There comes a tipping point where you have to say “enough is enough,” and you either need to fix what is driving you to the edge or take a step back to realize what needs to be fixed. My tipping point just arrived and resulted in me saying: “I quit!”

So, you know those people I was playing nanny for? Besides the peach cobbler incident, things have been okay. In fact, the family hired me on as their accountant/bookkeeper – so I have been doing tax forms and working with thousands and thousands of receipts for the last few weeks. However, things started going south pretty fast once I started playing the role of babysitter and bookkeeper!

There were tons of demands. It was like once they had me around all the time, they would do anything to keep me there. For example, I would give the family my schedule and they would be mad because I had LSAT class or a few hours out of the day blocked off to study – things they knew when they hired me from the start. They started wanting me to nanny and do bookkeeping work at the same time – but they only wanted to pay me for bookkeeping, despite me watching their young children. Then it turned into almost full-time hours, when I only want to work part-time. And, the worst part was when the pay became sporadic. As I write this, I still need to be paid for nearly a $100 worth of work. Do I think I’ll see the money? No, but at least I’ll have my sanity back. Read More »

Gossip and rumors are main staples on college campuses across the nation, and the website Juicy Campus (which was recently shut down), shows just how far people are willing to go to spread gossip. At some point in everyone’s life, gossip comes up – good or bad. Gossip, in moderation, can be just another thing, but in a culture that obsesses about pop culture and dishing dirt (think of websites like Perez Hilton), the fixation of dishing dirt about someone else isn’t going away any time soon.

Although many of us love to gather on Monday nights to watch Gossip Girl and watch the scandals of the Upper East Side unfold, no one likes it when their own personal life is exposed in the cafeteria over wilted lettuce or when private information rolls off the lips of classmates before the professor starts the class. While gossip may seem like something that comes and goes, it can leave its dirty scars behind all too often.

Maybe because it’s an all-women’s college and women often use each other to bring others down, or maybe it is the size of the university, but the Hollins rumor mill never seems to cease on campus. It constantly peeks its nasty little head around the corner for students that least expect it. Whether it hurts friendships, ruins reputations, or isolates students from campus events — gossip can cause tremendous damage. Read More »

Today, being gay is not such a taboo. But in the utopian Christian world, being gay is still unacceptable.

As a former bible toting, God-loving Christian, I can easily say that converts are whole-heartedly welcomed and celebrated in the church. But now, there is another type of conversion, a conversion from “straight” to gay to “straight” again that is also being welcomed and accepted.

This “conversion therapy” is really behavior modification or simply put, brainwashing.

From the article on ABC News, it sounds much like the movie So You Want to Be a Cheerleader except in real life (and maybe slightly less creepy…remember those outfits??). Making someone participate in so-called straight male activities like football banter with the guys or automobile maintenance aren’t any way to change their inherent attraction to one sex or another.

James Serra attended Love In Action, the largest gay “rehab” located in Tennessee. He spent THREE YEARS in the program and is now a counselor.

Serra said that he sees homosexuality as a behavior, a choice. Although he is still attracted to men, he has not acted on his feelings for eight years. He hasn’t been with a woman either.

I hate to break it to this guy, but that isn’t conversion, that’s a really long sex drought. Read More »