Voices

Voices is the Op-Ed and personal essay section of The Georgetown Voice. It features the real narratives of diverse students from nearly every corner on campus, seeking to tell some of the incredibly important and yet oft-unheard stories that affect life in and out of Georgetown.

Voices

Have football, will travel

Saturdays are days of mourning at Georgetown. Instead of happily bounding out of bed, grabbing some Tylenol and heading off to the Tombs to get steeled for the game ahead, the average football fan awakes to the unhappy reality that if he or she is to feed his or her addiction, it will be done cheering on some other college with a good football team.

By the January 31, 2002

Voices

Give me a touchdown

I used to be the nerdy kid in elementary school.

That was the kid whose genuine attachment to the learning process was overshadowed by those who had a genuine place in the cool group.

The “cool group” used to fascinate me. I always wondered what it took to be a Sunset Elementary “cool” member.

By the January 31, 2002

Voices

Until Today

Until today, I took for granted the ability to translate my thoughts into coherent verbal expressions. Then I arrived in Paris. Suddenly I am mute. Words catch in my mouth like overcooked oatmeal. Well-meaning, but perpetually exasperated French people cannot understand that I live at 4 rue Alfred Bruneau.

By the January 31, 2002

Voices

A public service announcement

It seems that we have reached that time of year again when the characteristically Scandanavian weather patterns in Washington abate and make way for summer. Our winters are usually tedious and unspecacular ordeals, marked by murky and gelid conditions, biting wind and little in the way of aesthetic precipitation.

By the January 31, 2002

Voices

Lucky to wear the blue and gray

As a second-semester senior, I often find myself reflecting on the many reasons why I have come to enjoy my undergraduate experience at Georgetown University. Several events during the past week made me especially appreciative of being a Hoya.

On Friday night, nearly three hundred of my fellow seniors and I packed into The Rhino Bar and Pumphouse for a night of drunken revelry.

By the January 31, 2002

Voices

Talking loud in church

On Sunday Cardinal Theodore McCarrick presided at a Eucharist in St. William’s Chapel, at which 21 students?some, though not all, lesbian and gay?remained standing throughout the liturgy. Their silent presence drew attention, a handout said, to Georgetown’s failure to address “the needs of its students without regard to age, sex, religion, race, sexual orientation, handicap, color, national or ethnic origin.

By the January 24, 2002

Voices

The light in the attic

Now, before anyone accuses me of being a too-intense Shel Silverstein devotee, I want to point out that I’ve been driven to keeping the light in the attic on by circumstances outside my control. Yes, a single bulb burns in my attic on T Street, and will continue to burn for the foreseeable future.

By the January 24, 2002

Voices

Shortly thereafter, there was contempt

In order to properly understand why I’m so angry at AT&T, you’ll need a little bit of background.

I guess in order for things to be perfectly clear, we’ll have to go back to the magical month of June in the magical year of 1980. It was a strange time for the United States.

By the January 24, 2002

Voices

Falun Gong-a path to one’s true self

Perhaps you’ve seen me sitting out on Healy Lawn, with legs crossed and eyes closed in peaceful meditation amidst the hustle and bustle of the early afternoon. So what is this meditation practice? Is it tai chi? Yoga? Why do I practice it? Actually, this practice is called Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), and my reasons for practicing it are much deeper than mere stress relief and peace of mind.

By the January 24, 2002

Voices

Idle days in Richmond

Austin Powers: “Two things scare me. One is nuclear war.”

Basil Exposition: “What’s the other?”

Austin Powers: “Excuse me?”

Basil Exposition: “What’s the other thing that scares you?”

Austin Powers: “Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage.

By the January 17, 2002

Voices

A new message …

“Writing an article ? “

I just put that away message up.

“Writing an article ? “

That should get a huge response. I mean, the brilliance of it, the sheer splendor of the wit. It’s amazing. It really is. Writing an article ?

It’s got that simplistic beauty to it.

By the January 17, 2002

Voices

The gambler

“Writing an article ? “

I just put that away message up.

“Writing an article ? “

That should get a huge response. I mean, the brilliance of it, the sheer splendor of the wit. It’s amazing. It really is. Writing an article ?

It’s got that simplistic beauty to it.

By the January 17, 2002

Voices

The smallpox threat

For centuries, the smallpox virus remained one of the most dreaded and deadly diseases to plague mankind. It is a virus that infected and killed the most privileged in society, such as King Louis XV of France, as well as the poorest populations around the globe.

By the January 17, 2002

Voices

Tommy Girl

I swore off Tommy Girl because the scent caused me great humiliation?romantic humiliation?my sophomore year of high school. It was during the last 10 minutes of a varsity basketball game at my school when the embarrassing incident took place. Knowing that my Romantic Interest had left the gym for a Sprite, I made the stragetic decision to walk across the gym floor, towards the girls’ bathroom?the intersection was precise.

By the January 10, 2002

Voices

A dangerous train of thought

I saw them as soon as I sat down. They were just one row in front of me and across the aisle. South Asian, maybe? Pakistani? They spoke in hushed voices in a language I couldn’t readily identify. What I could hear of their whispers didn’t sound like Arabic but might have been Pashto or Dari or Urdu.

By the January 10, 2002

Voices

A funny thing happened during finals

Maybe it’s a trite opening, but I’m going to use it anyway. I had an interesting week.

It started last year (OK, so it was in 2001, but I figure it’s a more exciting intro if I say last year?gives it that sort of historical flavor).

I had been dating a girl from Duke, whom I’d met while interning at the State Department over the summer.

By the January 10, 2002

Voices

A different holiday homecoming

I think I realized I had changed somewhere outside of Dallas, speeding towards Kansas City about 30,000 feet above the earth. As I sat wedged between a nicely-dressed businessman and a college student from George Washington University, I attempted to sleep but could not avoid overhearing their conversation about this student’s first semester away from home.

By the January 10, 2002

Voices

I need a hit off the old tube

I am an unabashed TV snob. For three years now, I have been that guy who, in response to inquiries on West Wing or quips about The Weakest Link coolly shoots back a disenchanted, “I don’t really watch TV.” I only turn on the idiot box to take in the latest in world news or the occasional highbrow film.

By the December 6, 2001

Voices

I’m already dead

Don’t cry for me; I’m already dead.

Well, no, I can’t back that up. But while I might not be dead, many of my movements are.

You see, I, like you, came to Georgetown with the intention of overthrowing the administration with a cadre of well-trained, stealthy and loyal commandoes.

By the December 6, 2001

Voices

Here I go again on my own

I am 22. On Oct. 14, 2000, I turned 21 and became able to legally drink in the United States. On Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000, I experienced my first ‘80s night at the Tombs. Wednesdays are now one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. This might have something to do with the fact that I don’t have classes on Thursday or Friday, but that is beside the point for now.

By the December 6, 2001