“Birdman” has its funny moments, along with its darker ones to counteract, but the true framework of the movie relies on its ability to make the audience re-evaluate their psyches once the credits begin to roll.

Everything from the uninterrupted camera sequences to the frantic drumming sounds that accompanies many of the scenes makes the viewer go mad with insanity, but in the best possible way. By the time it’s all over, your heart will be pumping, excitement will flow through your veins and you’ll be asking for more, while feeling completely satisfied at the same time.

For the third year in a row, I binged all thirteen episodes of the new House of Cards season. To be entirely honest, I don’t binge watch shows because I am a big part of the fan base. It began as a desperate desire not to be left behind in the culture of Netflix that college students thrive on and has transformed into a tradition of mine to spend my weekends pouring over a single show for hours. Watching a film longer than 100 minutes always makes me feel like I am doing something wrong with my life, but somehow I’m comfortable eating Ramen and laying on my stomach for three hours at a time.

Early reviews seemed of the consensus that House of Cards season 3started off extraordinarily slow, and while I can attest that this is generally true, it’s not the real problem with the show. Every season thus far is methodically paced. It feels slow when you’re bingeing, but it’s more exciting in retrospect because you condense the narrative in your mind to a handful of dope turns and reveals. The difference between this and prior seasons is in the tone of the show.

Now, Underwood becoming President opens the doors to a lot of interesting narrative possibilities, but few of those possibilities gel particularly well with what won fans over the in the first place. We’ve already had The West Wing. Nobody was into House of Cards for the politics. It was the murder and the rooting for the bad guy elements of the story that won us over. There are plenty of examples of over the top situations that double for the kind of despicable behavior we all know fuels real life political maneuvering. By taking part in this ridiculous, and at times unbelievable form of story telling, we reduce our real world leaders to the reality TV characters we, in our hearts, know them to be, and get to enjoy some of the more scandalous elements of prime time television.

Season 3 accepts that the film noir suspense of whether or not Underwood will be caught and made to pay for his crimes is almost unbearable with the direction in which they’ve taken the series. By getting rid of many of the people who wanted to bring Underwood down and choosing instead to pit him against other villains, like Gerald McRainey’s Raymond Tusk, Season 2 set up a far more depressing status quo. Instead of wondering which dangling plot thread will return from the past to make Underwood pay for his crimes, Season 3 is about the very “normal” drama of actually having to be president, which is a nice change of pace from previous seasons, and is to be best enjoyed while in your dorm room with the blinds blocking out the sunlight of the day you should be enjoying.

On December 30^th, 1993 I was born in McMinnville, OR and ever since that day, Oregon has been my favorite place in the world. Now, I love Oregon for the same reason that most people love the state they are from. It’s my home, most of my family lives within an hour of my parent’s house and I know where everything is. But I also love Oregon for reasons that most people cannot say about their home state. When you are in the Portland area, the smell of rain on pavement, fir trees and cold wind fills your nose most of the time, and the lighting is almost always slightly overcast, giving everything an overall look of calmness and melodrama. These senses combined end up making you feel as if you are in the middle of a movie that is a mix between Twilight and anything done by David Fincher. The shops that inhabit the Portland metro area range from the typical Target’s and Safeway’s to the interesting such as a baking shop that specializes in gluten free weed brownies or a clothing store where the shirts are made from recycled garbage that the owner digs out of the dumpsters of chain restaurants. I have traveled to many places in the country, and I have yet to find a state that is as focused on healthy living as Oregon. Mostly everyone shares the common belief that recycling is next to godliness and that riding a bike makes you a modern day hero for sparing the environment the harmful emissions that come from a car. Where else can you find people so obsessed with drinking coffee that the shops outnumber the people who inhabit the cities? Where else can you find people where Nalgene water bottles covered in stickers from their favorite rock climbing gyms, equal rights groups and stances on the latest clean water initiatives? Speaking of the people who inhabit the land of Oregon, I have yet to meet a group of people who are friendlier. While spending time in Illinois, Massachusetts and California, the number one difference that I spotted was that the people are nowhere near as friendly to strangers as Oregonians are. Go to any grocery store and while you are standing in line, probably buying some kombucha or something that elevates your hipster status, you will most likely have a dad who is wearing cargo shorts and sandals strike up a conversation with you about how your day is going or what you are wanting to do with your life once you graduate from your liberal arts college with a degree in communications. Go anywhere in Oregon and you will still find yourself surrounded by beautiful nature. Beautiful green trees, mosses, and leafs have crept their way into almost every major city in Oregon, making you feel like the city you are walking in, is in the middle of an enchanted forest. Walk fifteen minutes in any direction from downtown Portland and you will come into contact with either a river, waterfall, sprawling park or a garden or rare flowers that you will most likely whip out your phone to take a picture of and post to your very trendy Instagram. I love Oregon because everything that I know comes from that state, the majority o my loved ones still live there and it is the most adventurous, friendly, hip, trendy, and beautiful state around. I have taken it upon myself however to now fall in love with Washington, and so far, it is giving Oregon a run for its money, but don’t worry Beaver state, you are forever my number one.

The other day I participated in an online survey regarding social media use, and the questions alone made me evaluate my habits.

There were questions like “How much time per day do you spend on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube?,” that when really thinking about it, I was embarrassed to answer. I know that with school, having a laptop is a must, with constant papers to write and important emails to check.  But let’s face it, social media can be such a distraction.

When I’m typing a paper, I somehow think that typing two sentences entitles me to a break to check Facebook or Instagram, scroll through Buzzfeed or start watching Vines.

Before I know it, the seemingly innocent five-minute break has turned into an hour. My entire point, however, isn’t that social media is too much of a distraction. We already know that. My point is, we need to separate ourselves from the social media world and the school and work world every once in a while by doing something that is a passion or hobby. Something that takes your mind to another place. And I’m not referring to drugs or alcohol.

I was talking to a friend the other day who said she likes to read before bed. I was embarrassed to say that I couldn’t recall the last good book I read that wasn’t assigned in class.

I, personally, find drawing really enjoyable and relaxing and couldn’t even remember the last time I did that. We become so consumed in the day-to-day routine that it sometimes feels like life is on autopilot. I’m not saying to completely disconnect for a day. (But if you’ve got time, go for it) I’m saying that whether it’s baking, drawing, music, reading or exercise that takes you to that other place, do it. Even if it’s only 20 minutes out of your day. Give your eyes a break from the glare of your computer screen and build up some skills. Excuse yourself from the real world every once in a while to focus solely on you.