2008 Woodie Awards
For future reference
Parting words of wisdom from graduating Collegio staff
Issue date: 5/10/07 Section: Opinion
From Rebecca Bauman, Opinion Editor:
Ask questions. This is a top-notch problem-solving tool. When you ask a good question, it shows you've been paying attention, it shows that whatever has been fed to you has made some impact, has caused some chain of cognitive reaction. That flatters the speaker. Plus, asking questions is the best way to steer the rant of a blow-hard off track.
The answers are always changing. But the questions - they never change.
Best way to argue a point, to refute the other side, is merely to cross-examine your opponent. Let them come to their own epiphanies; they'll only believe their own epiphanies. Lead them down whatever serpentine road it takes to get them not only to listen to you, but also to understand where you're coming from.
Listen closely to that someone you don't necessarily agree with. Research his or her ideas; check them out. All of this is protection against being wrong ... and you could always be wrong.
I don't like being ignored. This is not to say that I need all eyes on me, all the time. But when I reach out, by whatever means, and am left without a response ... there's just no way to make me feel more powerless, more exposed, more alone.
Often times, wanting to save the stray dog is more about you than it is about them.
I can be just as man-crazy as the next girl. But the only real heartbreak I've ever known came from the loss of a good girl friend. Maybe it's the built in empathy that comes from caring about someone who knows what it's like to be you - who knows what it's like to be a woman. They should know better than to break your heart.
You gotta remember that all people are people. Your professor. Your waitress. Your mom. The guy who pulls cans from your trash. You treat them like they're a different breed altogether and you'll deny them their humanity, as well as your own.
Those jerks who complain about me being a "loud woman" are always the ones who end up with that obnoxious drunken girl who screams aloud all the lyrics to Meredith Brooks' "Bitch" or Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee" when the song cues up on the juke box. The irony is mind numbing.
Ask questions. This is a top-notch problem-solving tool. When you ask a good question, it shows you've been paying attention, it shows that whatever has been fed to you has made some impact, has caused some chain of cognitive reaction. That flatters the speaker. Plus, asking questions is the best way to steer the rant of a blow-hard off track.
The answers are always changing. But the questions - they never change.
Best way to argue a point, to refute the other side, is merely to cross-examine your opponent. Let them come to their own epiphanies; they'll only believe their own epiphanies. Lead them down whatever serpentine road it takes to get them not only to listen to you, but also to understand where you're coming from.
Listen closely to that someone you don't necessarily agree with. Research his or her ideas; check them out. All of this is protection against being wrong ... and you could always be wrong.
I don't like being ignored. This is not to say that I need all eyes on me, all the time. But when I reach out, by whatever means, and am left without a response ... there's just no way to make me feel more powerless, more exposed, more alone.
Often times, wanting to save the stray dog is more about you than it is about them.
I can be just as man-crazy as the next girl. But the only real heartbreak I've ever known came from the loss of a good girl friend. Maybe it's the built in empathy that comes from caring about someone who knows what it's like to be you - who knows what it's like to be a woman. They should know better than to break your heart.
You gotta remember that all people are people. Your professor. Your waitress. Your mom. The guy who pulls cans from your trash. You treat them like they're a different breed altogether and you'll deny them their humanity, as well as your own.
Those jerks who complain about me being a "loud woman" are always the ones who end up with that obnoxious drunken girl who screams aloud all the lyrics to Meredith Brooks' "Bitch" or Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee" when the song cues up on the juke box. The irony is mind numbing.
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