Lessons from the bathroom stall — or three feet away from it.

All is well in the land of Tweets. That is, until some discomforting maternal attention pops up.

From bringing your own controller to leaving the MC Hammer jokes at home, proper videogame etiquette will make sure you get invited back to play Super Smash Bros. down the hall night after night.

When I woke up yesterday morning, there were ten piles of clothing outside my door.  When I returned home that night, there were eleven.  There are only two explanations. The first is that my brother has developed an obsessive stacking habit, and the second is that my mom and I have started digging through drawers.  [...]

When I was in elementary school, I remember one thought crossing my mind on the first day of school.  Every year, I was struck by this crazy, wistful notion: “I wish summer could be longer.”
Oh God, if only I knew.
If my entry this week seems shorter, it’s for one very obvious reason: Not all that [...]

It’s three weeks until I move in, and the past is on my mind. The way I see it, I’m only going to get more nostalgic as Wildcat Welcome week approaches. I figure I’ll reach critical nostalgic mass some time during the second week of September, at which point I’ll be sobbing in [...]

I’ve lived in Eden Prairie, Minn. for the overwhelming majority of my life — about 17 years, if my math is correct. I’m not going to pretend I love it, but I’m used to it. It’s been the setting of my last 17 years, and that’s got to count for something.
I’m leaving in [...]

My mom and I made an Ikea run this weekend. I’ve got a dorm now — Allison, if you’re wondering — and so I needed to look for dorm-friendly furniture. I’ve given up on my dream of fitting a LoveSac in my room, but a small couch seems doable if my roommate and [...]

Oh, God. Not again.

Sam Daub is an incoming Medill freshman from Eden Prairie, Minn. Photo courtesy of the author.

Freshman year. I thought I got that over with the last time I was a freshman. Thanks to the miracle of Xanga, I’m actually able to look back to 2005 and see the person [...]

Before I arrived on campus last month, I thought I had a definite idea of what my life would be like during preseason and beyond. Not to say that I had rehearsed this new situation in my head over and over; rather, in the course of preparing myself for this new chapter — whether it [...]

Nine days. Nine days until the bookworm meets the science geek, the jock meets the prom queen, and things start all over again. Nine days until we see our new roommates, register for classes and say goodbye to our parents. And while nine days may seem like an eternity in the hands of excitement, to [...]

When I arrived at Northwestern last Wednesday, I felt like an eight-year-old on the first day of the third grade: runny nose, watery eyes (illness not sadness), and no idea as to what was going on. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem had I been back at home, watching the Olympics in my [...]

When I first heard about Northwestern, I have to admit I was a little (really) intimidated. As I sat in one of my most challenging classes and faced one of the most serious, albeit routine, inquisitions into my planned collegiate pursuits, I couldn’t even picture myself removed from the environment surrounding me. It’s not that [...]

After weeks of anticipation, I can finally rest easy knowing that I won’t be setting up camp in front of the library, making foil dinners and singing campfire songs. Thanks to the arrival of my housing assignment, I can return my tiki torches to Home Depot. But while I would like to say that my [...]

Normally my Webster’s New World Dictionary, circa 1984, best serves my needs by propping open my bedroom window. Rarely opened, its worn red binding and missing pages have become the reference reject of my house, phased out long ago by its Internet great-grandchild, dictionary.com. But when my laziness gets the best of me, and I [...]