The Adventures of Doing Things for Fun at UT Tyler

So, I don’t know if you all remember back a little over a month ago when I first joined this awesome band of bloggers that I was interested in starting a book review blog as well. I finally made that dream a reality and I have been going steady on it for two weeks or so (Shameless plug: Go follow me there! I have tons of fun and I’d love to hear from you all! Comments, suggestions, etc.!)

 It can be really hard though. Although I’m new at it, I want to already be at the part where I’m hip and cool and tons of people follow me and care about what I say, and I totally want more people to share the book love. I dream of being contacted by authors and publishing companies and being sent books for my reviews before the masses get to read them. But so far, I have two subscribers, twenty facebook followers, and 65 twitter followers. Not world class or well known by any means.

But the point is, I’m doing it because it’s fun. Sometimes in college, I worry that people forget what it’s like to do something because it genuinely makes them happy and not because it’s going to make the grade or the g’s. While it’s incredibly important to focus on your academic life, it is also really important to make a little time to focus on what you like.

If that means starting a blog about cute cats, go do it! If you love to talk about cakes and baking, the internet is a wonderful place. Maybe it just means you take a night to bake something yummy or go find somewhere to go kayaking. I dunno what interests you, but don’t forget about those things. Let them nourish you in times when you feel overwhelmed or apathetic about what you’re focused on now. Even if you don't know what your hobbies are, go out and do something fun on campus!

The main point? Learn to have time to do things for fun as well as your work and school. What do you guys secretly wish you had more time for? Or even better, tell me something you DO take the time to do for fun in the comments!

Malala

   I’d like to take a moment here in this blog to discuss something very important about what this “project” (ie: student blogging) allows us as students to experience: freedom, specifically out freedom of expression within the confines of a public university.

I am going to discuss this because ( in case you have not heard about her on the news ) we have a remarkable fellow blogger-in-spirit by the name of Malala Yousufzai. She was recently shot in her home region of Swat in Pakistan.  She has become famous not for her assault, but rather for her actions that lead to the Taliban of the region to attack her in the first place. You see, Malala had a blog, a blog where she encouraged the young women of Pakistan to seek the education they deserve.

This did not sit well with the local Taliban and so they shot her on the way to school. She is currently being the subject of a great medical effort to provide her with the care she will need to survive, both in Pakistan and now in Britain.

A picture of Malala Yousufzai

   As Americans we enjoy a great many freedoms, one of the biggest being in that we have a great range of ways and mediums with which to speak our minds. As students, we at the University of Texas at Tyler Student Blogging Team are able to use this freedom to inform you of the educational benefits offered you by this state, the employees of the University of Texas system, and the wonderful people who work here at UT Tyler.

When you read our blogs and comment, you ( as students or even as foreigners to American soil ) are engaging in our dialogue. By accepting outside opinions, or controversy, or  issues and discussing them openly, we are all adding to one of the things that makes the internet a true marvel. We use to broaden our minds, to seek new avenues of thought we might have dismissed previously, and we certainly use it for humor.

   Still, this freedom we to blog and discuss that are using is not available in other countries. When I hear about the difficulties that Malala went through to even start her blog ( let alone to have the courage to write what she has in it ) I feel proud to do what I do here on the Student Blog Team, even if sometimes our posts as are silly as they are serious.

   To all who read out blog and comment – thank you

   To all who have blogs of your own and bravely post about injustices or your lives – thank you

   To all who allow us here to maintain our blog(s) with the freedom we do – thank you

   To Malala – thank you, too. Thank you for speaking out. Thank you for being brave.