You’ve been sitting at home for hours, trying to think of ways to entertain yourself. You and your roommates thought because it was a bye week for UF football, you might as well use Saturday to relax and have a lazy day.
After watching four of eight main “Harry Potter” films and eating way more pizza than your body should have been able to handle, you collectively decide to play a board game and make your brain do at least a little bit of work on your lazy day.
Realizing your board game collection consists of exactly one game, you collectively decide Scrabble will be the game of the evening. After several turns, you’re a little embarrassed by how badly you’re losing. That is, until you pull out the letters you’ve needed all along to put yourself back in the game.
Grinning to yourself, you place the letters on the board and exclaim there is no way anyone can beat you now. Your friends look at the board in awe. Spelled out in tiny wooden tiles is:
Darts & Laurels
On Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump gave us both our first dart and our first laurel of the week when he declared a nationwide public health emergency in order to combat the growing opioid crisis in America. According to the LA Times, the new order will allow some limited new steps, such as enabling patients in rural parts of the country to access medication for addiction treatment through telemedicine. Furthermore, it should allow federal agencies to redirect some existing grant money to focus on opioid-addicted patients. The only problem with his so-called solution is no direct orders to increase funding toward the epidemic have been made. To us, the declaration seems a little light — we hoped for more but are pleased some attention is being drawn to the issue.
A little closer to home, we have had some issues of our own. Hazing allegations have come out against the UF chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. It’s no secret Greek life has its problems, but rarely do we see solid evidence of it, and rarely are we faced with the gruesome reality of what happens behind closed doors.
Audio of a sister recounting an incident that involved racist insinuations, heavy alcohol use and sexual behavior was released earlier this week, causing UF to further investigate the chapter. While we certainly hope this incident does not speak for all UF Greek chapters, we are still ashamed it speaks for even one of them. Isolated incidents usually point to a larger system. The behavior of the Kappa Alpha Theta sisters involved is deservingly our last dart of the week.
On a more positive note, we’ve seen some things this week that have really helped to restore our hope. Despite the fact last week was a little rough for a lot of Gators, we got through it. We got through it together, and as we continue to face more difficult weeks, we continue to get through it. Together.
As we approach the anniversary of former UF student Abigail Dougherty’s death, UF students decided to pay tribute to her in a beautiful way. The Field and Fork Pantry and Campus Diplomats came together to create a day of service in honor of Dougherty, earning a well-deserved laurel. Watching our campus come together in times of adversity truly makes us happy to call ourselves Florida Gators.
Looking forward to this weekend, our last laurel of the week is a no-brainer. It’s finally time again for all of us to pack our coolers, grab out jerseys and head up to the EverBank Field in Jacksonville to cheer on the Gators as they go head-to-head with the University of Georgia Bulldogs. That’s right, dear readers, it’s Florida/Georgia weekend! No matter your hectic schedule, take some time this weekend to relax and cheer on your team — you deserve it.
