Just Sayin’ – How A Digital Detox Changed My Summer
By Alex Hentschel
That’s it,” I said resolutely, holding down my apps until they trembled with the fear of being deleted. “I’m done.”
My dad only looked at me in a “sure, if you say so” way, but I did it — on the car ride back from my freshman year, I got rid of all of my social media and time-wasting apps. Facebook. Instagram. Snapchat. GroupMe. Podcasts. My three — three! — brickbreaking games. I told my friends that all my social media was gone and they could — and ...
Note from an Editor: Memories of Me
by Emily Day
Until now, I have spent the majority of my life in a classroom. Shocking I know.
The truth is, for the average twenty-something, most of their memories are tied to some form of educational institution, whether with friends or family members. Some memories are good, like meeting your best friend or finally mastering all the bones in the body (cause one day you will NEED to know the difference between the radius and the ulna, promise). Other memories are more traumatic, like ...
In Search of Identity
by Adam Pittman
Who are you? What constitutes your sense of self? What gives you purpose and meaning?
I have spent this past academic year thinking on these questions, and even before this year these questions were at the heart of seemingly every facet of my life.
We live, above all else, in a culture founded on tastes that define identity — music, fashion, literature, films, hobbies, food. It is as if we can craft people based on their likes and dislikes. The danger of this identity ...
Just Sayin’ – A Brief Look at Change
by Adam Pittman
As I reflect on the last semester of my four years at Cedarville, a line from The Head and The Heart song “Rivers and Roads” keeps running through my mind. “A year from now we’ll all be gone, all our friends will move away, and they’re going to better places, but our friends will be gone away.” I know the semester is not quite over. As I write this, spring break is a little under a month away, but my mind drifts toward melancholy and reflection nonetheless.
My ...
Note From an Editor: My Very Last One
by Emily Day
From the age of 5 to 18, we are placed in a building with at least 20 other kids around our age all there for the same purpose: to learn. We learn how to read and write and the power words have to influence entire nations. We learn about numbers and formulas and how they have the power to create everything from the chairs we sit in to shuttles that send people to space. We learn how the world works and how everything from the smallest bumblebee bat to the largest blue whale has an ...
Just Sayin’ – Love is Like a Good Book
by Adam Pittman
I was talking to my friend in a coffee shop the other day about the way I see other people, or at least the way I naturally see them without any effort, like when I am speeding and another car pulls out in front of me, causing me to slow down for them. In those moments, I do not entertain thoughts about what motivated that person to drive that way. Instead, I react as if that person’s driving habits were intentionally performed to cause the maximum level of frustration to ...
Note from the Editor: Healing is a Process of Hope
by Jen Taggart
I would like to thank the Cedarville family for all the prayers and support they’ve shown me and my family the past couple of months after my accident in late November. As you can imagine, this has been one of the most difficult times of my life.
One of the most difficult parts about my situation is not returning to campus to spend time with my friends, professors and other members of the Cedarville community who I love dearly. It is especially difficult considering it is ...
Just Sayin’ – On Improvement and Posturing
There are small moments in life when you think that maybe, if you try a little harder, you can do better. It’s true. At least it’s true if you live in a place where hard work always equals a better reward. If you find that place, send me the address, I’d love to visit.
I constantly search for things to do instead of the work I am supposed to do, which is commonly known as procrastinating. Oddly enough, I find enjoyment when writing on the brink of deadlines. One time, pulling an ...
Just Sayin – On Home and the Holidays
Every holiday season, nostalgia finds a place in our hearts and minds. We will often think back to past Thanksgivings and Christmases, sometimes with fond but realistic memories, and other times jealous that our lives seemed so much more in order. Nostalgia, in fact, is derived from Greek, Latin and German words that mean homesick, but now nostalgia means an affectionate longing for the past. Although the meaning has changed slightly, I think homesickness and nostalgia are one in the same, and ...
Just Sayin’ – On Sabbath
The idea of a Sabbath, a day of rest, is often lost in our modern culture of fast food, packed schedules, interstates and roundabouts. Even time spent alone is filled with music and the soft hum of the television. Silence hangs in empty rooms like summer heat, stifling and noticeable.
Whenever I think of Sabbath, I am reminded of William Wordsworth’s poem “The World Is Too Much with Us.” Wordsworth writes “we have given our hearts away” by “getting and spending” and in doing so ...
