As a gay book nerd, I grew up only being exposed to heteronormative romance stories. This is why Andre Aciman’s gay romance novel “Call Me By Your Name” has become my favorite romance novel. Growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, the representation of same-sex couples in media – whether in books, TV shows or […]

The hardest and most exhausting statement I’ve had to repeat hundreds of times is “I’m gay.” Since starting at USD this past fall, I’ve realized how much I’ve taken for granted that it’s been several years since I’ve had to come out of the closet. And over winter break, I was reminded of how envious […]

According to several headlines for more than a year, millennials come off as a generation of ruthless serial killers. And I have to wonder why the writers’ and editors’ of these articles feel the need to imply this. Mashable published a list of 70 things millennials have killed, which written by Chloe Bryan back in July. […]

As a studio arts major, I often get bombarded with annoying statements and questions. They range from, “Oh, I could do that” to, “Your classes must be easy” to, “It must be cheap.” Here are four things that shouldn’t be said to an artist. “I could do that” Saying, “Oh, I could do that” when […]

I was raised hearing the saying, “Honesty is the best policy.” Yet, there are situations when it’s not. According to PsychCentral, white lies are common in healthy relationships. Licensed psychologist and relationship expert Susan Orenstein defined a white lie as, “omitting the complete truth to spare someone’s feelings.” In other words, we can tell the truth if […]

One of my favorite times of the semester is approaching: registration time. I love it because I like finding that one fun or interesting sounding class to add each semester to keep my schedule interesting. After looking through the spring semester schedule for next term, here are four classes I think every USD student should […]

The semester is halfway over and everyone has found a routine that works for them. Yet, these routines can become mundane from being in a rut of some kind. I personally find it easier studying with background noise from shows on Hulu or Netflix. When I do this, I typically do this in the Muenster University […]

On Oct. 4, the Center for Diversity and Community kicked off LGBTQ+ History Month. On Oct. 11, Spectrum is hosting an event for National Coming Out Day. Why are these events important? That’s easy. The Stonewall Riots weren’t covered in any history courses I took, nor were Harvey Milk or Allan Spear, who were both openly […]

Among the things I didn’t know about USD prior to being a student, the tradition of Dakota Days is probably one of the bigger ones. I didn’t need to know the importance, and now as a USD student, I don’t have the historical context. Actually, this is no longer true. All I knew is that Dakota […]

I’m old school when it comes to reading books — I love having the physical copy in front of me. There’s nothing more exciting than touching the pages or feeling of your highlighter dragging across the page or watching the ink dry after writing a note in the margins. According to a statistics report in […]