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Show 04,5 oil VOLUME XLIV Column: Living with, EDITOR-IN-CHIE- F WALTER DENISON forumeditorwestminstercollege.edu Kevin Packer PRODUCTION MANAGER Contributing Writer KENDRA BLACK Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today, And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year - Robert Frost forumproduaionwestminstercoiiege.edu BUSINESS MANAGER ERIC NIELSEN forumbusinesswestminstercollege.edu ADVISER Spring has always been my favorite season, especially living in Utah. I work through the winter with the promise of spring coming. I get through the cold days, nights with that promise in the back of my mind. I live in fear that I will get sick and die in winter. That would be the worst time of year to die in my opinion. So cold, gray and hard, winter is. It is already so depressing. I would not want to be put to rest in a frozen ground nor my ashes spread upon a icy body of water. I want to go with flowers blooming, blue skies blazing and trees fully green. That would show so much more promise for the ones I leave behind. Twenty-si- x years ago I contracted HIV. I expected I would be dead z4 years ago. My life for so many years was one of fear. Every moment of every day I wondered when the time bomb inside me would go off. The clicking of the clock hand signaled to me alone that each passing second my life was growing shorter. Or at least that is what should nave happened. Instead I lived to see so many things happen in my life. Of course the clock still ticks. It is still possible that my life will end with sickness from this disease. But I can also get hit by a bus if I dont pay close enough attention to my KIM ZARKIN COPY EDITOR NICOLAS CHRISTENSON STAFF WRITERS NORMAN. NICOLAS CHRISTENSON. STEPHEN COOK. KIMBERLY JENSON. BRITTANY JOHNS. NICOLE ERIC KARFAKIS. JEFFREY KIESEL. BRADY PERRON. BEVERLY SMITH. MADISON SPERE. GRACE TYLER. CORIE WALCH KATHERINE CRAWFORD CONTRIBUTING WRITERS KEVIN PACKER. DALLIN VAN LEUVEN. LESLIE KOBINSKY. CASEY LEWIS. KYLE KNUBSON. MORGAN ANDERSON. SARAH FOXLEY KELLY. safety. Although I do have some of that survivor guilt, watching so many friends die way too young and way to horrifically, standing by, living, surviving, breathing while they were buried. In me mid ly90s I even stopped going to funerals because it was just too much to manage. Too much anger, sadness and especially fear. But with spring my hopes spread outward like the cucumber seeds I planted last week. So eager, and wantingto live and bear fruit to continue the cycle of earths life. The trees and plants and even the grass seem to give me energy. Literally, I think that the living life of spring transfers, CONTACT 1840 S. 1300 E. SHAW L3 SLC, UTAH EDITORIAL PHONE: 801.832.2320 EMAIL: forumeditorwestminstercollege.edu BUSINESS & ADVERTISING PHONE: 801.832.2319 EMAIL: with HIV. After all my life, and my story, is a precautionary tale for others. You truly dont want to be me. You can act like me and take a lesson on how to live your life but please dont make the one mistake that I made 26 years ago. And maybe even someone learned how to be more understanding and perhaps how to be with someone who has illness or issue in their life right now. Go forward! Q This issue's theme: Sepia LETTERS Walter Denison Submit letters to the editor forumedi-torwestminstercollege.e- somehow, the energy they emit right into my souk So another semester comes to an end. Some of you wiu graduate and move away or go on to another college and another degree. Some of you will continue at Westminster for another or more semesters. Ill be moving forward myself. I will start my second college year for my teaching degree. My mountain bike is tunea up and my tent trailer just got all new cushions and curtains. The desert and the mountains beckon me. Life beckons me My novel is finished and in editing. Ill have graduated in another year. But Im not moving on. Im just moving forward. Forward like the way I have done for 26 years. Always climbing, riding and moving. Perhaps that is why Im still alive. Reaching for that dream (spring) has kept me living all this while when I (and doctors and others) thought I would be not so living. I am grateful for so many things. But today I want to thank you, dear reader, for plugging through my paragraphs. And for letting me know thatyou liked what I wrote. That has meant the world to me. Thank you for letting me put share my life down here a column at a time and letting me with you what it is to be me. Most especially I would like to thank Walter Denison, my editor. What a great experience you brought to me when you called the Utah AIDS Foundation and asked if anyone might want to share their days with your readers. What an amazing gift you brought me! You say that you are the grateful one. But you have no idea how much you brought to my life. And who know? Maybe together we might have saved a life or two by sharing what it is to live Concluding: A glance back forumbusinesswestminstercollege.edu and opinion pieces to not dying of AIDS Editor-in-Chi- ef du with Like "Opinion as the subject line. Only letters received from a valid email address signed with a first and last name will be accepted. The Forum reserves the right to edit all submissions. The views and opinions since the day I received my graduation confirmation letter, Schools out forever. Original, huh? th of the student Assuming my math is right, body is graduating this May. Im among those ranks (fingers one-four- crossed). Woa, I had to read that twice after I wrote it. Im graduating college and Im starting to reminisce about the years spent at Westminster. I was lucky enough to be one of the few in school history selected to edit this paper. I dont know how or why, and lets face it, Im probably not even qualified to be in college in the first place, but here I am, writing the concluding words to one expressed are those of the writers and are not to be considered those of The Forum, faculty, staff or administration of Westminster College. If published, letters become sole property of The Forum. of the best years of my life. Even though the majority of you dont and wont read The Forum, the work weve poured into this quaint publication still feels like an accomplishment to me. We have back issues of The Forum (formerly The Parson) in our office. I happened to The forum publishes 1000 copies every other Wednesday. Initial copies are free of charge; addi- tional copies may be purchased for $1. The Forum seeks to provide an unbiased, open media outlet to the Westminster campus and surrounding communities. Contact the editor at forumeditor westminstercollege.edu with suggestions, story ideas and feedback. The Forum is published and printed in Salt Lake City, Utah. All rights reserved. No reproduction, reprinting or mass redistribution of print or online material without express written consent of the editor. Copyright 2010. Ive been saying stumble across an archived book I f of issues from the late 1950s, early 60s. So as I close my chapter of The Forum, Id like to take some stories out of the time vault and sprinkle them throughout this issue. I hope to illustrate the world seniors and other Westminster students were facing half a century ago. Im trying to make the theme here, for lack of better term, sepia. Yep. Sepia, much like the color of the faded issues. As I reflect on my last years at college, Id like The Forum to look back over the past several decades. Ideally, I wanted to pull articles from the April and May issues from years past, but as I started reading I discovered the school newspaper rarely existed at the end of the school year. This was due in large part to dwindling budgets and editorial v. administration conflicts. Im honored to say, the paper survived this year. Undoubtedly, but perhaps, someday this nostalgicremi-niscentsomb- er editorial will appear in a future issue of The Forum. Id like to end the newest issue of The Forum with articles taken from the oldest. Enjoy! But before I close this chapter, Id like to take some time to offer a great deal of gratitude to everybody whos helped my development as an insightfid human being. Id like to start with dad who made me promise I would attend college and get something he never had the chance to a degree. Your soulful guidance is the reason Ill be wearing a cap and gown this May. And in all my future endeavors, please be with me. Mom, thanks for the financial and emotional support. Youve been the guiding light through a more than murky terrain. As have you, Mary my energetic sister. Then there are all the teachers and professors who have caved this wood stump into a work of art. There are too many to name here but if youre reading this, Im confident you know who you are. I owe a great deal of thanks to each person in the box on the left. Without your continued dedication and hard work, the school would have no public written record. Throughout this semester I ve been more than willing to offer criticism of your work. Each word of critique should have been paired with one of gratitude. Hoping it's not too late now, thank you. To everybody reading this article, thank you. Thanks for reading. Thanks for your comments. Thanks for keeping us in check, making sure we print polished pieces. Overall, college, The Forum and everything Ive been through over years has been a thick book with heavy chapters and fine print, but it s time to close the cover and pick up another. Hopefully the next is as good, if not better, than the last. |