The Driftwood

March 31, 2022

Building Your Self-Confidence

When I began college, I was still struggling in high school. My grades dropped. Topics held no interest. I felt stressed out because I wasn’t going to understand the basic things that most others my age had learned already, leaving me in a feeling of hopelessness and low self-worth. However, as a college student I excelled. The difference? Self-confidence. Anything we do in life requires it, but many of us lack sufficient levels of it. How can we practice building our self-confidence in a way that it empowers and sticks with us, enabling us to be accomplished in our life goals?

1. Fake it till you make it. I know it’s been said a thousand times before, but, believe it or not, it works. When I focused on my courses and respectfully engaging with my peers, I forgot that I was lacking. In fact, even instructors noted that I didn’t seem nervous at all.
2. Try new things. If you’ve always wanted to try something—a food, a game, an activity, and so on—go for it! Forget that you don’t know how. It’s all about learning. And if you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it again, but you’ll feel more open to trying other things.
3. Speak up in social settings. Whether you’re in a friend circle, chatting with family, or meeting with your advisor to discuss your educational goals, don’t forget to offer your concerns and questions out loud. Speak up! Make changes to better yourself. Once you begin focusing on your own needs, your confidence in your abilities will grow.
4. Take interpersonal communications (COMM 166). This was my first ever course. It was jam-packed with tips about how to handle confrontations, to better listen to others, negotiate compromises, and overall understand speech and body language better. It can help you read a situation and know how to go about it better, even if you’ve never experienced it.
5. Forget the potential outcomes. That’s right. Don’t think about how it’s “surely going to go down.” Instead, let whatever the situation you’re in have any number of unknown answers. Pretending to know only ruins the chance that it will go much better than you think, causing unnecessary stress on yourself. Just breathe easy and navigate it the best you can.

March 31, 2022

Something for the Anime Fans

For anyone still recovering from Netflix’s offensive adaptation of Cowboy BeBop, just remember that the original masterpiece is also available to stream. While we binge the show, let us indulge ourselves in a popular dish from the first episode: bell peppers and beef. It’s delicious, simple, and open to interpretation, so here’s my version.

Bell Peppers and Beef

• top sirloin steak
• 1 green bell pepper
• mushrooms
• 1 orange
• salt
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• ground ginger
• olive oil

Slice your steak into thin strips and place into a container. Slice your orange into eighths so you can squeeze half into the beef and the rest for a quick beverage. Close the container of beef and OJ and let sit in the fridge overnight. When you pull out your beef, drain some but not all of the juice and season it with salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and ground ginger. Place a large pan onto a stove over medium-high heat and leave it to get the pan really hot. While that’s warming up, rinse and slice your bell pepper and mushrooms into thin slices. When everything’s ready, put some olive oil onto the pan so you can throw your beef in after. After the vegetables are good, place the beef to the side and drop your pepper and mushrooms into the pan with the meat juice and some more olive oil and keep stirring. After a while, throw the beef back into the pan and cook until the bell peppers are soft.

—Jake Puestow, Cooking Editor

March 31, 2022

Flash Fiction: A Short, Queer Story

With the recent passing of a local teen in the LGBTQ+ community, I wanted to highlight issues present in many queer people’s lives. This week, I have a story about casual homophobia and transphobia from loved ones.

Through the Wall

I can hear what you say, did you know that? Your voice carries through the wall as if it’s not even there. You met my first girlfriend; you know what I am, and yet you say awful and hateful words against people like me. Each time this happens, my heart shatters, a glass dropped to the floor. I am left to pick up the shards all alone because you don’t know what I hear you say through the wall.

—Serenity Block, Flash Fiction Editor

March 31, 2022

Writing Exercise: Spring and the Five Senses

Spring is coming forth at last. Snow will be no more, and soon the flowers will once again rise from the Earth. In this writing activity, use the five senses to define spring. Floral and poetic, describe what spring is, and what it means to you.

As winter dies, and as the sacred sun becomes common, the season of Spring brings forth its bold, amiable appearance. She shares her gospel of warmth and abundance of greenery. Snow becomes water, water becomes mud, and muddy water becomes part of the Earth, residing deep within the groundwater catacombs. The moist Earth which was once water, which was once snow, nurtures and gives birth to ground flowers of all colors, grass of great green, and insects rising from hibernation. Soon, the trees will no longer be gray skeletons of their former selves, soon the sun will no longer hide itself in shyness, and soon the summer birds will return to take residency in the north once again. When Spring arrives, she will turn the air into a warm and delightful scent, as prior to her arrival,the air was crisp and empty like a vacuum. The Sun will shine brighter and share his vitamin D, and the waves on the beach will roar once again. Grass will be able to be walked on again, and the sound of the leaves will be heard. Oh, Spring…please come sooner.

—Conner Tuthill

March 31, 2022

The Void, It Always Remains

—Conner Tuthill

Spring Break Travels

With spring break occurring last week, spring itself is due to finally come at last. The following travel story includes my spring-break travel experience.

It was not much of a “spring” break. My family and I traveled to northern Minnesota, where winter lasts a little bit longer and the air is typically more frigid than in Marinette. The reason for such a long journey is because my grandparents live in that state, within a small town called Ely, a dead city during the winter and a tourist trap during the summer. My family gathered at my grandparents’ house after a long eight-hour journey, and with it already being so late at night we had a short visitation and then went to bed a few hours later. The next day, there was a feast prepared. There was soup, sausage, coleslaw, and potatoes, typical hearty meals local people in the area enjoy. My grandpa and I talked politics while drinking some coffee before we went ice fishing. Stump Lake was the destination. My father, grandpa, and I walked across the ice and began drilling holes. Unfortunately, there were not many fish, but we found peace in nature, and we saw some dog sleds in the distance. Whenever staying at my grandparents house, we typically spend three nights before returning back home to Wisconsin. Goodbyes are always the most animated times. Grandpa always fixes breakfast the day my family and I leave. We gave turns exchanging hugs and making jokes. My grandmother always gets emotional when we leave.

—Conner Tuthill, Travel Editor

March 31, 2022

Celebrity Q&A: Robert Downey Jr. 

Robert Downey Jr. has had one rollercoaster of a career, from an immensely popular and critical youth to a struggle with drugs and bad run-ins with the law. His life did improve at the same time as he started to take on one of his more prominent roles: Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man.

Q: Had you met Chris Evans before he was cast for Captain America?

A: I have a vague memory of seeing him and whatever hot girl he was dating across from a dinner with me and Susan Downey. He and his girlfriend invited Susan and I back to their house to get in the Jacuzzi, to tell you the truth.

—Variety

Q: Were you nervous when they offered Iron Man to you?

A: Nervous? I was begging. I was certain it would change my life.

—Variety

Q: What’s the downside of playing a superhero?

A: It’s kind of like having a cool TV job. They are always hoping they don’t get picked up for another season; or they are wondering if they’re going to get picked up for another season; or they have done so many seasons, and they are already sick of doing the show, but the show is so big, it’s working well for them.

—Variety

Q: What are your thoughts on addiction?

A: Anyone who can’t go five minutes without a cigarette or can’t stop drinking or is strung out on drugs knows that after a while there develops an attachment to the ritual of using it that has little to do with your original motive. The original impetus was to feel its effect, and the effect seemed positive at the time. But if years down the road you are still saying, “Baby, I do it because it makes me happy,” you don’t really mean it.

—Parade

Q: What is your opinion of cigarettes?

A: I started smoking again when I was doing Tropic Thunder. I thought, “I didn’t get sober years ago just to die of heart disease!” It was just a little moment when I saw the Ghost of Christmas Future, and it was not pretty. So, I am off cigarettes again.

—Parade

—Will Kosmal, Celebrity Q&A Editor

A little-known secret around campus is that our professors were once students. Nervous, confused, and probably as hungry as we all are while sitting through lectures, here are their first experiences as professors and what tips they have to offer for students taking their courses.

Humanizing Our Professors: Dan Kallgren
History Department, Marinette Campus

Sometimes we get those classes where the instructor is less-than thrilling. Something about their lecture needs a little oomph every so often. As a guest lecturer and teaching assistant for his professor in graduate school, Professor Kallgren added just this to a class of nearly seventy-five students. Nervous but sure he wanted to do it, he entered with the announcement that he was not the professor they were expecting. A little bit of humor went a long way.

Professor K. is very passionate about the history he teaches. He mentions that it’s always a new experience, even when he’s teaching, because there’s so much about history that he has yet to learn. Every bit gives him new depth and understanding. There’s a collaboration on both his part and the parts of his students, which I would have to agree creates a friendlier classroom environment. On a last note, he wants us to stop by! If you have nothing to say other than “hello,” head over to your instructors’ offices and introduce yourself. Not only will you grow to understand their educational methods and your materials better but it brightens their days to have that brief, friendly experience with you.

April 13, 2022

Serial Story: Noah’s Dream Journal #5

February 26, 8:05 AM

So, it’s been a while since I’ve written in this thing. It’s also been a while since I’ve had a dream. A few months have passed and I honestly don’t mind, what with worrying if I’m going insane with these dreams or not. However, I did have a dream last night, but it was different from the rest.

I was at a party at some guy’s place with a bunch of people I didn’t know, and I started walking around. Everybody was going into separate rooms in pairs, probably doing God knows what. I thought it’d be something fun, so I tried to open a door or two, but they didn’t open. Not a single door I tried worked, I couldn’t do anything except walk out of that party and find something else to do.

I found myself at an Irish pub where I lost myself and my thoughts to the singing, chatter, occasional fighting, all that good stuff. I was feeling good when I heard a voice from a corner of the pub. I immediately knew that voice from anywhere: it was Doc!

I couldn’t see his face buried beneath all of the people, but I did see his arm holding a glass of beer. He must’ve sensed I was scared and told me, “Don’t fret, Noah. We did what we needed to do. You’re cured!” When his hand got lost in the crowd celebrating over the soccer game, that’s when I woke up.

To be continued…

Click these links to read previous entries: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Continue reading “The Driftwood #26: Serial Story”

April 28, 2022

A little-known secret around campus is that our professors were once students. Nervous, confused, and probably as hungry as we all are while sitting through lectures, here are their first experiences as professors and what tips they have to offer for students taking their courses.

Humanizing Our Professors: Keith West
Geoscience Department: Marinette Campus

Professor West was fresh out of grad school when he stumbled through his first lecture as an exhibit curator for a small college museum in New Mexico. Unfortunately, he had some stage fright, relying on his notes to get him through a foggy memory and talking faster to make up for lost time. This resulted in a student’s dramatic reaction of flinging his pen over his shoulder, completely giving up on taking notes—not exactly a sign that things were going great. The next day, when he braved the class again to get something out of a storage closet, he spared them any painful anticipation of a second incident by explaining that he wouldn’t be teaching them again, as it was only a one-day opportunity. With a great deal of kindness, one student announced that, “it wasn’t that bad.”

While not every first experience is a perfect one, learning is about getting back up and trying again. Luckily, the Professor did just that, and today he encourages his students to not just be spectators but to engage with their materials because it’ll only make the experience better. After all, asking questions and discussing lessons gives you the chance to explore things that wouldn’t have otherwise been taught to you. Instructors aren’t mind-readers. Students have to speak up to be heard. In addition to that, he wants students to know that while he organizes his classroom, it isn’t actually his course; it belongs to everyone in it. Again, your classes will proceed as normal unless you put the effort in to make them better or more enjoyable. Truly, words of wisdom for every class at UWGB, as students’ honest opinions are very-much welcomed by professors in every department and on every campus. Education, then, is definitely a team effort.