Editorial note: The following note contains sensitive information. The author’s name has been changed to protect her anonymity. About a year ago, sex started to hurt.
My mom says when I was a baby, I used to sing with the birds when I woke up instead of crying. I’ve sung in choirs since the first grade, and by eighth grade, I had performed with my local symphony orchestra –– something I was doing a few times a year by the time I reached high school.
I was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996. I was a little miracle war baby who made it. I defeated the odds of health complications, my mother's high-risk pregnancy and malnourishment. My family went without food, water and electricity for over four years. This was especially detrimental to my pregnant mother, who prior to having me miscarried twins.
Paying a visit to my roots is something I’ve wished for my whole life. I always daydreamed about experiencing the culture my ancestors were brought up in. As a first generation Korean-American, the trip gave me a sense of pride that couldn’t be broken.
This letter appears in the same condition as Veloz sent it to The Spectrum.
SA President Leslie Veloz has not been logging enough office hours and recently nominated an unqualified candidate for vice president.
I remember being home when the Olympics were on and everybody in my family watched it. Getting everyone to agree on something to watch was a rare occurrence growing up.
We all know STI protection is important in theory. Unless you went to a high school that preached abstinence only, you’ve likely sat through your fair share of awkward condom demonstrations involving a banana or a cucumber. But according to a 2016 study by the CDC, only half of sexually active college students use condoms.
There is one aspect of the game, however, that someone can’t learn how to play: the diversity component. More than half of the applications have had whole sections asking how I would add to the diversity of the program, if accepted.
I came out as a bisexual man in this newspaper just over a year ago. In that time, I have never once been made to feel bad about it by family, friends or any organization.
Nobody should feel unsafe going to school. Seventeen people were killed by a gunman on Wednesday in Parkland, Florida.
After months of rallying for a living stipend, English TAs and GAs are finally seeing a rise in their pay.
My first week of the spring semester consisted of 9 a.m. classes, rushed lunches and a totaled car. The first Tuesday of classes had many snow flurries. Road conditions were awful and I skidded out several times on my way to class, so I was driving slowly and cautiously the entire day. Despite my efforts to be cautious, the events of the day were out of my control.
When I first stepped foot on campus in August 2016, I made a promise to myself: I wouldn’t get a haircut. But I recently rediscovered a cause I believed in and broke that promise Saturday. No matter how much my friends advised me not to, I knew that getting a cut and donating my hair to a wig-providing charity would mean more than any compliment I could ever get.
When I first came out at 18, I told a few close friends I was a lesbian. Some were supportive, others were confused because I’d talked to them about liking boys before — so surely I must be bisexual, they insisted. Shortly after coming out, I met a boy. He came into my life right after I had been rejected romantically by a girl who had been my best friend. I was vulnerable and lonely. No one, boy or girl, had ever given me a second glance.
Editorial note: The author’s name has been changed to maintain her anonymity. In a country where only 24 states mandate sex education in public schools, it's no wonder so many kids get their info from their friends.
I fully realized I was asexual –– having little or no sexual appetite –– the first time I went to a strip club. My friends decided we should all go to this strip club in North Buffalo one night –– an idea I sighed and went along with. We went in and I nursed a beer for a couple hours while they got lap dances and dropped bills in places you could probably guess. But as I sat there, sipping a room temperature Labatt and taking in the shrine to American sexual desire, it hit me: eh, this whole thing probably isn’t for me.
UB’s past two athletic directors left for more lucrative positions after brief, less than three-year tenures. As UB begins the search for a replacement, both in-house and outside hires present advantages and drawbacks.
UB is finally starting to take more concrete steps toward making a new health center a reality.
At the 2017 Winter Gala, my date and I were standing in line to have our photos drawn as a caricature. It was a crowded room and there wasn’t a clear cut line for each caricature artist. As our turn approached, we stood next to a couple who also thought it was their turn. After a quick conversation between my date and the couple, my date sat down to have his portrait drawn.
Solutions by The State News
