On June 3 of last year, a friend of mine and former shipmate, Vinson Ya, passed away while kayaking near Whidbey Island in Washington. Ya was the epitome of what a congenial personality could be. In the two deployments and several years that I knew him, I don’t believe that I saw him angry or…
Jeff Bauer
Given my four years in the United States Navy, taking online classes over the course of two deployments, and working toward my bachelor’s degree since 2013, I realize that I notice things a little differently than others. This became especially evident when I recently considered my loyalty to a popular television series. My military service…
There are a multitude of extracurricular activities for anyone interested in participating — sports teams, pub trivia groups, and clubs for nearly every imaginable interest: chess, reading, movie discussions, even zombie awareness (no, seriously: http://zpocawareness.com). While it’s not by any means an absolute necessity to be involved in social groups like these, socialization is important in…
Community service is a great thing, and a wonderful way to create positive change within your locale, wherever it may be. There are a huge variety of ways to get involved that require very little, if any, effort on your part to participate. I currently volunteer at Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit organization in…
It’s become incredibly commonplace to be on our phones for the majority of the day; take a look at a waiting room literally anywhere (particularly places like the DMV) and about 90 percent of the people there will have their devices out — Facebooking, Googling, and Tweeting their way through the unbearable boredom. What was…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve had more than one instance of either forgetting something was due or simply choosing to ignore it until the day before it was due (the latter is most often the case for me). Again, if you’re like me, it makes no difference whether this particular assignment is a worksheet…
Attend a game at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium if you can, but if not, find an excuse to make your way to a major football field near you next season and watch a game. If football isn’t your thing, you’re in luck, because there are plenty of other opportunities to attend Penn State sporting events…