Spring break: two words that conjure up images of sandy beaches,
bikini-clad coeds, and cheap cervezas. After these last rough weeks
of studying for finals and writing papers, we UCLA students often
feel that we deserve a break from the monotony of college.

You’ve all heard the horror stories of recent college
graduates who end up living with their parents and working at the
local pet store, unable to find a real job.

In my high school years I was somehow placed in the honors
track. I took honors English and honors biology and I was expected
to be one of the smart kids, the kind of student who took Advanced
Placement tests and went to a four-year university straight out of
high school.

Every quarter I get an e-mail telling me that the chancellor
will be holding office hours, and every quarter I delete that
e-mail.
It’s not that I don’t care or that I don’t
have any concerns to voice.

Besides getting a good education, expanding your cultural
knowledge is an important part of the college experience.
That is, college isn’t just about learning facts in
lecture; it’s about meeting people and learning about
different cultures and viewpoints.

If you swept up all the debris and general nastiness from a
typical Los Angeles city street, what would you find? There would
be oil, brake dust, paper pamphlets, chemicals from lawn-care
products, cigarette butts, fast-food wrappers, animal feces, and
… well, you get the picture.

Many college-age students are just here to get their degrees and
move on, but there is another demographic of students here at UCLA
who seem to have a greater appreciation for the educational and
social experiences UCLA has to offer.

I don’t keep up with celebrity gossip, at least not on
purpose. Still, somehow the stupid antics of
“celebutantes” always seem to slip into the collective
consciousness, and I become unintentionally privy to the fact that
Britney Spears is reportedly trying to have another baby with K-Fed
to “strengthen her marriage,” and that Paris Hilton
supposedly peed in a cab but was “way too drunk to notice
that she had wet herself.” The real danger of all this is
that celebrities aren’t the only ones acting the fool.

My recent acquisition of an iPod Nano has officially turned me
into an anti-social music-monger. With my headphones in my ears and
my eyes on the pavement in front of me, I can completely block out
the world and meander from class to class, creating my own personal
soundtrack as I go.

Yule logs are flaming, chestnuts are roasting, and reindeer
hooves are pitter-pattering all over the free-exercise Claus of the
First Amendment, which happens to guarantee the right to practice
one’s religion without government interference.