There is a particular kind of person I don’t like, the kind of person who takes everything personally, the kind who takes arguments directed at someone else personally. In other words, the stupid kind.

Recently, I ran into one of these people.

Well, perhaps ‘run into’ isn’t the best choice of words, because my words were the only thing this person encountered. Obviously, if I had personally encountered this person, I would have given them a piece of my mind and a piece of reality.

When I wrote into the Northern Star recently in response to an article bitching about the cost of school, I wrote simply to promote a more positive learning environment. I realize going to college costs boatloads of money, and I appreciate that fact (more on that later) but I refuse to let this reality depress me day by day, and furthermore refuse to take the advice this school-run newspaper handed out: take drugs.

First of all, that is completely illegal. It kills braincells and ruins memory, shuts down major organs and can lead to death or chronic illness. So why is my university endorsing this ILLEGAL and DEADLY behavior in the newspaper for all students to read? I have no problem in opinions being voiced, but when an advice piece is published that suggests something illegal, that is going too far.

Second, the response written in to the Northern Star after my letter was published was completely uncalled for, taken out of context, and insulting. The letter claims that by saying we should take a positive outlook on school rather than take up an illegal behavior I was ‘toting my moral and financial superiority over’ NIU.

Let’s clarify something: IF I am the face of financial superiority, THEN the world is ending.

My father is jobless. My mother is also unemployed. Our family of 5 has one income: my own, which is a meager $100/week. My older brother is disabled and cannot work or attend school. My mother, in attempt to get back into the workforce, is back at University.

Let’s add that up:

1 disabled

2 in college

1 part-time college job

0 full-time jobs

1 mortgage

lots of debt

Does that really sound like the face of financial superiority? If I am so financially superior, what does the writer of this letter think of the owners of McMansions? CEOs of companies with billion dollar paychecks?

Somehow, her small-minded faculties lead her to conclude that just because I do not want to advocate taking drugs to the financially-struggling student population that I am financially set and have no worries.

ALSO, to address the ‘morally superior’ statement, I have but one short response: You must have confused morale and moral, because no where in that article do I address the right-or-wrong nature of drugs, just the legality of it. Which is completely factual, FYI.

That is all.