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So…your friend has decided to drag you to country line dancing at the nearest bar, dance hall, or fairgrounds. If you’re anything like me, staying in comfy clothes in the comfort of your own home sounds a lot more appealing than getting dressed up and heading out to a loud, crowded room full of people who somehow already know every step. For this reason, I put off going line dancing for two years, even though my friends would invite me nearly every week. Then one week last s

Over the last few years, I’ve started going to various state capitols, with the intent of ranking all 50 Capitol Buildings. So far, I’ve visited nine. We’ll start with the worst, and finish with the best. #9 – ATLANTA, GEORGIA I wasn’t able to get into the building (got there around five minutes too late), and the exterior is boring as shit. On the outside, there are a bunch of Confederate statues, which is the main reason this is at the bottom. #8 – SALEM, OREGON ABSOLUTE D

It pains me to say it, but maybe the Offspring was right—despite how I feel about their sound. The kids aren’t alright. The kids actually can’t read. At least, some of them can’t. I would say that 2026 has been a whirlwind of a year so far, but I feel like I said the same thing in 2025, and 2024, and so on. There have been teacher shortages, attacks on higher education, uses of AI for everything (I’m a hater), and much more. I find myself asking why. Why is all of this happe

Every generation has their staple coming-of-age movies; a perfect reflection of the assumed anxieties of youth, and in turn, the anxieties of the parents. My Gen X parents grew up with Stand By Me (1986) and The Breakfast Club (1985). Stand By Me is about a group of kids that go looking for the dead body of a stranger they heard died near their homes, simply out of curiosity. It’s about young boys learning about the darkness of the world and in each other's lives and coping w

As an English Literature major, I have spent countless hours reading and analyzing literary canon. While I love most of the works I’ve read, growing up in an age where the internet is easily accessible has exposed me to alternate forms of media that I feel have similar value to commonly celebrated literature and film. While the tides are constantly shifting on what society deems artistically valuable, it seems that indie internet creations, like games, videos, or independent

With the rise of Stranger Things, D&D has been pretty enthusiastically ushered into the spotlight. A hobby that was once viewed as deeply “nerdy” has been welcomed into the zeitgeist of mainstream media. But what is it really? D&D, or Dungeons and Dragons if you want to longhand it, has been around since roughly the 1970s and has grown in popularity from that point on. D&D is a tabletop role-play game that’s typically played between 4+ people. Players make characters; choos

Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. by Harry Styles released on March 6, 2026. It’s groovy, fun, and upbeat. In recent interviews, Harry has expressed that while writing this album, he’s learned to fall back in love with his music, writing, and performing. The album was inspired by Styles’ experience of nightlife in Berlin and Rome. He wanted to capture the feeling of being in the middle of the dance floor and just letting loose. When Harry’s single for this album was

Ever feel like your dorm or room is dull and lacking life? Well, one way to spice up your living space is to create a window garden. As college students or busy adults this may seem like a poor way to spend your precious time, but I have found from my own experience that starting a window garden is not only easy but also a very rewarding activity. It can bring a sense of calm into your daily routine, and even lets you grow your own herbs, food, or flowers. More than anything,

I have always been a person who enjoys animation, and one of my many favorite movies is "Inside Out 2" by Disney Studios. When the first movie came out, it was so cute and straight to the point. I actually didn’t think much about it until the second one came out. The reason I enjoyed this movie a lot is because Riley, the main character, is now in her teenage era, where life has transitioned from the beginning emotions such as Sadness, Joy, Anger, Disgust, and Fear to Anxiet

BoJack Horseman Spoilers! BoJack Horseman is an adult cartoon television show. It follows the storyline of BoJack Horseman and his relationship with Diane Nguyen, a ghost writer. The first episode explores their first “remembered” meeting and ends with the pair on a rooftop when BoJack says, “wouldn’t it be funny if this was the last time we ever talked.” Both Diane and BoJack battle depression and are in search of genuine happiness. The show, although quite disturbing

It’s March now, and it’s already spring if you are a meteorologist. Spring starts March 1, but it’s not yet spring if you are an astronomer. They profess the season of rebirth begins with the spring equinox on March 20, which, at the time of writing this, has not happened yet. So, whether (no pun intended) you fancy yourself a cloud chaser or a star watcher, I think that we can all agree the passage of one season into the next is a strange and wondrous thing. Poets have t

​ I never planned to be a “college person.” To me, higher education seemed like a mountain of debt and a one-way ticket out of the town I loved, a gamble that I didn’t want to take. I planned to let the academic world pass me by. Then there was "Boo-U." Since this campus sat right in my backyard, the walls that kept me out suddenly crumbled. It wasn’t some daunting, distant institution; it was the building down the road. It offered a low-risk way to test my own potentia

College students are well known for having terrible mental health. Pets are great for that! According to UW-Platteville rules, one is allowed to have an aquarium up to 10 gallons in their dorm. This means you can have pets! It only takes two shopping trips: one to get the fishy supplies and one to get the fishies. You cannot do these both at once! Your aquarium needs to be set up and chilling with some water conditioner in it for a bit first. When I say chilling, I do not

My interest in writing really piqued when I was in middle school, and it arose because a good friend of mine began to write about his experiences in our shared outdoor hobbies—hunting, fishing, and trapping —and submit them to magazines for publication. Admittedly, I was surprised when he found success, and he encouraged me to write and try to do the same. Ultimately, I decided to try my hand at writing my first magazine article on a fishing method I’d developed for catching

At the start of 2025, I began to take interest in something that I never thought I would enjoy, the horror genre. At surface level, the horror genre can be seen as mindlessly scary or just as movies filled with blood and guts. I used to look at horror as just being scary with no substance. That’s why I stayed away from the genre for so long. However, I used a certain thought process for myself to get into the horror genre. At the end of 2024, a video game called Piglet’s

‘Crush’ is a 2004 poetry collection published by Richard Siken, and it’s my favorite piece of art I’ve ever internalized. I struggle to describe accurately or precisely how much I adore this collection because it speaks to me and, evidently, many others in its 20 years of circulation in local libraries and Barnes & Noble’s. As someone who would call herself a fan of reading and writing poetry, I find that often in my own works and those of others it is difficult to convey and