Opinion Columns

Annika Neklason | Eating green

As a teenager living at a boarding school where many of those choices were made for me by higher authorities, my vegetarianism felt like something I could control. Something I could do, myself, to fight for a cause I cared about.

Sabina Spigner | Guilty pleasures

The point is that I’m quick to judge. I think that my upbringing has a lot to do with this because in order to make up for my differences, I felt as though I had to comment on other women’s bodies. Judging became my defense mechanism.

Jonathan Iwry | Eye of the B-holder

Art is powerful for its ability to conjure meaningful experiences and offer new perspectives. It’s not a quantifiable substance, but a potential for interpretation.

Marjorie Ferrone | Fighting bigotry with empathy

Each of us is the center of our own universe defined by unique experiences that form varying perspectives.

Yuqian Li | A place I call home

I had never dreaded going “home” for summer as much as I dreaded it this time around. In the past, immediately after packing up my luggage and selling my used textbooks, I would hop onto the earliest Megabus and look forward to a few weeks well

Shawn Kelley | Coup now, democracy later

I think at this point everyone, the United States and United Nations included, needs to wait and see what direction this coup takes. If Chan-ocha keeps to his word, we could see an even stronger Thailand emerge.

Melissa Lawford | Neither good nor evil

Ultimately, though, organizations don’t make people. People make organizations. To attribute reckless behavior and sexual assault to an organization takes the agency away from the individual.

Senior column by Caroline Brand | 14 Things I Learned at Penn (GIFs not included)

Although you might be convinced that it is acceptable to text your way through any lunch date, class, or meeting, that is a mere myth.

From under the button

If you ask a Penn student, you might get a raised eyebrow or a mischievous look when they tell you about the legend of having sex under The Button before senior year. (As a senior, I’d love to tell you about this—but I promised this column wouldn’t be about senior wisdom.)

On lust and stress

Although I am ultimately responsible for my missteps, I also blame my socialization into the Greek Scene and Penn’s ethos of “work hard, play hard.” Locust Walk is like the Autobahn, a highway without speed limits.

Think Twice | Closing with conviction

Dear friends, we missed you this semester!Luckily, The Daily Pennsylvanian has granted us one last ditty before we drop the mic and ship off to do who knows what.

Shelli Gimelstein | The futility of 'endgames'

I've learned at Penn that determining your "endgame" is a futile endeavor. The frustration of figuring it out is what makes college such a beautiful time of self-discovery — and it doesn't go away until you let it. And you don't have to figure everything out right away. Or ever.

All things in transit

The biggest lesson of my college career has thus been learning when to let go — and when “good” for someone else becomes bad for me.

Going places

I always used to say that it didn’t matter that I was better suited to a go-kart than a real car because I’d live in a city.

The first and the last

There isn’t an end to the firsts yet. We’re all so young and have so much time ahead of us to do all these other new things and meet all new people.

The best and the worst

To be able to truly open yourself up to another person is a privilege, and whether we graduate with a high-paying banking job or with a ton of student debt, we should consider ourselves lucky.

The Wharton 4Y

During the fall of my sophomore year I attended 17 OCR info sessions. Despite the fact that these workshops were geared towards seniors, and that most of these firms didn’t even have sophomore programs, and my suit jacket and pants were mismatched, I still dutifully showed up at each one (sometimes 2 or 3 a day) over the first 2 weeks of class.

A story to tell

But the most memorable stories, for me, were the ones that brought me a bit closer to the heart of Penn — the ones that introduced me to some of the lesser-heralded people who make our university the special place that it is.

Jonathan Iwry | On drinking hemlock

Naysayers spend their lives in fear of idols; we’re the ones who smash them. Everyone uses their intellect like a hammer, smashing away at their hobbies and trades to craft something meaningful. We’re in the business of building better hammers.

Collin Boots | The superiority of secular morality

Religion has claimed a monopoly on morality for so long that we infidels are forced to explain ad nauseam why we think murder is morally reprehensible. I am tired of conceding the moral high ground to religion by default. Today, I want to reverse that situation and show why secular moral systems are superior to their non-secular counterparts.