Most people I have met at Texas Tech develop a love-hate relationship with the city of Lubbock. Many students have some of the best times of their lives here, granted they still hate the city because there is nothing to do (though let's not forget the National Ranching Heritage Center). Though I use my columns to complain about the ills of society, I myself both love and hate Lubbock and Tech, and would like to offer some cheers and jeers as I leave to start a new phase in my life.
Cheers to: Sorority girls. While it's true that as a waitress I tire of getting your kids meals and chips with ranch (we call it sorority sauce), I have to say that I believe that you ladies are getting a bad rap. Everyone thinks that you are snobby, spoiled and shallow. But I believe you can tell the most about a person's character by how they treat their server. With very few exceptions, Greek ladies not only tip the best but say "please" and "thank you" and treat me with respect. Thank you for coming in after chapter (I still don't know what the hell that is) on Monday nights, it always helped my bank account.
Cheers to: People who hate my column and still like me. I definitely can tell where people stand in their personal development when I get hate mail that makes me sound as if I were the anti-Christ. C'mon, you hate mailers; we are past the age of name-calling. Let us grow up and learn that just because a person has different ideas than you doesn't mean that they are an evil person. Many of my friends are Conservatives and Republicans, and we still respect each other though we don't agree with each other.
Jeers to: People who miss the point of my columns. For instance, in one of my columns I wrote a statistic that 25 percent of companies would re-think hiring a woman if she wore a pants suit to an interview. I then got hate mail from a woman saying I needed to stop being a girl and worrying about what to wear, because she wore a pants suit to every one of her four interviews and got every job! Well I didn't make the statistic honey, I don't really care what they hell women wear and that's the point of the column. Please, read columns at least three times before sending hate mail.
Jeers to: Spoiled brats. Your parents pay for everything including your car, your school, your rent, bills, food, gas and clothing. Yet ironically you are the ones that skip school though it is your only job for four years. You make mediocre grades and always complain about not having enough money. Somehow, the blue-collar kids who work 40 hours a week often times perform better in school than you. Stop being a spoiled brat. You should be graduating Summa Cum Laude.
Cheers to: foreign professors. Aside from learning a second and sometimes even a third language, getting a doctorate and coming to a different country only to teach at the university level, foreign teachers must face the ignorance of "I caint understayand what the hay-ell this guy is sayin' ". I have a professor from a foreign country who speaks English almost flawlessly and very clearly, yet certain people in the class still act as if everything he says is a mystery. I have a sneaking suspicion that the kids don't understand the material, so they blame it on the teacher. I'm sorry to the foreign professors, who are so talented and smart, who have to face the disrespect of 18-year-olds who can't speak another language, never have left Texas and won't ever be dedicated enough to get their doctorates.
Cheers to: Every professor I've had at Tech. I have been to a university with lackluster professors. Tech is full of passionate, knowledgeable, talented, kind and empathetic professors who couldn't have made my college experience any better.
Cheers to: everything good that Lubbock has meant to me. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, beautiful sunsets, handsome, two-stepping cowboys, trashy bars, hard-working people, a supportive family, and my soul mate. Cheers to the kind hearts and the intelligent people who have surrounded me during my time at Tech.
Jeers to: everything that Lubbock stands for and shouldn't. Jeers to homophobia, sexism, racism, backwards thinking and hate. Jeers to the fact that we still are segregated and that we are a city divided. To Lubbock and Texas Tech: a beautiful, terrible place that has so much to learn but offers so much.
I hope that you will learn and grow without losing the down-home greatness that makes Lubbock a nice place to live. Unless you are a Liberal. Then get the hell out of town like I'm doing.
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