Erik Beene

Now being from the South, you would think I would have grown up eating chicken and waffles every other Sunday. Well, you would be wrong. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t even heard of this delicious combination–and it is delicious–until about a year after I had moved to North Carolina.

There are very few times I sit in awe a piece of writing. But I did earlier this week. It was David Brooks’ newest long-form piece in The Atlantic: The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake. It’s a wonderful exploration of the changing structure of the American family. How it’s changed all our lives and mine. I recommend you give it a read. But one thing from the piece stood out to me the most: the family you make.

After realizing I do actually graduate in less than four months, I began to panic as I realized I haven’t seen much of the “real business world.” Thankfully the Hussman School has a rather good career services department.

I spent the bulk of my Tuesday nights freshman year sitting listening to debates by town and county officials regarding everything from Wegman’s to “The Goat Patrol.” I quickly learned local meetings could be anything from boring as watching paint dry, to a lively discussion about the future of the town itself.

Ask anyone in my family and they’ll tell you exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up from ages like 0-11. I wanted to drive a train.

Brunch is the greatest meal of the day. Full stop.

I think I’ve been staring at this open word document on my laptop for over two weeks now. No one told me it was going to be this hard to come back and do it again. After all, I’ve already spent a semester spilling my thoughts and experiences into the digital expanse. At least people could crack the eternal, “dId YoU sTuDy AbRoAd?” jokes last time I was here.