Kaycie's blog

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book about the adventures and the tragic death of Chris McCandless. Chris McCandless is an outsider to say the least. Through interviews with Chris’s family, friends, and acquaintances, Jon Krakauer tries to piece together aspects of Chris’s life. The author also resites passages from Chris McCandless’ personal journal and different books that he treasured. I felt like as the book led to Chris’s eminent demise, the reader learned as much about the author as you did McCandless. It was very obvious that the author thought very highly of Chris.

Even though the story of Chris’s life isn’t really that long of a story at all, I mean the kid was only 24 when he died, it seemed like the book took forever to get to the actual story. Chris is really famous for surviving for 114 days in the Alaskan wilderness by himself with little provisions and then of course dying out there as well. The book doesn’t get to that part until basically the last chapter.

I did enjoy the thoroughness of Jon Krakauer’s writing because through the extensive background of Chris’s life you get a glimpse into what Chris most likely was going through and thinking about during his last few days. I felt at times that there were things that the author couldn’t possibly know about Chris and what he was thinking but that is where you find out more of the author’s point of view than Chris’s.

There is no doubt that Jon Krakauer sees himself in Chris McCandless in my opinion. Jon Krakauer is personally invested in the story because of his own personal experiences exploring Alaska and his his extensive research into Chris’s life. Sometimes I wish he would focus more on that than himself because I felt like throughout the whole book the author was trying to convince the reader that Chris wasn’t crazy in risking his life and going into the wild alone. When it comes down to it, it’s obvious that Chris wasn’t emotionally or mentally sound when he was on all of his adventures, at least that is the conclusion that I made.

Through Krakauer’s extensive background information you basically delve into literally every relationship that Chris ever had, even the human contact that lasted a couple hours. I understand that the author was trying to get everyone’s opinion on Chris but it became a little tedious at times. I felt like some of the stories just didn’t really matter, especially since Chris didn’t seem to care what anyone thought of him anyways. For example the author dedicated two chapters to his own travel stories and I had a hard time wondering why the information was relevant in the story about Chris McCandless; at least when the author was talking about people that actually met Chris you could get a glimpse into how Chris was but I felt like the author’s life was irrelevant to the story.

My all time favorite chapters were about Chris’s childhood though. Those chapters really helped the reader connect with Chris and I felt like I lost the opinion of the author for a second and that’s kind of what I wanted throughout the whole book. In reading these parts was when I actually started to feel connected to Chris and almost feel sorry for him. It’s when you realize how young and innocent he actually was. I also couldn’t help but make the personal connection between Chris’s relationship with his sheltie Buckley, since I grew up with a sheltie as well.

Overall I really enjoyed Chris’s story. I wish the book would’ve let you make your own conclusion about him instead of pushing certain viewpoints in your face but at least the author was genuine. The book also could’ve dropped a couple chapters in my opinion but the depth of the research is very impressive. I definitely would recommend this book to a friend and would give it five stars for Chris’s journey alone. This book would be perfect for anyone seeking adventure.

In high school the choice to go to college is almost made up for you. You either go to college and be a successful, contributor to society or you don’t go to college and ruin your life. That’s obviously not the reality but that’s what it seems like the teachers and parents are telling you.

For me, going to college was expected of me. My brother went to Doane College four years before I graduated high school so my parents just expected me to go. Now this article isn’t about how college is bad and that you shouldn’t go to college because I believe college is a great thing.

College allows students to immerse themselves in the real world in a somewhat safe and sheltered environment. It helps students transition from living under supervision all the time to actually being a decision-making adult. College also helps you get educated obviously.

My rant is more on the push of college in high school. I just don’t understand why and how society expects a 17-year-old kid to know what they are going to do with the rest of their life when they’ve barely experienced life at all. About a third of undergraduate students end up switching their majors at least once within three years of initial enrollment . Students rush into college and choose a major that they think they like to realize much later that they don’t want to study that subject at all; thus wasting thousands of dollars just because people forced them into going to college right away.

Yes, there’s always the option to go in freshman year as ‘undecided’ and figure it out through taking a bunch of different courses but is that the best way to really figure out what you want to do with your life? I know countless students that did just that and still ended up changing their majors later on.

I came to Morningside as an advertising major and I thought that I would never change. I even made a bet with my step dad for $50 saying that I would never change my major. Jokes on him because I changed my mind too late so I’m still graduating with a major in advertising. My point is that if I wouldn’t have been rushed into college at such an ignorant time in my life, I could have went to college for something that I’m actually passionate about and saved thousands of dollars.

The career I’m interested in now doesn’t even require a degree in anything, just a couple certifications. This is the case for a lot of jobs. There are so many students that end up wasting thousands of dollars taking courses that they will never use. This obviously isn’t the case all the time but it happens enough that you’d think we’d learn from past mistakes.

I changed my mind on my major in the middle of my junior year. When I finally decided that I didn’t want to go into advertising after college I knew that it was too late to change my major. Literally one of the worst periods in my life was when I decided to change career courses because I knew that I had just wasted my time and money.

Now I’m stuck. I’m stuck going to classes that I really couldn’t care less about, except for my news and feature writing class which I love. I’m also stuck with an amount of debt that will most likely follow me around for the next thirty plus years.

In the end, I’m not angry that I went to Morningside College. Morningside taught me a lot about myself and the world around me. The experiences that I’ve had here will impact me throughout my life. I just wish I could’ve saved a few bucks along the way.

And to the high school senior that is being nagged at by their parents to pick a college and major already, you have time. Even though up until now your parents have made most of the important decisions in your life, this choice is yours. Choose wisely, because it may come back to bite you in the ass.

Cannabis. Marijuana. Hemp. Weed. Pot. Dope. Grass. Mary Jane. Bud. Ganja. Reefer. Dank. The Devil’s Lettuce etc. One person may wonder, how can so many words mean one thing? But to a stoner, these words are used daily. Marijuana use is especially prevalent for the younger generation, namely college students.

According to the University of Michigan, who performed a study on marijuana use in colleges in the United States, marijuana use among full-time college students is at an all time high. In 2016, they reported that 39% of full-time college students had used cannabis at least once in the past year. Even more shocking, 4.9% of full-time college students indicated that they were daily or near daily users of the illegal drug. When comparing this statistic to the Morningside student body, that would mean about 65 students at Morningside are daily or near daily users of marijuana.

Between the ages of 19 to 22 is when young adults show an increase in experimenting with drugs and alcohol but the statistic is much higher for college students. The American Journal of Public Health found that the college setting almost promotes substance use, but they suggest that this could be because for most students this is the first time living without supervision.

For Sarah Baker, a student at Morningside College, she actually started smoking at the astonishing age of 13. Sarah states, “I was young and influential. I was doing a lot of new things at the time.” Sarah falls into the daily user category. She smokes four to five times throughout the day. Sarah has anxiety and claims that smoking marijuana helps her get through the day.

When asked about stoner culture in colleges she states that she has noticed three types of stoners. “You’ve got the stereotypical stoner that is lazy and is doing nothing with their life, the stoner that you wouldn’t suspect is a stoner, and then the third is the person that uses for medical reasons,” says Sarah.

Sarah is definitely in support of the legalization of marijuana but she does admit that it isn’t for everyone. “I think it’s great for certain people and it can be a bad thing as well for others.”

Morgan Simpson, another Morningside student, agrees with Sarah’s view. Morgan claims that there are benefits to smoking marijuana but it depends on the person because it affects everyone differently. Unlike Sarah, Morgan is a recreational smoker. She only smokes about once a week, sometimes less.

Morgan started smoking marijuana in high school at the age of 17. She was friends with an older crowd at the time who smoked so she decided to try it out for herself. Morgan thinks that stoner culture in college is different than most people think. She states that it isn’t just the outcasts that do it in college like is usually portrayed. “I think that it is more than a culture. Literally everyone is doing it. All cliques, all types of people,” she says.

Patrick Meyers, a professor at Morningside, has noticed the change in stigma around marijuana. Back in his day marijuana was thought of as a gateway drug and he thinks that it is still thought of that way by the older generation. Patrick is for the legalization of marijuana, as well stating, “I see very high functioning people using marijuana recreationally.”

Patrick thinks that one of the main reasons that marijuana should be legalized is because of the racial discrimination behind the drug. He thinks that it is the “driver of change even for people that don’t use”.

Patrick started smoking marijuana in high school at the age of 16 because of peer pressure. He admits that his first time was not a great experience. “You end up having to buy it somewhere shady and end up doing it somewhere shady. It doesn’t feel safe and it doesn’t feel recreational. No one wants to break the law, particularly in high school.”

When he was a young adult he only smoked about four to five times a year. Patrick ended up quitting at around 27 years old because he was trying to quit smoking cigarettes at the time and felt like smoking marijuana was a trigger for him.

Stoner culture to Patrick doesn’t represent a lot of the people that smoke recreationally. He claims that there is a subset of the culture that is true as in any culture but it doesn’t represent all people that smoke pot. The one thing that comes to mind for him when thinking of stoner culture is the famous stoner movie Half Baked that was released in 1998.

Even though students are more prevalent to try marijuana for the first time in college, most the time it doesn’t stick. Most people live in areas where it is illegal and like Patrick said, no one wants to break the law. This trend could be changing soon though with the national legalization of marijuana on the horizon. The Iowa Department of Public Health announced last Tuesday that Sioux City will be opening their first medical marijuana dispensary due to open as soon as December 1.

Cannabis. Marijuana. Hemp. Weed. Pot. Dope. Grass. Mary Jane. Bud. Ganja. Reefer. Dank. The Devil’s Lettuce etc. One person may wonder, how can so many words mean one thing? But to a stoner, these words are used daily. Marijuana use is especially prevelant for the younger generation, namely college students.

According to the University of Michigan, who performed a study on marijuana use in colleges in the United States, marijuana use among full-time college students is at an all time high. In 2016, they reported that 39% of full-time college students had used cannabis at least once in the past year. Even more shocking, 4.9% of full-time college students indicated that they were daily or near daily users of the illegal drug. When comparing this statistic to the Morningside student body, that would mean about 65 students at Morningside are daily or near daily users of marijuana.

I have three interviews planned which will be the bulk of the paper. I’m still trying to figure out what to focus on.