“The Hate U Give” remains a cinematic hit in theaters. The book turned film drama was directed by George Tillman Jr. and released October 5, 2018 a day after screenplay writer Audrey Wells passed away October 4 2018.
Photo Credit: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
The teen drama depicts the double life of 16-year-old, shoe-collecting, Harry Potter fanatic, the quiet, innocent Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) living a double life as Hood Starr from a low-income African-American neighborhood, Garden Heights, and attending an upscale, predominately white private school, Williamson Prep with her brother, Seven (Lamar Johnson) a cool, intelligent, caring young black teenager.
The quiet, normal, yet double life of Starr/Starr 2.0 is shaken after witnessing the murder of her childhood friend, Khalil Harris (Algee Smith) by the police. Facing media outlets, police injustices, and battling her two worlds, Starr must find her voice within a chaotic situation for her friend Khalil. With the help of her parents Maverick Carter (Russell Hornsby), Lisa Carter (Regina Hall), two brothers Seven (Lamar Johnson) and Sekani (TJ Wright), and lawyer/activist April Ofrah (Issa Rae), neighbors, and friends, Starr finds comfort with her decision and her activism against police brutality.
Photo Credit: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
Despite its depiction of tragic loss, the PG-13 rated movie includes happy, light-hearted comedy, yet educational moments for all ages. Filmed throughout Atlanta, Georgia, the film earned a total worldwide gross so far at $29,679,543 according to boxofficepro.com.
The movie is also heavily influenced by iconic rapper Tupac Shakur. Author Angie Thomas wrote the book adapted into The Hate U Give inspired by Shakur’s lower-abdomen tattoo acronym definition of THUG LIFE.
Film critics and YouTube movie reviews encourage families of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities to see the film before it leaves theaters. Texarkana Cinemark’s showtime includes a 6:30 p.m. evening show and 11:55 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday shows.
Director: George Tillman Jr.
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Algee Smith, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Common, Issa Rae, KJ Apa, Lamar Johnson, Sabrina Carpenter, Anthony Mackie, Dominique Fishback
Screenwriter: Audrey Wells
Book Author: Angie Thomas
Students interested in film might want to take a look at a classic that focuses on one of the more overlooked aspects of movie making.
The 1981 motion picture Blow Out is a deep dive into the world of sound. It is the story of a B-movie sound technician and his relationships with audio: analyzing, acquiring, following, and implementing.
The viewer is purposely made overtly aware of the process of hearing in the first scene. A masked slasher stalks around a girl’s dorm. He is breathing, stepping into, and sampling the vignettes of sorority life window by window.
As a first time viewer, one is ready to turn this trite trash off, but soon discovers the goings on are being observed by two sound men working on a film: Co-ed Frenzy. Elements of sound engineering are seen in the opening credits as analog level indicators are used as a wipe between names of folks in the film.
Our protagonist, Jack, played by John Travolta, needs to find the perfect scream to complete a project. Now starts the most interesting part of the movie for this viewer: seeing all the tape, the reel-to-reels spinning, cutting/splicing, and just remembering how the world of sound manipulation used to look before the most disappointing offering of sound throughout this film: the dialogue.
This is a good example of a movie resonating with one of its elements of production. The telephone scenes are filmed with care and make use of several Hollywood conventions: A to B cuts with the conversation, dialogue overlaps in a shot/reverse style, and picture by picture sharing both parties’ conversation. One scene uses what is now called autonomous sensory meridian response or ASMR. While Jack is trying to compile evidence he peruses the pages of a magazine. While doing so his hands are touching and turning the pages, making one cringingly aware of the texture. Then in a classic ASMR move, he cuts the pages with scissors slowly and loudly, creating tension through sound.
Another fun point is that Jack’s antagonist is also a sound man of sorts. Burke, played by John Lithgow, can be observed wearing a telephone service man’s uniform. He also uses sound against Jack by erasing all of his tapes and manipulating the sound of phone conversations.
[SPOILER AHEAD] Music is used efficiently to move the action along during car scenes and to transition between scenes. In the final act our hero attaches a “wire” to Sally, only to discover that unbeknownst to her the killer is there. Jack uses the transmitted audio to determine her whereabouts: hearing the turnstile, train whistle, and fireworks. Ultimately Jack does not save the girl. He does, however, save the audio created from her fatal encounter with Burke. He languishes over this sound-bite in a snow-covered cemetery, internalizing every plea for help and each frantic attempt to appeal to her killer. The last scene of the film echos the start: with two sound-guys engineering audio for a movie.
This time Jack got his great scream and is tortured by it, and rightfully so. One can only assume that the ending has something to do with how the film making process requires a creator to use sometimes painful personal elements of their real life to complete a project.
With Black Panther, one of Marvel Studios’ most praised films, and Avengers: Infinity War, their highest grossing film so far, out of the way, was the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) successful in giving audiences one last thrill for the year?
In word: yes.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
In the follow-up to Peyton Reed’s 2015 superhero film, Ant-Man, our story picks up where the life of Scott Lang, once again played by Paul Rudd, has gone since he aligned with Captain America in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. He’s under house arrest after brokering a deal with the government. With only a few days left, and the superhero game behind him, Scott is inches away from freedom. However, he’s pulled back into the growing and shrinking shenanigans by Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym, played by Evangeline Lily and Michael Douglas, when he begins to have mysterious visions of Hope’s long-lost mother, played by Michelle Pfieffer, within the immeasurably microscopic “Quantum Realm.” With Scott’s help, and with Hope donning her own shrinking suit, taking on the name of the Wasp, they might free her from her miniscule confines. Unfortunately, a phantasmic, cloaked woman who can walk through anything, referred to as Ghost, means to claim the energies of the Quantum Realm for herself, and our heroes must use their strengths, wits, and abilities to grow and shrink at will to stop her
While the previous film was enjoyable, it didn’t rank particularly high on my list of films from the MCU. The villain, Yellowjacket, felt like an uninteresting retread of Iron Monger from 2008’s Iron Man, Scott didn’t have a high enough personal stake when it came to helping Hank and Hope, Hope was insistently angry throughout most of the film, the humor didn’t always strike a chord, and the title hero wasn’t given enough dignity or credit for what he tries to accomplishes. With that in mind, I went into this film with a minimal set of expectations.
That said, I’m happy to announce that Ant-Man and the Wasp was a much better outing for the character.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
To begin with, the villain, Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, is a far more interesting antagonist than what we saw before. Her motivation is a fairly unique one – her powers are killing her and she needs the Quantum Realm to fix it. This could spell danger for Hope’s mother, which is why the heroes are on the opposite end of things, but this doesn’t necessarily make her a bad person. Apart from that, the actress provides a fairly unsettling performance in some scenes, coming off as physically and emotionally erratic. While certainly not the best villain we’ve gotten out of the MCU, Ghost is among the most interesting in how different she is, in look, abilities, and motivation.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
Another positive that this film has over the other is the plot. The first film was a serviceable origin story with elements of a heist film, but this film is a little more engaging. Apart from the race to keep Hank’s research out of the hands of Ghost, there are a few subplots being juggled around. We have one where Scott is trying to keep up the appearance that he’s back home and not pulling off illegal activities with Hank and Hope, another where a group of arms dealers, led by an amusingly Southern Walton Goggins, want Hank’s research as well, Scott’s old gang, with a returning Michael Péna doing his usual funny shtick, working on a security company, and Hank’s old colleague, played by Laurence Fishburne, getting involved. We see the return of Giant Man, there are car chases with shrinking and growing objects thrown into the mix, and psychedelic imagery could compete with Doctor Strange. There plot goes in many directions, but it never feels exhausting, and it all around felt fresher and more energized than the previous film.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
The biggest hurdle I felt the film had to leap was the relationship between Scott and the Pym’s. As I said, Scott didn’t feel as involved with the stakes of the plot as he should’ve been. Part of the reason behind that was his relationship with Hank and Hope. Hank treated him as a necessary helping hand and Hope, mostly, didn’t want anything to do with him. This got old for me fast, but, thankfully, they improved that here. Scott has a greater personal connection because he wants to make things right for stealing Hank’s suit, going to Germany without telling anyone, and causing his friend’s to be put on the FBI’s most wanted list for being associated with him. There’s a reason this time for people to dump on Scott as he made a massive mistake that dampened the bond between everyone, and you want to see them patch things up. Not to mention with Hope becoming the Wasp, which was a joy to see another classic character come to life, this allowed Rudd and Lily to have more moments of banter and camaraderie and much less of Hope being an angry, wet blanket. This not only improved Hope’s character, but her relationship with Scott, and eventual romance, feels much more authentic than it did before.
After so much had happened in Infinity War, it was nice to have a smaller (excuse the pun) adventure with Scott and the gang. It’s not a particularly deep film or a game changer in the superhero genre, not to mention being the 20thfilm of the MCU, certain points can be a little confusing to the uninitiated, but it is a visually pleasing, well acted, mostly funny, action packed film that served as a great closing for the summer and for the this year’s run of MCU films.
8/10
The film is available now in digital stores, and will be available next week on October 16 on DVD and BluRay.
Sit up straight. Cross your legs. Carry this pepper spray at all times. Call me when you leave. Listen to your surroundings. Don’t go anywhere alone. Keep the police on speed dial. Don’t stay out past dark. If you do, you’ll be asking to get assaulted. It’s scary being a woman. In a matter of one week, at least 3 women from across the United States appeared on our local Texarkana news station as physically assaulted and beaten by men in broad daylight. 2 of these women died. Did they ask for this? Seeing the horrifying and gruesome images cast on-screen, alongside the details from the sole survivor, pulled me back to a recent concert I attended in Shreveport, Louisiana. Originally I was going to write a review, but there’s a more pressing issue here. There were no cellphones allowed at this concert.
Some might argue that it’s just Gen Z/millennial exaggerated worry of exiting the digital world, but it goes deeper than that. The worry wasn’t a loss of letting everyone know I was at a concert. The problem became more intense every time I had to leave my seat. True enough, the of exposure to stories of pain rather than pleasure skews our perceptions a bit, but the fact that my first thought when told I wasn’t allowed to have a form of digital communication was not ‘how will my friends know I’m having a good time,’ but ‘I shouldn’t go to the bathroom by myself.’ The fact that this occurs to women to the extent it does is disgraceful and disgusting.
According to NPR, in 2018, 81 percent of women had been sexually harassed at some point, with 77 percent having been verbally harassed, 34 percent being followed, and 27 percent being sexually assaulted. And the fact that one cannot google search the amount of women assaulted in a time frame without running into anything but sexual assault cases is baffling. Understand that women who feel this way aren’t just terrified of rape. Fear of leaving the side of someone else for various reasons strikes some women. These include being beaten to death, being raped, being shamed for being raped and wanting to abort a fetus that resulted from it, being shamed for what they wear, hearing people say that they could have prevented it, and the list goes on.
This is in no way meant to say that men do not experience some of the same things, but they certainly do not to the same extent (a Huffington Post article says that 90 percent of rape victims are women) and cannot fully understand the scope of the matter because they have not lived it. This is true for any situation involving someone of a different gender, race, or ethnicity. We cannot begin to comprehend some of the things our brothers and sisters have experienced. For this reason, women all over are just begging anyone to listen, a basic human interaction that many women don’t always get.
In terms of cell phone use, the problem with taking them away during a large public event where everyone are strangers is that something terrible, like the above mentioned beatings, could happen to anyone. But, as a woman, I felt more threatened. Accompanying men thought I was being ridiculous, but that is the meaning behind saying it’s difficult to understand if you haven’t been there. And, whether it’s the media or a random stranger who doesn’t know anything about the victim, someone will offer the ideas mentioned above: that they did something to deserve this, that they could have prevented it, and so on. And if they’re lucky enough to survive, they have to live not only with the traumatic experience, but also the pain of harsh side glances and crude gestures.
The gender problems in society run deep. Having to raise our daughters to constantly watch their backs, only wear one ear bud at a time, make sure their always wearing long pants and t-shirts, and so on, is terrifying. Having to design products specifically for women, like bejeweled pepper spray or security bras is insane. The problem has shifted from needing protection to needing self-defense training and better human interaction education.
So, don’t stand around and wait for big companies to tell you what is safe, because, despite rape incidents dropping sixty percent since the nineties, an alarming number of our women are still experiencing issues and feeling trapped. Get out there and fight for a better future, not just for you, but for your daughter, mother, girlfriend, self.
Strap in and get ready for the thrill of your life: another vaguely creepy priest movie has hit the theaters and you’ll predict every second of it! Sounds exciting, right? With October in its grasp, no wonder Hollywood has jumped on the spook factor and graced us with a fairly interesting line-up of horror films. Releases to look forward to include Blumhouse’s new take on an old John Carpenter classic, Halloween (2018), or the interesting mash-up of war and mutant experimentation, Overlord (2018). Recently released, however, was a new addition to a long-lasting series of intertwined films, The Conjuring and Annabelle film series. All have different names, except the direct sequels, such as Annabelle Creation (2017), a clever ploy to entice the viewer with only subtle linking that they feel they’ve discovered themselves. This could produce more viewers because they just have to know more. On September 6th, a film to tie up loose ends graced the market: The Nun (2018).
This film is an origin story (so it stands as a prequel of sorts) of a dark demon like figure, known as Valek. The character shows up somewhere around the release of the second Conjuring in the form of a nun, which isn’t surprising once you’ve sat through The Nun (2018). This looming figure follows a pair paranormal investigators (husband and wife), seemingly with no ties to them other than their career. The Nun (2018) changes that.
Addressing characterization is crucial because it provides the tone of the film. We all know what to expect when going into a horror film based on our experiences with similar films. However, the mood set in this film was off in comparison to those before it, particularly because of one character, Frenchie. The man is a lowly French-Canadian farmer in a small Romanian village. What throws the tone is his comedic nature. In this series, and many other possession films such as Constantine (2014) or The Rite (2011), there haven’t been characters that joke to this extent. At one point, he grabs a shotgun to fight off a demon and uses it to bludgeon a walking corpse, explaining that it wasn’t important enough to waste bullets. Later, in a more intense scene, he fires a shot exclaiming that the time was now appropriate. Whether this was character building is unclear. Frenchie becomes a conduit for the demon, so it’s possible that they were trying to offer this as foreshadowing. Or maybe the writers thought to try something new and get an audience reaction. Either way, I am not sure it worked. The film was less creepy because of it and was cringe worthy at times.
Another less than satisfying factor is the plot. Not to suggest that the audience shouldn’t know what to expect, but the extent to which the film fulfills these expectations makes it worn out and generic. The Vatican summons a priest and a not yet vowed Nun to investigate grounds where a sister committed suicide. They were to decide whether the grounds were holy (shocker: they’re not). Upon arriving they meet cheeky Frenchie, who takes them into the woods by carriage until the horse won’t go any further due to its fright. They then venture further into the woods, arriving at the convent standing next to a graveyard where plague victims were once buried. Long story short, they spend the movie finding out that the demon is Valek, who has claimed the lives of every nun who once roamed the castle halls. Predictable, right? And because it’s part of a running series, the show must go on. The film ends with Frenchie being possessed and exercised by the before mentioned investigators, clearing up the connection. The film spends over an hour and a half explaining something that could be said in ten minutes. I felt as though I had already seen the film before, and I was just waiting for the interconnection. The movie felt like a rush to produce something, despite its clean graphics and beautiful mise-en-scene.
In the end, the film is worth seeing. It’s not as exciting as other films nor is it as creative, but it is a missing piece to a puzzle with some important information. Maybe you should go on discount Tuesday at Texarkana’s Cinemark!
City life is known as being fast paced and high-toned. With a variety of places to go and things to do in my experience, a major metropolis is anything but boring. A common theme throughout American literature and film is the small town boy or girl dreaming of a big city life, looking for change in both culture and pace. The Journey song “Don’t Stop Believing” can be recognized in any crowd by its opening words “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world.” There is a common theme about this desire to leave the small pond to conquer the large. To many people, especially young people, it is foreign to switch those desires.
How would one know to adjust from growing up in the fast paced city to a small town with a population smaller than his or her graduating class? From places to go and things to see to being 30 miles away from even the nearest Walmart? To many, this concept would be foreign, but I have loved the change from Houston, Texas to the small town of Avery, Texas.
Here are some simple luxuries I occasionally miss from the city: Grocery stores are everywhere, and they’re open all hours of the night. The selection of stores and items in stores offers a larger variety of foods than small town grocery stores. It’s also true what they say: the city never sleeps. No matter your schedule, there is always something open for the restless. The late night coffee shops, the 24-hour restaurants, or the parks without hours are just a few available options. Living in a large city also offers endless amounts of sights to see and history to be seen. In Houston, for instance, the museum district always has a museum opening a new exhibit. There are multiple amusement attractions also such as Kemah Boardwalk and The Aquarium and more. The main difference between the city and the country is variety of life, of food, of people and culture, of sights to see, and things to do.
The country may not offer a list of luxuries but there is something too beautiful to sum up about a simpler life. Sure, things may not be as easily accessible with so long a list of options, but it doesn’t really make a load of difference. One advantage of the sparse amount of people is the higher speed limit. Though 30 miles seems quite the trek just for groceries, you can make it in about the same amount of time it takes to get 5 miles in the city. There are fewer stop lights and people to navigate around. The city cannot compete with the beauty of nature. Cities are like concrete jungles, with a beauty of their own to be sure, but no competition when it comes to mother nature. Many things to see and so much to do even in the small towns, especially if one is able to tap into a creative mindset. Not to mention the cost of living will never empty your wallet like a city lifestyle will. The air is clearer and the folks are friendlier. Friday Night Lights are exciting between rivaling towns and the traditions are endless.
From city to country or country to city, life is a beautiful gift. There are pros and cons no matter the road you travel, though having experienced this transition myself I found myself in love with the small town atmosphere and nearly every aspect of country living. I used to tell myself I would never adapt to this small town, but here I am three years later converted forever. Life is unexpected and change can be very obtrusive when unwelcome, but time works miracles for skeptical like myself. No matter which end of this transition you find yourself experiencing, the beautiful moments of life will always find you.
It’s 7 p.m. on Friday and you wonder, “What is there to do?” You text your friends and ask them if they want to go out and they agree. It’s now 7:30 p.m. and everyone is in the car ready for a night on the town. However, you guys sit in the car contemplating, “What is there to actually do in Texarkana?” Welcome to small-town college life.
Over the past 2 years, my friends and I have unfortunately discovered that Texarkana is not a college town. With the majority of restaurants closing by 11 p.m. and the town spanning two states, options seem limited. Texarkana seems like one of those retirement towns that is unfortunately placed 1 hour away from Shreveport and approximately 3 hours from DFW. So, what can you do? Welcome to a guide for college students in Texarkana.
Food. Texarkana has a lot of options for different foods. From nationwide businesses to local delicacies, you can find anything you want if you talk to the locals. If you’re looking for restaurants close to the campus that isn’t Sonic or Domino’s, you can try Bubble Tea or Mooyah. There are many options for food both fair priced and expensive. Check out the link to see the top 10 according to Trip Advisor.
Attractions. When it comes to attractions in Texarkana, options are limited. If you’re looking for something that is fun for you and a group of friends, bowling is always a wonderful fallback. There are two bowling alleys here in Texarkana: College Bowl and Holiday Bowl. If you’re on a typical broke college student budget, I suggest College Bowl. If you aren’t really into the bowling scene, there are two trampoline parks: G-Force and iJump. Trampoline parks can be pricey though since you typically pay per hour. There is also the Fun Country Park with attractions like an arcade and go-karts.
Shopping. There are many different opportunities for shopping in Texarkana. Whether it be local businesses or going to the mall, there are a number of options. It really depends on how much money you want to spend and how much you like shopping.
Texarkana has so much untapped potential. There are many hidden gems here that are waiting to be discovered by us. However, I wish you the best of luck in getting there before they close for the evening!
When did being a size zero, having long hair, or being “light skin” make you beautiful? We see it all the time on social media and television. I’m sure no one meant for it to be like that but no one has spoken up about it being wrong either. For the ones that don’t fit that description, they can be looked at as not pretty enough, not skinny enough or just not worth a glance. We as people have created stereotypes of what we accept as beautiful and sexy but we’ve forgotten that everyone was made beautifully in their own way.
We all come in different shapes, sizes, and skin tones but that is not what makes us. Social media portrays women as a trophies or sexual objects which makes the world have a need to create an image of what a woman needs to look and act like. The women that do not fit the description, like myself, can feel like less of woman, unattractive, too fat, bald headed, and so on. We compare ourselves to others and do things like exercising and starving ourselves to death to make sure that we fit the image the world expects us to be, but that is wrong, completely wrong.
We need to start loving ourselves the way we are. You don’t have to be a size zero to be cute. You can be petite or what i like to call “slim thick” and still get you a man girl. You can flaunt your pixie cuts and short bobs. You can be a dark skin female and parade your melanin around because YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. It is time out for letting the world make you think that you are not enough. You do not need to fix what God has already put his paint brush on. Instead, we are going to embrace ourselves and encourage the next female to do the same, and grab a Big Mac and a large fries to go along with it! It is time to love yourself.
Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a team-based first-person-shooter game released by Valve in 2007. On Steam, a popular digital distribution platform, TF2 is still one of the most played games, despite lower player numbers. To what does it owe its longevity? As someone with over 2,200 hours clocked in the game, I hope to articulate what makes TF2 so enduring.
The first of two main factors is charm — TF2 is rich in personality. From the production design to the voice acting, the characters (or classes) are easy to become invested in. Take, for example, the Scout: a loud, obnoxious narcissist with a heavy Bostonian accent, or the soft-spoken, amiable Engineer from Texas. These personalities are augmented by not only the cartoonish style of the game, but by in-game taunts and customizable cosmetic loadouts, as well as miscellaneous lines of dialogue spoken throughout rounds.
Of course, personality couldn’t carry TF2 for ten years if the gameplay itself wasn’t solid. Each class has its own arsenal, but there is a common element throughout most of their primary weapons: they are powerful and single-fire, rather than automatic with each bullet doing little damage. This means that every shot fired is hit-or-miss, and consistently landing these shots rewards the player with high damage per shot. Coupled with the sound design, these weapons are extremely satisfying to use, and make players want to improve their aim so they can feel more of that satisfaction.
Since being hit by anything will most likely reduce a big chunk of your health, an important technique to abuse utilize is movement. The ability to dodge effectively is overpowered in TF2, despite the simplicity of the mechanics, using only the letter keys and Space Bar. If you stand still in TF2, you will be backstabbed, headshotted, or suffer any other number of quick deaths. Movement is key to survival in this game; strafing combined with careful mouse movement can result in unpredictable movements, making one a harder target to hit.
One class that benefits significantly from movement is the Spy. The Spy has low health and a decent primary weapon, but his distinguishing factor is a knife which, when attacking an enemy’s back, instantly kills him. As a Spy main myself, I cannot stress how crucial it is to properly move when playing the class. In a technique called the Matador, the player strafes in one direction when an enemy is approaching, then quickly switch directions and stab, fooling him into looking away and exposing his back to the knife.
I hope this article helps you understand why a game so old is still enjoyed to this day.
Spring Break is what you make of it. Whether it is spending time with family or going to the beach with friends, you enjoy it. Though most students coming into college think of the stereotypical Spring Break of beaches, alcohol, and partying, there are other options. Here are 5 steps on deciding what to do for Spring Break.
Family or friends?
This is the first decision you must make about your week-long vacation. What to consider: will I be able to spend time with my family? who are the friends I want to spend a week with, and how is this benefiting me? Students with family members that work in the public-school system may end up on Spring Break at the same time. However, if your parents are working, you may end up watching your siblings.
Do you have the money?
As a college student, money is tight most of the time. If you choose some type of trip for break, how are you going to pay for it? Do you have money saved and put aside for this? Will this put you behind for the rest of the semester? These are things to consider, whether with family or friends.
Where do you want to go?
Now that you have concluded that you have money to spare, where do you want to go? This depends on whom you are going with. If you are taking a Spring Break trip with friends, you will more than likely want to go to typical hot spots for college students like South Padre or Miami. On the other hand, if you are going on a trip with your family, it may be in your best interest to stay away from these hotspots and go to somewhere more family friendly.
If pictures get out, would they impact your future?
At this point, you have decided that you want to have as much fun as possible during Spring Break. Keep in mind, someone is always watching. In the case of going with friends, young adults are always using social media. If you have a friend that is constantly using platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, get ready for your break to be advertised. Your actions speak louder than your words, so be careful in what you do. If you are with family, the same policy applies.
Will you look back and be happy about your decision?
This is by far the most important question. If you believe that the trip you are going on is a lifetime opportunity, do it! Enjoy it! If you think that it is something you can pass on and do later, the decision is up to you.
