When I graduate at the end of this year, I’ve been promised my own sandwich printed on the Bui’s food truck menu.

I always wanted to move to New York City. Ironically, now that I’m at the age where moving to New York on my own is a possibility, I’m coming up with more cons than pros.

In elementary school, I made an unhealthy amount of lists. I was, to say the least, the opposite of an impulsive child. Earlier this week, however, I jumped out of a plane.

As I have learned, peppering racial tensions with humor combats an uncomfortable situation because it counteracts a negative vibe with the positive lightness that comes with humor.

When it comes to Penn Alexander, Penn is acting in its own self-interest. In helping create the school, which it did more than 10 years ago, the University was much more interested in creating a place of instruction for the children of its own faculty and staff than for the children of the West Philadelphia community at large.

My problem with this is that the best way to improve self-image shouldn’t be a superficial change at all. A better form of “self-improvement,” whether for others or for yourself, would be to go for a run or to read a book, instead of looking simply to erase perceived imperfections that we are told define us as people.

The potential for Facebook’s positive use is diluted by its overuse. Only if our time on social media is controlled, either by self-discipline or some direct intervention, can the good outweigh the bad.

Political scandal is no longer left to trash publications and gossip mags — the most credible news sources in the world are now in the trenches of delivering this same sub-par and, frankly, trashy coverage.

To fix a national gap in geopgraphic knowledge, perhaps we should be turning to the omniscient oracle on 21st century knowledge: Google. Utilizing Google Maps as an educational tool introduces a novel solution to the national geographic disconnect.

Finding justice represented the difference between feeling safe in this country, and having it painfully highlighted how marginalized, even sacrificed, some people are in the legal system that superficially is meant to provide equal protection.

As any student or prospective student would, these people have asked me for some guidance. Once I exhaust the generic advice — whose class not to take, what dining halls are best, where to go during NSO — the best wisdom I can really give to these young hopefuls is to do your freshman year Leslie Knope style.

A part-time internship at the PSPCA (Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and conducting research for my Latin American and Latino Studies thesis aren’t exactly wastes of time. But I want my summers to be more than just another line of ink on high-gloss resume paper.

If the entire Penn community — students, faculty, staff, and hospital employees — chose to redirect their business away from chains and towards independent coffee shops, local entrepreneurs and the community as a whole would benefit enormously.

Come fall, students will be expected to learn in anemic schools with no arts classes, sports programs or music groups. What I find absolutely abhorrent about this situation is the lack of responsibility on the part of local businesses, city and state legislators alike concerning this issue.

By separating the government from the term “marriage,” perhaps we can discard some of the stigma against same-sex marriage — separating the church and the state in such a way could decrease the fear some religions have of same-sex marriages.

The United States and China are in a time of ever increasing political tension, leading both Americans and Chinese to regard the other as a threat to their own way of life. Such fears are expressed not only through the characterization of fictional supervillains, but — more insidiously — through unconscious stereotyping.