So I was looking over all the issues of The Guilfordian this year, and I realized that there were a lot of negative sentiments floating around here. Many were mine, and that got me thinking. I sat back and looked at this college we all love to bemoan, and I realized I really like it here. Yeah, I complain, but those complaints were to try and raise awareness, to raise the bar a little so our backs didn’t hurt so much each time around.

I really do like it here. Things are good, there aren’t many huge problems, any major conflicts (as of this year), nothing really wrong. Yet we do find things to complain about. And I think that’s actually a really good thing.

When I got here, if something was lost, you had to go see if it turned up at Public Safety. Now, after my angry editorial and other opinions on the same topic, the lost items found by Public Safety are posted in the Buzz.

If we as a student body, more importantly a section of our generation, did not question the things we do, they why would we question the bigger problems we might face? We show our true inquisitive, slightly lazy (in my case), concerned selves. We pursue with the greatest ardor the matter of the cafeteria food, yet certainly people across the globe and across history have survived and continue to survive on worse.

We (I especially) get riled up, as is our right, about the theft at this school, yet does the average New Yorker get as vehemently roiled as we do? They deal with far worse, but don’t complain too much about it.

Some might say we’re just bored complainers, that what we complain about is trivial stuff. But if we complain about the trivial, it is not only because we are gifted with such a great campus, but also because we have been brought up in a society that thrives on close inspection.

I’m proud that I’ve gotten upset about things, because things have changed due to my anger and others.

The trick is not to make your case sound too ignorant, or whiny. It’s a matter of getting riled up, but not too angry. It makes me feel really great to see lots of letters to the editor, and editorials, on such a wide variety of problems and concerns.

The motto here used to be “Be the Change,” and certainly things are changing. As long as we look for, and call attention to, kinks in the armor, things will become smoother, better, and we can pass forward a college and an institution that is better than the one we applied to.