Well hello there,
my it’s been a long long time
How am I doin’,
oh well I guess I’m doin’ fine
It’s been so long now and it seems that
It was only yesterday
Ain’t it funny how time slips away? Willie Nelson

December is here and we are rapidly approaching the end of the first semester. For sure the past few months have been a blur for yours truly. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was waiting outside of security waiting to get my room key. So the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a first semester it has been.

This semester will forever be in the minds of many because of the catastrophic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Generations of people in the past have memories of Kennedy being shot, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Our generation will be left with the image of the Twin Towers being destroyed live on television. It has become a haunting cornerstone of our lives.

Our way of life in this country has become one that seemed unfathomable on Sept. 10. In the aftermath of the attacks, our country has gone to war, the first one we have seen in nearly a decade. Ideas we once believed to be true are now becoming as opaque as a London Fog. We no longer discuss the scandals of Rudolph Guiliani and Gary Condit. Those thoughts have been replaced by thoughts of actual fear, confusion, and what lies ahead. How will our lives be different on Sept. 11 of 2002? No one knows.

Guilford has also seen its fair share of news since the semester began. James Carroll and Madeline Albright were highlights in a semester that could best be described as tumultuous. Many different reasons have caused students to feel disaffected from the people that run the school. Don McNemar announced that he would leave at the end of the school year. The school still remains in a state of fiscal uncertainty, which has forced the school to reevaluate its entire budget. Community Senate, CHAOS/Avanti Programs, semester abroad programs, clubs, and most importantly students will all be directly affected by a money crunch.
All is not bad in the world that is Guilford, however. Student Union has consistently been providing quality activities across campus on a weekly basis. Live music, movies, and many other events have made Union the gold standard in planning social gatherings on the Guilford campus. Another positive in Guilford is that while incoming classes continue to grow, the size of classes has not grown significantly, leaving many opportunities that smaller classes offer.

While the focus of this column has been a reflection of the past semester, it is important that we start looking forward to the future. If we allow ourselves to live in the past, then we will never allow ourselves to move out of that time and grow as a student body. No matter what happens in the world and in our own small community, we must always move forward. Not one-step backwards, my friends…not one.