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

Lost (and injured) in Translation

My plane landed in Tokyo and I was filled with excitement to be in a foreign country for the first time. My previous summer vacations had been limited to Florida and the continental U.S. Almost completely out of the blue, I purchased a ticket to Japan to visit a friend living there, simply for the experience of seeing Japan. Regardless of the fact that I spoke absolutely no Japanese, and knew little about Japanese culture, I felt prepared for my trip—I wasn’t.

By August 24, 2007

Voices

Not exactly a disco with books

In High School, everyone wants to know where everyone else is going for college and nobody feels uncomfortable asking. However, in my high school, one group of students seemed uncomfortable about answering, for they know that they will be instantly judged, pitied or disregarded—they were going to community college.

By August 24, 2007

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Fabulous freshman mishaps

This Georgetown Life is a collection of stories written by Georgetown students all based on the same theme. [Cue trendy jazz music.]

By the August 24, 2007

Voices

A life seen through the lens

Photographs are the standard against which we can measure our eroding memories.

By May 3, 2007

Voices

Marking the miles along the road

If I have noticed anything in people, it is that they tend to use relationships and love interests as milestones and reference points when they speak about their pasts.

By May 3, 2007

Voices

Struggling to truly forgive Cho

I hated everything about Seung-Hui Cho, and I finally realized that hatred is what got us here in the first place.

By May 3, 2007

Voices

A lack of Sports Information

What makes a good story? Access.

By April 26, 2007

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Later, Lassie

This Georgetown Life is a collection of stories by Georgetown students all based on the same theme. We’ll be right back with a cute lil’ David Sedaris story.

By the April 26, 2007

Voices

Carrying on: NAA: News Addicts Anonymous

Hi. My name is Michael and I’m a news addict.

By April 26, 2007

Voices

Her Adam’s apple gave it away

If I have to suffer through a 14-hour bus ride, I’m willing to talk to whomever fate places in the neighboring seat. When my partner on the ride south from Bangkok happened to be a Thai girl, I was prepared to combat any language barrier that might stand between us. At least I could fill the stale air with my own voice.

By April 26, 2007

Voices

Attention men: will date for food

It started last summer, when I was living in LXR sans meal-plan. My plan to take the GUTS bus to Safeway and cook my own food evaporated the moment I walked into Statistics with Exploratory Data Analysis. From that cursed day on, every spare moment was devoted to plotting regressions while murmuring, “O please dear God, Jesus, Allah, help me not to fail this class,” leaving me no time for my grand culinary plan. For about a week, my diet consisted primarily of microwave popcorn and the occasional Hershey’s bar from the first-floor vending machine.

By April 19, 2007

Voices

Ballin’ on a budget at G’town

April is the cruelest month. Just ask anyone rushing to finish those tax forms. While university undergrads are spared the brunt of this burden (possibly the best perk of not having any real career to speak of), April brings its own annoyance to many of us in the collegiate crowd: it’s when Georgetown wants those financial aid forms.

By April 19, 2007

Voices

Carrying on: Shock and awe in French “porn”

I fancy myself an intellectual, the equally passionate and jaded American youth born of a hodgepodge of F. Scott and Zelda, Stephen King and Thomas Jefferson. I am supposedly above the WASP prudery of my elders and my peers who, I can’t help but assume, take little interest in anything but investment banking. Nothing shocks me. I look at sex and violence with a critical eye, and if I can’t find a deeper meaning, I generally keep it to myself.

By April 19, 2007

Voices

Nothing but a pack of foma

Kurt Vonnegut was a writer engaged in the business of time. He was fascinated with humans’ harnessing of the natural world and their resulting alienation. He wrote stories entrenched in waves of political consciousness, telling tales of world destruction by an incidental afterthought as simple, at times, as the pushing of a button that could unleash the atom bomb.

By April 19, 2007

Voices

Phearsome Philly phandom

I hate the Phillies.

By April 12, 2007

Voices

U-Haul: not the mover for U

Moving can be a pain in the ass, especially when you have to do the job yourself. The myriad boxes, unwieldy dollies and delicate china sets will make you want to submerge yourself in a pool of packing peanuts, never to surface again. But depending on which do-it-yourself moving company you call, you may have another problem to add to the list—your truck blowing up.

By April 12, 2007

Voices

Carrying on: One word, just one word: plastics

Last Friday, I finally grasped that nothing I do will cure the undercurrent of stress and anxiety caused by my impending graduation and the future. Browsing through a New York Times blog called The Graduates during a break from the online job postings, I hoped to find a grain of truthful guidance through this agonizing transition. But I only found proof of the ubiquitous, undying nature of this malaise.

By April 12, 2007

Voices

My advice: You gotta want it, baby

What the hell are we doing here? We spend months studying at the library, thousands of dollars on caffeine to keep our minds focused and innumerable nights wide awake worrying about tests, quizzes and papers. We put in all of this effort for a solid academic experience and yet it seems that nobody wants to hire an inexperienced college graduate.

By April 12, 2007

Voices

This Georgetown Life: The things we do for money

This Georgetown Life is a collection of stories written by Georgetown students all based on the same theme. [Cue trendy jazz music.]

By the March 29, 2007

Voices

Teetering on the edge of victory

I try to be modest, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m the reason that the Hoyas are winning.

By March 29, 2007