A young woman sits down with a piece of paper and a pencil preparing to write her yearly Christmas list. She didn’t know where to start so she immediately opened her computer. She went directly to Instagram where her favorite influencer already posted a giant list of clothes, shoes, and accessories to scroll through. As she picked out items from this list she came across different instagram accounts with a variety of outfit ideas. 

She also found that the things she frequently looked at also popped up as advertisements directing her to even more websites with what she wanted. As time went on her Christmas list had become full with ideas, all streaming from a singular social media platform.

After releasing her new album, Midnights on October 21, 2022, Taylor Swift landed herself at the top of the billboard charts, making her the most listened to artist for the past 4 weeks. Midnights is Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album and includes popular songs like Anti-hero and Bejeweled. 

Swift won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Album in 2019 with her popular song titled Lover. The general genre of Taylor Swift’s music is pop; some sub-genres include Synth-pop, Dream pop, Electronica, and bedroom pop, however she was originally a country-pop singer. 

Taylor Swift started out her career as an opening act for Tim McGraw when she was just a teenager. In October of 2006 Swift released her debut album, including a top 20 single Tim McGraw. At 18 years old, Taylor Swift released her second album, Fearless, selling over 10 million copies in America. This album earned Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. This made Swift the youngest artist to ever win the award. 

Swift has grown as an artist over the years. If you listen to one of her first songs and then jump to one of her more recent songs you would think it is an entirely new artist. Originally her music was simple, with acoustic guitar. Her new music includes a lot more musical elements and has transformed to primarily pop. The transition from her first song to her most recent songs show how much she has grown as an artist. 

I am a personal fan of Taylor Swift because I grew up listening to her music. Her music is most often relatable to young women. Many of her songs are about the men in her life, for example some song titles include: You Belong With Me, Love Story, I Knew You Were Trouble, We Are Never Getting Back Together, Lover, and The Man. 

Swift’s music has become such a big hit this year that there became an overwhelming demand for tickets to her new tour. 

Overall, Taylor Swift has become one of the biggest names in female pop music. Her new music always blows up the charts, and makes her fans constantly wanting more. She has made a huge impact through her music over the years.

A day after paying her rent, a college student goes to the store for groceries. She limits herself to off-brand cereal and the cheapest chips she can find. As she pulls up to the self-checkout line and scans her groceries she gets ready to pay, swipes her card, and DECLINED. She quickly pulls up her bank account on her phone. $32.87. She makes the transfer from her savings account. Only about $1,000 left in her savings, she wonders how she’s going to pay for her college tuition this year.

She picks up the few groceries she needs and puts the rest back. She decides that if she wants to finish college she is going to have to get another job on top of her current work study. The stress of being broke weighs down on her as she takes her singular bag of groceries to her car.

Once she starts her car she notices her engine light is on. “Oh great,” she thinks to herself, “more money I’m going to have to spend.”

College students everywhere are struggling to pay even the bare minimum. Things continue to get more and more expensive, yet students are still getting paid minimum wage. The question is: “How are students supposed to get their money?”

“The past two years at Morningside I have had 3 different jobs to help pay for school and other expenses,” says junior Isabelle Majeres. “I just recently quit one of those 3 jobs and I am already looking for a new one, after realizing that 2 just isn’t enough to pay for everything.”

This is exactly why Retention has become a big issue for Morningside, along with many other institutions. Students become so busy coming up with money that they may fall behind in their studies, have to retake classes, or even drop out of school.

Morningside offers a work-study program for students who meet the requirements. This gives students a variety of opportunities to work both on and off campus, in roles that prepare them for the future. “I have been able to work in a Kindergarten classroom off campus as a way to get a feel for the classroom environment and prepare myself for when I become a teacher myself,” says freshman Shelby Edwardson. However, she continued to explain how she still has to work her part-time job at Casey’s general store to get by.

A student wakes up at 7:30 and goes to their 8 AM class. They go straight from class to their work-study job. They clock out of their work-study job at 1:30 and head to their 1:45 class. After this class is over, they go home and change into their work clothes while grabbing a snack as they head out the door. They arrive at their after-school job at a restaurant, getting off at 10 PM when they can finally start working on their homework, and finally get to bed at 1 AM. Then they do it all over again.

Students are already stressed with the schoolwork itself, and having to worry about where their money to pay for school will come from does not help their mental health. This explains why so many students decide not to attend college, or to drop out early because they can’t afford it.

As I was browsing through the liquor store, looking for the wine that my roommate wanted me to get her, I noticed a bottle I’ve never seen before. It was a strawberry lemonade flavored wine. It didn’t necessarily sound good to me, however it sounded different. I was intrigued, so I bought it. It was only a five dollar bottle of wine, so I couldn’t turn it down. 

I brought the wine home and poured my roommate and I a glass. Her initial reaction was better than mine. It was a very sweet wine, and actually tasted just like strawberry lemonade, and nothing like wine. My roommate said that she liked how sweet it was, while I disagreed. If I wanted strawberry lemonade I would just drink that instead of the cheap wine that would probably give me a horrendous hangover. I finished my glass, as it was tolerable, but let my roommate have the rest of the bottle.

I don’t regret buying the bottle, because I was genuinely curious on how it would taste, but now I know not to buy it again in the future. I would recommend this wine to someone who likes sweet drinks, and someone who may not usually like wine, because this doesn’t really taste like wine at all.