Orange and Blue magazine - Fall 2018 - The Real Issue

The Real Issue Fall 2018

"All they could see was a girl who looked perfectly fine..."

The true story behind my invisible illness pg. 66

Do you believe all you read? The real scoop on fake news

Kids and Tech... a Match made in Hell

Must-Have Natural Beauty Buys ONE GIRL'S SEARCH for the Best Margarita

+ PLUS The New Frontier of Modern Dating

Films that Capture History 1

Meet the Staff

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Letter from the Editors Living in a world dominated by technology, we often reduce conversations to text bubbles and relationships to mutual likes on social media. We subscribe to the trends in tabloids and on television that promise health and happiness with chemical additives and unnatural ingredients. We believe what we can see, accepting our perceptions as reality. Our curiosities led us to the question: What is real?

Real is an abstract theme. We all had different, very “real” definitions. Some people said genuine, others said revealing. Au Naturale. Verified. Vulnerable. Honest. Bona Fide. Raw. We soon discovered that what is real can be both tangible and intangible.

As we went around the room coming up with theme ideas in early September, we kept coming back to the all encompassing word “real.” Where could you buy a meal you’d find on a Chinese family’s dining room table? What invisible issues were facing the Alachua County community?

How could we shed a light on realism?

To define real, we had to examine things that weren’t real.

It’s how we decided to write about fake news, balancing life with technology and redefining the family dynamic for the modern era.

That’s when it all started to come together. Our experiences as a class helped us cultivate a magazine with a wide variety of ideas, all reflecting our own realities.

We created this magazine with the tireless guidance of our advisor, Nicole Irving. Thank you for sharing your wisdom so generously with us. We’d also like to thank the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications for continuously challenging us to effectively express ourselves. You’ve shaped us into the communicators we are.

Savannah Edgens & Jessica Fondo Editors-in-Chief This issue of the Orange & Blue Magazine is dedicated to UF J-School alumnus Dave Bristow. “...in all kinds of weather…”

Oct. 27, 1958 to Sept. 24, 2018

We would like to thank our wonderful adviser Nicole Irving, Ted Spiker, Dean Diane McFarlin, Spiro Kiousis, Martha Collada and Hal Herman. Also a big thanks to our cover model Caroline Strogis and cover art courtesy of Joni Strogis Segarra.

Orange & Blue is published semiannually by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications students enrolled in Apllied Magazines. This issue was printed by Publication Printers. Copywright 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or trasnmitted in any means without written permission.

Orange & Blue is protected through trademark registration in the United States. Send letters to Box 118400 College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611.

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TABLE OF Au Naturale

8 Farm to Table: Gainesville Style 10 From Parks to Prairies: Top Four Nature Areas in Gainesville

12 Human Nature: Dual Landscapes 16 Popular Brands with Natural Ingredients 17 Cultural Cuisine: Exploring the Flavors of China

Verified

20 Honey, AI'm Home 22 Kids and Technology: A Match Made in Hell 24 Peer Review: Social Media Influencers and NewAge Advertising

26 Searching for a Connection

Vulnerable

30 The Ugly Truth of Emotional Support Animals 32 Reality Check: Life in a Food Desert 33 Family Matters of the New Millennium 34 Real Talk: The Shape of Virginity

Honest

38 Debunking Diet Fads 40 When Art Imitates Life: 10 Must-Watch Films Based on True Stories

42 Music Festivals: From Electronic Performance to Ecstasy Bliss

44 Fake News: Living in a Culture of Media Distrust

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CONTENTS Raw

62 Educate, Advocate, Vaccinate 64 Finding "The One" in a Hook-up Culture 66 Understanding the Unseen: Life with an Invisible Illness

Bona Fide

48 One Girl's Quest for a Real Margarita 50 A Gainesville Entrepreneur's Climb to Success 52 Gainesville: Where Musicians are Made 54 Post-Grad in Gainesville 56 Star Reality 58 Defining (Dis)ability 59 Football, Family and the Lord

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AU NATUR 6

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Farm to Table: Gainesville Style Story and photos by Sean Denison

Joelle Wood, clad in high work boots, a red flannel shirt and a trucker hat, is ready for another day of work. She turns on the garden hose, climbs into a massive, mobile chicken coop and begins to spray off the remarkable amount of chicken poop that has hardened overnight.

“This is the best part of the day,” Wood says chuckling while wiping the sweat from her brow. “This isn’t a bad life though.”

Whatever needs to be done, the 33-year-old, South Florida native does it. This is her life as one of the leading farmers at Swallowtail Farms, a 30-plus acre biodynamic farm in Alachua, Florida, committed to sustainability and the community.

Chickens greet guests arriving on the dirt road entrance to Swallowtail Farm, taking them to where some of the best produce and meat in North Central Florida is produced, the same products that are used at some of the most popular restaurants in neighboring Gainesville, Florida.

Wood, along with the other farmers at Swallowtail, provide the community with vegetables including lettuces, spicy greens, arugula, carrots, onions, beans, tomatoes, melons, peppers, garlic and eggs.

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Aside from also growing and selling flowers, the farm has a small herd of dairy cows for milk, yogurt and cheeses, as well as a small herd of pigs and a small flock of sheep for meat.

Unless you make eye contact or have a one-on-one conversation with the person growing your food, you often forget to think about where your food comes from. Wood is one of many farmers who usually goes unnoticed, the ones who never get the credit they deserve for feeding the belly of their communities.

These are the people you forget about while you're pillaging for apples at the grocery store, or whenever you're moments away from taking a bite out of a decadent pork chop or seconds before you shovel those vibrant greens into your gullet.

Often, no one asks or even cares where this food comes from. It comes from people like Wood, who make a living growing, caring and selling the things that provide nutrients and allow one to loosen a belt after a long, tasteful meal.

Wood’s journey into the industry started about five years ago, she said.

Wood became interested in farming while living in the Bahamas, where she owned and operated a dive shop.

“The food there was disgusting,” she said. “So, I began experimenting with farming, and my friends even flew in some chickens for me.”

Shortly after that, Wood dedicated her life to her newfound love of farming. She searched for apprenticeships and stumbled upon Swallowtail, a place she was reluctant to try because of it being in Florida, a state she grew up in and an area not necessarily synonymous with farming.

“I’m glad I made the decision to come here 10 years ago,” Wood said. “It’s beautiful here.”

Wood, who now makes her home down the street from Swallowtail with her husband, Will, and their 9-year-old Shih Tzu, Stephanie, started her own little farm called the Old Fashioned Farmstead, where she raises chickens, turkeys and ducks on pasture for meat.

“I like raising animals for meat,” Wood admits while chuckling.

One of Swallowtail’s devoted customers is Jeffrey Allen, chef de cuisine of Dragonfly Sushi & Saki Co. in Gainesville.

Allen said that the popular Gainesville restaurant has been using produce from Swallowtail for many years. “They actually came to us,” Allen said. “They came out to the restaurant and showed us some of the products that they were producing when they first got started.”

Dragonfly has been using Swallowtail’s produce since that day, Allen said. Shiso peppers make up the bulk of the restaurant’s orders, but it also uses the farm’s squash, zucchini and radishes for its seasonal tempura dish. It has also used some of the farm’s fresh eggs and dairy for yogurt, Allen said.

Allen, like a lot of other restaurants in the area, said people like using Swallowtail’s products because they support what they do.

“It’s beautiful out there,” Allen said. “The place is great.”

Allen has also been the featured chef at Swallowtail’s monthly Farm to Table events, where the farm invites the community out to dinner during its season from October through June.

“I think I’ve done about five of them,” Allen said with a grin.

“It’s great being out there giving back to awesome people.”

Swallowtail’s Farm to Table series provides guests with a

four-course meal, a tour of the farm, live music from local artists, and an open bar of wine and beer. The beer is provided

by Swamp Head Brewery, Gainesville’s premier brewery since 2008.

Wood said that Swallowtail provides Swamp Head with produce for some of the brewery’s seasonal beers. She noted Swamp Head loves to come out to its events, which also includes its fall and spring festival in which, according to the farm’s website, consists of “everything green and good on the farm, our brilliant local community, and beyond!”

Wood, along with Swallowtail’s owner Noah Shitama, welcomes the community out to the farm’s events. They’re eager to get to know those buying their products. Allen, like many other chefs in the area, can be seen rummaging through Swallowtail’s produce at the Union Street Farmers Market on Wednesdays as well as the Alachua County Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

“They're awesome people, very down to earth,” Allen said.

“Everything is just done right, and they obviously really care about the community.”

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From Parks to Prairies Top Four Nature Areas in Gainesville Story and photos by Summer Jarro Nature parks protect environments of natural beauty that include all sorts of exotic wildlife and plants. In one instance, you can see a deer and the next an American bison. They help keep our natural areas healthy and preserved as the rest of the world falls under construction and industrial growth. Gainesville is filled with beautiful environmental landscapes in need of protection or restoration. Here are four Gainesville nature areas that continue to sustain and conserve our state’s natural environment.

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park This park has been a significant geological feature in North Central Florida for thousands of years because of its size. It now covers about 22,000 acres of land for a wide variety of species, said Donald Forgione, Paynes Prairie park manager.

“You cannot have biodiversity of animal species without a biodiversity of the land, and so Paynes Prairie offers that biodiversity because of its unique size,” Forgione said.

The land includes more than 20 biological communities including marsh, pine flatwoods, wet pine flatwoods, scrubby flatwoods and swamps, which offer a great opportunity for wildlife like river otters, deer, bobcats, horses and bison to exist.

The American bison is native to states east of the Mississippi River in small numbers, but were quickly removed as they were killed off when European settlers arrived. In 1975, Florida State Parks reintroduced about 10 American bison to Paynes Prairie. Now, more than 50 bison roam free on the prairie, Forgione said.

Sweetwater Wetlands Park This man-made 125-acre wetland area in Gainesville was constructed in 2012 and opened in 2015 to the public. It was made to improve the water quality in the Floridan Aquifer.

Water in the Floridan Aquifer comes from two sources: stormwater from the stormwater system and waste water treated at the GRU Main Street Water Reclamation. The water travels from Sweetwater Branch to Paynes Prairie and to the Alachua Sink before it finally enters the Floridan Aquifer.

High levels of nitrogen were found in the Floridan Aquifer water, which in large amounts can cause health problems. The department came up with the solution to create a wetland, Sweetwater Wetlands

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Park, because the bacteria in wetlands and marshes are able to turn nitrogen into nitrogen gas, which would make the water safer, said Geoffrey Parks, city of Gainesville nature operations supervisor.

The park was also created to help restore the historical flow of water to Paynes Prairie’s marsh habitats by filling a ditch that was built to dry out some of the land. Now 1,300 acres of Paynes Prairie are back to a functioning marsh habitat, Parks said.

In the process of providing better water quality and sheet flow, the wetland habitat has become a home to over 240 species of birds and other wildlife like alligators, fish, bobcats, muskrats and snakes that visitors can observe while walking the park’s three miles of trails, Parks said. Sometimes the wild horses from Paynes Prairie will make an appearance.

Morningside Nature Center Considered the oldest nature park in the Gainesville area, Morningside Nature Center was formed in the 1960s to preserve the fire-dependent longleaf pine landscape, which currently has lost about 98 percent of its habitat globally over the years due mostly to agriculture. Back then, Gainesville had a vast landscape of longleaf pine, but it has slowly deteriorated as the city has developed. The entire area surrounding Morningside and parts of southwest and north Gainesville used to be longleaf pine, Parks said.

wiregrass, the gopher tortoise, gray fox and bobwhite quail.

Several of the plants and animals found there are now on the endangered species lists because of the surrounding developable land that is increasingly torn down over the years, Pearsall said.

“Pretty much any place that’s been sort of touched by modern humanity probably was, with a few exceptions, converted from that pine-dominated landscape,” Parks said.

As the ecosystem has deteriorated, many of its species have been struggling.

“There’s a huge diversity of species that depend on these habitats, and they’re mostly unique to these habitats,” Parks said.

Morningside continues to help restore and keep the environment suitable for its over 500 plant species and 30 rare animals, like the gopher tortoises and fox squirrels, on the 400-acre area by issuing controlled burns.

San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park This roughly 7,500-acre Florida state park holds 18 different plant communities.

“It would have been very large long ago, and it’s slowly been cleared and encroached on by development,” said Doug Pearsall, park ranger for San Felasco.

The park was created in 1974 to help preserve what is left of the plant communities from further depletion.

One of the plant communities San Felasco protects is the sandhill community, “the fastest disappearing plant community in the state of Florida,” Pearsall said. Many animals and plants are notable to the sandhill area like wildflowers, longleaf pine

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Photos by Matthew Gardener

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Popular Brands with Natural Ingredients Story and photos by Ellen Andreu

It is hard to find natural ingredients in a world with thousands of competing brands and hidden chemicals. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has found more than 2,500 chemicals in cosmetics that are toxic, cause tumors and irritate the eyes and skin, according to enviroalternatives.com Phthalates are chemicals that impact hormones and IQ levels in children and are often found in soaps, shampoos and cosmetics, according to a CNN article. If these chemicals start damaging our health, then we need another option. Does anyone want to be putting harmful chemicals on their skin every day? Many people do not realize how many extra chemicals are in products like deodorant and toothpaste. For people who want to stick to the basics and avoid these harsh chemicals, here are four brands that make functional products with mostly natural ingredients.

1. Burt's Bees

Aloe, beeswax and cocoa butter are just a few of the ingredients that go into Burt’s Bees products. While mixing these natural ingredients, Burt’s Bees creates skincare products loaded with vitamins and minerals found in plants. Over half of its products, including lip balm and bronzer, are 100 percent natural. Burt’s Bees does not test on animals and makes all of its products without parabens, petrolatum or phthalates. These chemicals can lead to hormonal disruption and other health risks such as cancer, according to a Washington Post article on phthalates.

2. Schmidt's

Schmidt’s makes deodorant, toothpaste and soap manufactured with natural ingredients. The company maintains vegan and cruelty free practices. Schmidt’s deodorant is free of aluminum, parabens, propylene and phthalates. According to the National Cancer Institute, some scientists suggest a possible connection between deodorants containing aluminum applied near the breast and breast cancer. Since these chemicals are potentially harmful to the body, it’s beneficial to avoid these ingredients and buy natural, everyday products. Its deodorants combine essential oils to create fragrances like rose, vanilla, lavender, sage and lime.

3. ECOS

ECOS products range from hypoallergenic soaps and toilet bowl cleaner to pet friendly shampoo. ECOS is a company that creates products in a sustainable way without using harsh chemicals.

The company makes its products in a carbon-neutral plant and has a variety of products labeled as “Safer Choice” by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Its products are vegan, not tested on animals and greywater septic safe. ECOS uses ingredients such as vinegar, potatoes, coconuts, orange oil and lavender in its cleaners and soaps as odor neutralizers and grease removers.

4. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day

Mrs. Meyer’s creates cleaning products, soaps, lotions, laundry detergent, fabric softeners and air fresheners. Its products are categorized into different natural scents such as lavender, sunflower and rosemary. Its products have plant-based ingredients and essential oils, according to the website. Its products typically have ingredients like soy, olive, corn and coconut. The company refrains from using harsh chemicals including ammonia, petroleum distillates and chlorine bleach. Many cleaning products include harmful toxins like bleach and ammonia, which if inhaled, can cause respiratory issues and prolonged skin exposure can cause irritation.

It is important to keep in mind what type of products we use every day. Using more products manufactured with natural ingredients can help our environment and our health by keeping harmful chemicals like phthalates out of our lives. When filling your household with naturally based products, these four brands are a great place to start.

Did you know?

Greywater is wastewater from the washing machine and any other plumbing fixtures except the toilet and garbage disposal.

According to thenaturalhome.com, people with septic systems typically send greywater away from the septic system, where it can be recycled through a municipal sewer line.

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Cultural Cuisine: Exploring the Flavors of China Story by Savannah Hill and photo by Jessica Fondo

If variety is the spice of life, then as far as restaurants go, Gainesville is certainly spicy. Cultural cuisine is alive and well in our city, and the options are vast. The different cultures represented in food found in Gainesville help make the city diverse and vibrant.

Whether you’re looking for a sit-down sushi dinner with that special ambiance or a full-fledged Indian buffet, a quick Google search will provide you with a plethora of choices.

Deciding on where to go can be a hassle, and many an argument has been had after someone poses the question, “Where should we go to eat?”

When it comes to cultural cuisine, an important factor in the dining experience involves the food’s level of authenticity. This factor becomes a little murky when one isn’t part of the specific culture of the food they enjoy. Discerning between what’s real and what isn’t when it comes to foods outside of their realm proves to be difficult for many.

One of the most common cultural foods in Gainesville is Chinese food. There’s such a wide variety that it’s overwhelming to find bona fide Chinese food. It’s important to note that there is a distinct difference between Cantonese and Chinese foods, said Nuoyi (Nora) Xiao, an international student at the University of Florida studying economics.

Chinese, she said, is typically spicier and provides a distinct heat. In Gainesville, most of the Americanized “Chinese” restaurants really serve Cantonese food, which doesn’t pack the same punch.

Yummy House and Yummy City are pretty good, but Gator Suyaki takes the cake when it comes to genuine Chinese food. We decided to find the best dishes that would be most representative of what she would find back home in China.

The restaurant’s interior looked like what I would imagine at your neighborhood Chinese place: paper lanterns hung from various spots on the ceiling, red was the main color featured throughout the building and stained bottles of Kikkoman soy sauce sat on every table.

As soon as we walked in, Xiao seemed right at home. I followed behind her as she spoke in Mandarin to the hostess.

We flipped through the menu, and Xiao laughed as I pointed out the “American Chinese” heading on the back with very simple, common dishes like honey chicken listed below. The American section was housed on the very back page of the menu and only included about nine options.

Without Xiao’s suggestions and left to my own volition, I would’ve ordered something like Mongolian beef. The simple dish, in America, is usually just caramelized beef and green onions. The flavor would typically be considered mild for most palettes. Xiao had no idea what Mongolian beef was when I mentioned it to her.

I ordered the cumin beef, despite being sufficiently warned about how spicy it would be. We dined family style, a traditional way of eating in China, eating traditional dishes such as fried cabbage and pot stickers.

The beef, seasoned with pepper flakes and green onions, had a strong garlic aroma. Xiao had not exaggerated when it came to the spice, with each bite I felt my sinuses open as the potency of the chili flakes and the garlic blended together.

I asked Xiao how spicy she’d consider the cumin beef on a scale of 1 to 10, “It’s not spicy, it’s just good,” she laughed as she wielded her chopsticks artistically around the table.

Pot stickers, hand-folded dumplings, are pretty common in most Pan-Asian restaurants, and these were some of the best I’ve ever had. The outer dumpling was pan-fried and was golden around the edges. The inside was stuffed with pork and an assortment of vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts and cabbage. Pot stickers should never be prepared with just meat, Xiao said. Vegetables should always be included.

The cabbage was served warm with a thin layer of teriyaki. It also had a kick to it, but it was less overwhelming than the beef.

“My mom used to cook this a lot,” Xiao said, pointing to the cabbage. “She cooked mostly vegetables because she was vegetarian, and I used to have to remind her that I wanted meat.”

From moon cakes to different Chinese supermarkets here in Gainesville, we discussed different aspects of Chinese culture. Xiao was a wealth of knowledge and even used Google translate to bridge any of the language barriers we faced.

“I miss my home a lot, and I can’t go back a lot because of how far it is,” Xiao explained. “I miss the food most. Gator Suyaki is as close as I get.”

Xiao doesn’t get to cook much, so she mostly buys snacks from the Chinese supermarket. Fortune cookies are some of her favorites, despite the fact that they are an American invention.

Gator Suyaki is my new favorite Chinese restaurant. The flavors of the food were vibrant, and I was left craving the spicy, savory flavors for days afterward. It’s important to try new things and step out of one’s comfort zone, even if it’s just ordering Chinese food off of the “American Chinese” section of the menu.

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VERIFIE

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Honey, AI'm Home

Story by Jessica Fondo

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With that ease comes frequency: almost 100 percent of stalking among dating couples involves the use of technology, Beachy said.

She has seen abusers send survivors as many as 700 text messages, and cell phones make it easier than ever to determine with whom a person is talking and texting. Sharing a phone plan might save a few dollars on the monthly bill, but it almost guarantees unfettered access to call logs and texts.

Among traditional kinds of domestic violence, the digital age has also facilitated financial abuse, she added. Identity theft is not limited to social media profiles – technology breaks down some of the traditional barriers that prevent opening bank accounts and applying for credit cards under someone else’s name.

“It’s a huge weapon,” Beachy said.

Internet safety is one preventative measure against technologyaided domestic violence, she said. Do not share access to personal electronic devices like cell phones and change passwords often.

“Creating good boundaries in a relationship is the best way to protect yourself,” Beachy said.

It is also important to recognize that offenders choose to use technology as a weapon of domestic violence to abuse, stalk and harass survivors.

“It is not the fault of the person being abused,” said Scott Howell of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Technology does not need to be avoided entirely – while it can be a weapon, it can also be a tool. The more people know about the ways technology can be misused, the greater their ability to protect themselves, Howell said.

Software programs allow abusers to mask their identity, phone number and voice to harass survivors. GPS devices can easily be hidden in seemingly innocuous everyday items such as smart phones, vehicles or children’s toys. As smart home devices become more common, they are also used to harass survivors remotely.

“Technology has many benefits to survivors,” Howell said. “It is the misuse of technology to stalk, harass, monitor and abuse survivors of domestic violence that makes it dangerous.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the Peaceful Paths helpline at 352-377-8255 or the Florida Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-500-1119.

Graphic design by Jenine Marquez

We bring Artificial Intelligence into our homes to make our lives easier, but the cyber servitude bears a sinister underbelly – AI opens new paths for domestic violence through technology that forces us to share information and control in new ways. What is the risk of trusting Siri, Alexa and other “smart” systems with our most sensitive secrets?

“Domestic violence in Gainesville is similar to what we see anywhere in the country,” said Theresa Beachy, executive director of Peaceful Paths, the state-certified domestic-violence center serving survivors in Alachua, Bradford and Union counties.

Domestic violence, also known as intimate-partner violence, is a prevalent problem that goes mostly unreported. The National Domestic Violence Hotline defines domestic violence as “a pattern of behaviors used by one partner to maintain power and control over another partner in an intimate relationship.”

It holds social and economic costs, not just on survivors, but also on the communities that assume the responsibility of providing police resources and shelters, Beachy said. Domestic violence disproportionately affects women, and abusers largely go unpunished.

“Our society is reluctant to hold men accountable,” she explained.

In 2017, Gainesville experienced more than 1,400 instances of domestic violence, according to Gainesville Police Department records.

Now, the misuse of technology is an emerging threat, changing the scope of domestic violence and opening new avenues for abuse, Beachy said. The artificial intelligence systems designed to be helpful can instead be harmful. In the wrong hands, the convenient features that smart devices provide can reveal dangerous personal information.

For example, OnStar offers navigation to ensure drivers arrive at their destinations without any second-guessing or wrong turns and emergency assistance to give customers peace of mind for justin-case, unpredictable mishaps on the road. But, Beachy warned, OnStar’s vehicle-location features also allow abusers to pinpoint survivors at shelters with just a few clicks, swipes and taps.

Another new weapon wielded in domestic violence with the help of technology is social media. An abuser can easily create fake Facebook profiles using a survivor’s identity, Beachy said. They can pose as prostitutes soliciting sex, and they even go so far as to post women’s addresses on the profiles, Beachy said. When men begin to arrive expecting sexual services, the women often have no idea why people are at their home, and they don’t know that their identities are being misused for malicious social media schemes.

One of the dangers distinct to digital domestic violence is the difficulty of identifying the perpetrator.

“It’s much easier to hide,” Beachy said.

“Creating good boundaries in a relationship is the best way to protect yourself.�

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Kids and Technology: A Match Made in Hell

Story and photos by Sean Denison

The sound is deafening. The emotion is real. And the resentment that follows makes me feel like crap.

Ava, my 5-year-old daughter, grits her teeth and clenches her fist. Her eyes become bloodshot as tears start to flow down her freckled cheeks. She begins to pound and throw our couch pillows.

“I hate you,” she screams at me.

The reason she hates me? I turned off the television.

You see, taking away my daughter’s iPad or telling my sweet little angel that it’s time to turn off the television is akin to taking away a drug addict’s fix. My daughter, who is an adorable, redheaded girl with a kind, genuine soul, can brighten anyone’s day.

However, she becomes a monster when my wife and I strip away her beloved screens.

Children and technology can be a dangerous mix. I’ve seen it firsthand. It affects their emotions, social skills and even their motor skills. It makes them dependent on a device.

“Many times, parents, and people in general, think ‘screen time’ is more of a downtime activity,” said Jenna Mareth,

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an occupational therapist in Jacksonville.

“It seems like it would be something that would calm them, but the constant visual stimulus that the screens give them kind of sends their body into almost ‘hyperdrive.’”

Mareth works at the Coastal Pediatric Therapy Center, a multidisciplinary pediatric practice that works with children one-on-one to help build their confidence and improve developmental skills. She has seen a lot of “kiddos” at her clinic that have the same emotional response to technology— or “screen time,” as she calls it—as my daughter does.

The problem is that a child’s visual system gets overstimulated during screen time, which then neglects their vestibular system, a system that regulates a person’s movement, Mareth said.

“When they come out of screen time, and you turn that off, they come out of it almost way more de-regulated,” Mareth said.

Oh, is that why my little princess turns into Lucifer when she’s forced to neglect her devices and, you know, play like a normal child?

The best thing a parent can do for children to come out of this state is to have them

partake in some form of physical activity, Mareth said.

“They need to do some outdoor activities like running around, jumping on a trampoline, or anything with a lot of heavy work and input to their joints,” Mareth said.

Interestingly, what Mareth described is reminiscent of my childhood.

As a young boy growing up in the early ’90s, technology wasn’t as prevalent as it is today.

Kids entertained themselves. I religiously biked around my Southwest Florida neighborhood into all hours of the night.

This area became my sanctuary—it’s where I played pickup football and basketball games, got beat up, did some beating up, developed crushes, kissed a girl and, hell, it’s where I developed character and became the kind, thoughtful person I am today.

The lack of technology in my life may explain why I didn’t throw as many temper tantrums as my daughter and her generation do. There weren’t as many devices for my parents to turn off. All we did was entertain ourselves, something kids, Mareth says, can’t do much of these days.

“We’re seeing a lot of kiddos who are having a lot of trouble with their own imaginative play,” Mareth said. “Screen time is more directive play, and it tells you what to do next. When you’re playing on your own, you’re directing the activity.”

I remember my mother, a hard-working single woman who didn’t have time to play games, telling me how easy my brother, sister and I were growing up. She said we understood the word "no," and we didn’t demand things. We were told to play outside and get hurt. Today, it’s the complete opposite. Children are glued to screens.

Children ages 5 - 16 spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen—an increase from three hours in 1995, according to Childwise, a market research firm.

It appears that children see technology as a companion, something that they use to entertain them and escape reality. One of the best things to do is to set time away for one-on-one with your child, somewhere free of technology, Mareth said.

“We recommend device-free zones, like at the dinner table,” Mareth said. “We should work on those social skills together.”

Nowadays, and I’m guilty of this myself, parents turn to devices such as a television, an iPad or even a cell phone to entertain their children. You can’t go anywhere—a

grocery store, a restaurant or even a park without seeing a child glued to their beloved, will-do-anything-for, device.

“Everybody says all we do is waste time on the internet and everybody feels bad about it,” Goldsmith said.

Every parent does it, and I feel that it’s ruining children. It’s turning them into deranged addicts, and it’s terrible for their future social skills.

It’s my opinion that wasting time on the internet and other screens can negatively affect a person, especially a child.

In a 2018 survey, Common Sense, a children and media advocacy organization, found that many teens, 35 percent, now say their favorite mode of communication is through texting. The survey revealed that less than one-third said they prefer chatting with friends face-to-face, compared with 2012.

Forget about teaching your child to look at someone in the eye while giving him or her a firm handshake. More than likely, verbal communication will be extinct by the time Generation Z has children.

It’s already starting.

The University of Pennsylvania offers a course called “Wasting time on the Internet,” where students are required to stare at their laptops for three hours while only “interacting through chat rooms, bots, social media and listservs,” according to the course description on the university’s website. “The initial idea of the class was to create literature based on the internet,” explained the class’s professor, Kenneth Goldsmith, in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Hell, do I sound old when I tell my friends that I’m dreading the day my daughter and her friends are old enough to get exposed to sex, drugs and violence on screens? Will they be able to disassociate fantasy from reality?

There’s proof that these images have a damaging effect on young people’s minds.

Dr. Catherine Larned, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, explained to me that repeated exposure to violent images could have tremendous effects on someone's mental and physical health.

“The violence can cause a stress reaction, including increased cortisol production and adrenaline production,” Larned said.

“Physically, it can result in increased blood pressure and unhealthy coping strategies like smoking pot, cigarettes and drinking.”

It’s time we put away the screens and help children develop the skills they need.

Let’s live our lives without documenting everything we do.

Adults can be the influence for the next generation.

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Peer Review: Social Media Influencers and New-Age Advertising Story by Caroline Strogis

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Photos submitted by Sunny Mucha and Brittany Lesser

Social media influencers have established themselves as more transparent forms of advertisement. They build credibility on their personal social media accounts by becoming a source of real information and opinion to their audience.

As influencer marketing rises in popularity, it is becoming a more crucial aspect of any business plan. Seventy percent of millennial consumers are influenced by the recommendations of media influencers, according to a survey by Collective Bias. The same survey reveals that consumers are 30 percent more likely to purchase a product recommended by a peer or non-celebrity blogger. Successful social media influencers create a relationship based on trust with their followers, despite sponsored content and paid advertisements.

The key to this is trustworthy, unbiased marketing. Brittany Lesser, a fitness, fashion and lifestyle influencer, is a University of Florida alumna who has created a following of over 260,000 users on her Instagram and YouTube channel. Lesser promotes fitness apparel brands, skincare, supplements and her own workout and nutrition guides. The key is to be selective when it comes to sponsored product recommendations, according to Lesser.

“If influencers stick to promoting products they truly use and are authentic, I see nothing wrong with making money from posts,” Lesser said. “I only promote products that I love. I have never promoted a product that I haven’t tried. When I like something, I want to share it with my followers, and if I get paid to do so, it’s a win-win.”

Facebook, the most popular social media platform, reached 2.23 billion monthly users in 2018. While Instagram, the preferred social media outlet of millennials, reached 1 billion monthly active users. As these media outlets continue to grow over time, they have become a major source of information for consumers.

In 2017, users spent more than 135 minutes a day on social media.

Businesses take advantage of this and sponsor media influencers to make posts promoting their products or create advertisements.

Over time, social media influence has become a more successful marketing tool than traditional ads.

Social media influencing has become such a large part of marketing, that being an “influencer” has become a full-time career.

There are many online coaches for growing social media brands, such as Amanda Bucci, a “business brand life alignment strategist.” She is an entrepreneur who created her own online Influencer Academy, where she helps other entrepreneurs all over the world grow their personal brands and online presence into a successful business.

A checklist to being a successful influencer means having a clear message, being consistent, engaging with followers and promoting your brand across multiple platforms, according to Bucci. She also stresses being authentic and unique. She says turning followers and consumers into supporters and friends is key to successful media influence.

“It’s incredible to be able to connect with so many people on a single platform,” Lesser said. “I love to help others and inspire them in different ways. I love to share my creativity and opinions with the world, it’s all about being transparent and honest.”

In 2016, Instagram announced its new business tools. Within the app, users can turn their profiles into business profiles with contact buttons, insights and the ability to promote their own posts. Insights give influencers information about their target audiences and which posts resonate most with them. Having the ability to promote means you can turn your own posts into ads for any amount of time that you choose.

Sunny Mucha, a UF student with 21,000 Instagram followers, turned her Instagram into a business account after she started working for Vayner Media promoting VS PINK. “The business tools allow me to understand a wealth of information regarding growing my Instagram and engaging with my audience,” Mucha said. “Companies rely on this information when deciding to promote through my account, and I can easily deliver them a direct analysis each time I post.”

Mucha said financial reimbursement varies. Some cases are postfor-product deals, where the company receives free promotion and influencers receive free products.

“The more engagement you have, the better compensation you will get,” said Mucha, who’s promotion fees can start at $500 for a post, and sometimes get much higher.

With this increase in social media influence, and the rise of influencers, a lot of work goes into each post. It is important to maintain trust and authenticity with consumers, so influencers don’t look like they’re just working for a paycheck.

If an influencer known for fashion suddenly has a paid advertisement for a video game, is that a genuine part of their brand?

Bucci said advertisements that don’t match your brand resonate less with followers and will be less successful. They are also risky because they could create distrust from followers.

“I have high expectations as far as what will and what won’t work in terms of promoting products on my Instagram,” Mucha said. “I know what works for my followers so I choose products that I use, wear and stand behind.”

Luckily, most of the guesswork has been taken out for consumers now that Instagram and YouTube tag paid advertisements. However, even when posts, videos and tweets are marked as paid advertisements, they yield better results than traditional commercials and pop-up ads. According to a study by Facebook, 66 percent of those age 18-24 are unwilling to watch pop-up ads or ads that automatically play audio.

Participants in the study were also more engaged with ads they first saw on Facebook than on television.

As companies and influencers take advantage of social media outlets more and more, they are changing the advertising and marketing world. Social media has a humanizing element that makes advertising more personal and engaging.

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Searching for a Connection Story and photos by Jessica Fondo

Will Howell was 4 years old when he started gaming. He played “Harry Potter” on a CD-ROM when CDROMs were still a thing. He started playing online games when he was 6, and things really picked up when he was 12 and started playing “Team Fortress 2.”

Now, a 19-year-old biomedical engineering student at the University of Florida, Howell has spent about 2,500 hours playing “Team Fortress 2.” He plays anything that’s fun, but mostly first-person shooter games.

When Howell was in 10th grade, he joined a community server for gamers playing “Team Fortress 2.” Every night for the next year, he would play with dozens of the same people, but eventually the game lost popularity.

“When people stopped playing, it was like losing a loved one,” Howell said. “I’ll always remember those nights as some of the best moments of my life.”

Recently, one of those gamers invited Howell to join a different server where some of the old regulars reunited. They play together almost every night. Though he has never met them in person, the people he plays with in “cyberspace” are some of his best friends.

“The criticism that it’s not a real relationship if you haven’t met face-to-face,” Howell said, “it’s a load of crap.”

Gaming and online friendships are not inherently vices, Howell argued. The key is moderation and understanding what role gaming should play in life.

Howell does not like playing in the competitive modes most games have built into them, which match players with others playing and performing similarly to them. With teammates he’s never met and enemies he knows nothing about, it is frustrating.

Egos clash, communication is poor, and it yields a toxic experience.

Now, he prefers to play with friends, many of whom he has bonded with over playing video games.

“They’ve been critical in almost every single relationship I have,” Howell said.

Howell has met many of his friends through gaming, but in all of his friendships, he and his friends have at least played video games together.

“Everyone and their grandma plays video games these days,” Howell said.

Tyler Hudelson works at Dino Games, the hole-in-the-wall store specializing in retro video games. His job has taught him that there is no one type of gamer.

“A lot of games and a lot of gamers come in all shapes and sizes,” Hudelson said.

Hudelson began gaming around the age of 5 when his hands were finally big enough to grasp the controller. His dad is a gamer, and he passed the pastime down to Hudelson.

From couch co-ops to online communities, video games can be an

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increasingly social activity almost like a sport. Just how fans enjoy playing football and watching games on TV, gamers enjoy playing and watching streams with their friends.

As video games become more popular, Hudelson began hearing less criticism about gaming.

Meghan Hamblet is a licensed mental health counselor in Alachua County, and has focused primarily on children and adolescents for the last nine years.

Video game usage is particularly influential in the years spanning fifth grade through middle school, just when children are most susceptible to the influence of anything in their environment.

“They latch onto the things that make them feel good,” Hamblet explained.

When children play video games online, it satisfies their need for connection with other people. Those who turn to video games are more likely to be the ones struggling with socializing, Hamblet said. Online communities offer some anonymity, which can allow children to be themselves safely even if they are being bullied in school or facing other challenges.

“It’s a great component for people who need help,” Hamblet said.

There are several arguments against children’s use of video games. The type of game matters, and some argue that violent video games lead to a desensitization of violence. Screen time in general has an effect – the lights and movement of objects onscreen can change the chemistry of the brain, making it more difficult for a person to concentrate on anything for an extended period of time.

“It becomes a need rather than a want,” Hamblet said.

When Hamblet addresses children using video games to connect with others, she asks, “what is their ability to engage in real life?”

Video games can be a tool for building social skills, but they are certainly not a one-stop solution.

“Yes, it presents this great opportunity to connect,” Hamblet said, “but parent involvement is really important.”

Whether children are playing games with strangers or fellow students from their classes, Hamblet stresses the importance that parental consent and monitoring of children’s internet activity.

“Online is still online,” Hamblet said.

Dee Dee Scharf is a psychotherapist in Alachua County who has been working with teenagers and toddlers since 1989. Specializing in the two most difficult age groups, she calls herself a kid whisperer.

Unfortunately, Scharf said, video games have become less of a concern over time. Parents no longer ask Scharf if their children should be gaming, because they already are. Recently, she was seeing an 11-year-old patient whose mom was proud that he was so adept at Fortnite, a multiplayer shooter video game. The predominant argument against gaming is its addictive potential.

“I find that to be really frustrating,” Scharf said. “I don’t care about the judgment side of it. I just want to know how it serves you.”

The companies that create games have figured out how to build communities for their players, and Scharf refutes the argument that video games isolate the children who play them.

“They’re already isolated,” Scharf said. “It has already been so helpful for so many people.”

Children, especially those who cannot drive or be driven to socialize with friends, can find relationships in those online communities.

“It’s up to each individual to decide what’s real and what isn’t,” Scharf said.

Everything in moderation is okay, Scharf said, as long as real-world relationships and responsibilities are not compromised. Players should be cautious about their online use, and selective about who they talk to.

“To be able to communicate with people who are like yourself and form a club or community that’s supportive, reduces depression, maybe even fun,” Scharf said, “I’m all for it.”

Matheus Cury, 24, has been playing video games for as long as he can remember. His best guess is that one day, when he was 2 or 3 years old, he picked up his father’s Nintendo controller and never put it down. His father is a computer engineer, and his family has always been supportive of his use of technology. He built his first computer before he was 10.

Cury has even played in video game competitions. He is an athlete and usually channels his competitive energy into football, soccer, basketball or mixed martial arts, but gaming competitions offer a wider range of competitors. There, he can play against people he would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet.

“It allows people to be something society tells them they can’t be,” Cury said. “Video games are amazing.”

Video games have helped Cury maintain relationships with his friends as they have grown up. He plays from Weston, Florida, with friends in New York, Detroit and Texas who used to live three doors

“It allows people to be something society tells them they can’t be,” Cury said. “Video games are amazing.”

down from him. They have grown into engineers and businessmen, but they still have gaming in common.

“It’s a way of hanging out with your friends without physically being with them,” Cury said.

Cury plays every kind of game, but the online roleplaying game “World of Warcraft” has always been his favorite. In high school, he was a shy kid, but began playing online with friends-of-friends. He met them in person years later when he started school at UF, and they went from being strictly online friends to roommates and best friends.

“That all became possible through video games,” Cury said.

In January, Cury will be a groomsman in the wedding of one of those “World of Warcraft” friends.

“That is one of the coolest things that could ever happen,” Cury said. “Technology brings people together.”

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The Ugly Truth of Emotional Support Animals

Story and photos by Melanie Prescott

A white Labrador mix cries out. The brown patch over her eye gives her an added comical appearance. At 7 months old, Millie is high-spirited and overly affectionate, but her owner wouldn’t have it any other way.

Despite such a sweet disposition, Millie and others like her, continue to undergo public scrutiny as the rise of emotional support animals (ESA) have left the country divided. The controversy between believers and skeptics of the emotional-support capability of an animal has become the ugly truth of ESAs. The debate surrounding ESAs exacerbated at the beginning of the year when a woman and her emotional support peacock, Dexter, were denied boarding on a United Airline flight in Newark, New Jersey. The airline denied the peacock because it didn’t meet the flight guidelines, including weight and size.

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An ESA is a dog, or other domesticated animal, that provides support to its disabled owner, who was diagnosed by a qualified mental-health professional. Such domesticated animals are protected and defined under two types of accommodation: residential and travel.

In residential areas, an ESA can extend to any legal species of animal, such as dogs, ferrets, birds and so forth. Under the Air Carrier Access Act, an ESA can travel in-cabin with the respective owner for free.

However, the Department of Transportation permits species restrictions of ESAs pursuant to a community, air carrier or local provider’s preferences.

Dani LeGrand, 20, is a senior doublemajor in African-American studies and political science at the University of Florida who owns the white Labrador mix, Millie. LeGrand, who has been in

and out of therapy throughout her whole life, was encouraged to get an ESA to help overcome her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“A big part of anxiety is feeling very alone in it,” LeGrand said. “You start to spiral in to these negative thought patterns, and then you start thinking, ‘Well, I’m alone and nobody understands this, and then it gets even worse.”

For LeGrand, the simple presence and caring nature Millie brings into her life makes the difficulties of anxiety and PTSD more manageable.

“With Millie, I don’t really experience that anymore because I’m not alone,” LeGrand said. “When you have this constant positive thing in your life that’s living and loves you, it’s really hard to get down on yourself for too long.”

“Anxiety is not something that is resolved overnight, but I could tell a remarkable improvement in his emotional well-being,” Brotgandel said. “I could tell that he was way more comfortable when his dog was around.”

Barbara Welsch, a clinical assistant professor at UF, owns a 6-year-old Havanese therapy dog, Sigmund F. Welsch, or Siggi, who offers a weekly “Yappy Hour” on campus for UF students. The Counseling and Wellness Center offers Yappy Hour every Tuesday to provide comfort to students who may feel homesick, lonely or grieving the loss of a pet. Siggi works together with the other therapy dog, Gabriel Stuart, nicknamed Gabe, a 5-year-old Shih-Tzu. As a trained psychologist and veterinarian, Welsch is aware of the growing demand of ESAs from both students and the general public.

“We don’t have a pretty high opinion of the whole ESA thing right now,” Welsch said. “It happens to be because of so much cheating that we observe.”

“Students will call up here just to get a letter that says they need an ESA before they have

tried other means of handling whatever their anxiety or depression were,” she said.

Welsch believes animals help people emotionally, in general. However, the lack of requirements and regulation in prescribing ESAs has brought disapproval from therapists, physicians and others in the medical profession.

“The fact is that they don’t have to be certified, they don’t have to have veterinarian requirements and they don’t have to be trained,” Welsch said. “My stigma is just about all the cheating and all the fake sites online where you can get a letter without even seeing a professional.”

Incidents such as the one with Dexter, the emotional support peacock, or more recently, an emotional support squirrel, have made airlines reevaluate their policies concerning ESAs. As of March 1, United Airlines requires passengers to provide additional documentation in addition to the letter from a licensed medical or mental health professional. Such documentation includes a veterinary health form, vaccination records and a statement confirming the animal is welltrained and well-behaved.

The companionship LeGrand receives from her time spent with Millie, reveals the positive impact such ESAs can have on people.

However, if Millie was to receive training and provide a more active service, she would then no longer serve as an ESA but a service dog, according to Welsch.

For instance, say someone with depression owns a dog that regularly needs to be taken outside. The process of taking the dog outside is

a step toward getting that person out of bed and into a routine, which could then help ease the person out of depression.

“That is just a dog being a dog, so it would still be called an ESA,” Welsch said. “A service animal is trained to do a specific thing that relates to the disability of its owner."

Albert Brotgandel, 20, is a second-year heath science major at UF who witnessed a change in a fellow student’s demeanor upon getting an ESA. The student suffers from anxiety and other mental health issues.

“Anxiety is not something that is resolved overnight, but I could tell a remarkable improvement in his emotional well-being,” Brotgandel said. “I could tell that he was way more comfortable when his dog was around.”

The controversy surrounding ESAs circles back to the legitimacy and training that can or cannot be found within the animal in question. Owners and witnesses like LeGrand or Brotgandel affirm the emotional-support capability of an animal, especially in dogs. However, professionals like Welsch and airlines like United Airlines encourage more regulation and training of ESAs to prevent the unnecessary prescribing and backlash against the animals.

ESAs, especially dogs, represent more than the natural versions of themselves to their owners. To LeGrand, Millie is a symbol of her own happiness and well-being.

“I know the stigma is out there, but I think it’s dissipating,” LeGrand said.

“Having an emotional support animal can change your life and improve the standard of your life in a way that medication and other outlets can’t.”

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Reality Check: Life in a Food Desert Story and photo by Brooke Henderson

Whole Foods came to Gainesville in style. When the 40,000-squarefoot store opened on Archer Road, it became one of over 20 fresh-food grocery stores west of Waldo and Hawthorne Road.

On the east side? Their options can be counted on one hand. Food deserts exist in areas without access to fresh and affordable food, and Florida boasts almost 400 of them. Food deserts appear where communities lack nearby and affordable options for grocery shopping.

This is the reality of how Alachua County survives.

Terrance Wiggins lives in southwest Gainesville where corner stores are often the closest options for food. In some neighborhoods, there’s only the liquor store. Being forced to rely on processed foods creates bigger health problems, but without a form of transportation, it’s Wiggins’ only option.

“My kids keep eating junk food, but what can I do? I need something quick, this is all that we can get to,” he said.

His sons sit outside eating an afternoon snack, the oldest with his hand in a bag of chips. The youngest sucks on boiled peanuts from the gas station. In the door of his fridge, applesauce containers are stacked in alternating flavors. There’s no fruit on the counter or bread in the pantry. In low-income areas where families can only afford so much, eating unhealthy becomes an unrelenting cycle.

“The best they eat is at school,” Wiggins said. “Then they come home and they’re hungry and waiting on me.”

At home, a Wednesday means pasta for dinner. But at school, hump day rolls in with shrimp poppers and cheesy grits, maybe even a chicken parmesan sandwich and veggies. Wiggins can’t afford the variety of options the school offers when he’s worried about just keeping food in his house.

“There’s a certain strategy you got to have,” he says, tapping his fingers on a list written out in his blocky script. It contains everything he wants to buy for the three of them for the next month.

“It’s kind of like doomsday prepping, but it’s not doomsday. We just picked the wrong side of town.”

To avoid making another time-consuming trip, he stocks up, buying items that won’t perish quickly. In food deserts, the nearest produce store is over a mile away from communities without reliable transportation. For Wiggins’ family in Gordon Manor, Publix is only a 10 to 15 minute car ride away. Easy, he says, if you have a car and can pay those prices. It goes downhill from there if you can’t.

When grocery stores are miles away, the bus system regulates life.

But in Waldo, Becky Williams has found a way to make it work. From the east side of town, some busses only run hourly on the weekdays and stop at 6:30 p.m.

“It’s kind of awful waiting for that last bus to come by, not knowing if you’re going to make it home with food to last you awhile,” Williams says.

Depending on her work schedule, making the trip becomes even more

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of a challenge. She may catch one on the way over, she says, but there won’t be a bus to take her back. On the weekends, the bus system shows no mercy. Buses come even less frequently on Saturdays. On Sunday, there’s no bus at all. To save her some trouble, Williams stuffs her freezer.

Meat, frozen veggies, and preprepared meals fight for space on crowded shelves.

“I want to get a little deli meat, but I’m worried about the bread,” she says, leaning down to peer under the sink. There she has potatoes wrapped in plastic trash bag. A few small holes in the bag keeps them cool, preventing new sprouts, or worse, rotting.

Williams had been excited about the new Whole Foods and the possibility of even healthier freezer foods until she saw the prices.

“How can I buy any of that when it cuts my grocery budget in half?” she said. “It’s already hard as it is.” Instead she goes to Waldo Farmers and Flea Market, only open on weekends but that suits her fine; she wouldn’t be able to make it during the week anyway.

For people who can’t make it to the market, there’s the Fresh Wagon.

This mobile farmer’s market makes stops to food insecure neighborhoods, setting up shop outside of churches and schools. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the wagon works to keep eating healthy affordable. Produce comes from farms in Melrose, Hawthorne and other local farms.

After relying on the Fresh Wagon, Aida Sanchez got her own idea.

What if she grew things herself? Longtime residents of Alachua, her family had worked the land when farming dominated the county. Her father taught her what he could, and now, at the Cone Park community garden, she does the same with her son.

“It was a way to save even more money for us,” Sanchez said. “It also brought us closer to our neighbors.”

Her son Jordan is tall enough to reach the waist-high, wood planting beds. Together they check on their arugula and mustard greens, a few weeks shy of being salad-ready, she said.

“Do you like vegetables now?” Sanchez asks the 10-year-old, miraculously clean even though he’s been digging in the dirt. He nods his head, brushing off his hands. “Yeah, but I only like mines.”

Jordan and his mom are just one family out of many around Alachua joining together to fight food deserts themselves. Gainesville alone has five gardens in its program under the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, with more popping up as interest grows.

“I know how to do this, at least,” she said. “Why not do this for us and others?”

It’s one of many city initiatives to combat food deserts, with more on the way. Until food deserts are gone forever, communities can get by using some of these hard-learned lessons. Food deserts impact over 23 million Americans. Real people worry every day about where their next meal will come from, but sometimes hunger doesn't exist until it becomes your reality.

Family Matters of the New Millennium Story by Melanie Prescott

sense of the word. Growing up with a multicultural family brought interesting twists and traditions of its own.

“My dad’s family always ate meals when it was convenient for them,” Beaumont said. “But my mom, she definitely thinks it’s important for families to eat together at meals and bond over it.”

At the Beaumont house, many traditional Filipino dishes such as Pork Adobo, Lumpia and Pancit Palabok were served during dinner. These and other Asian traditions were blended into Beaumont’s family structure, which was shared with English-American traditions such as Thanksgiving.

“I don’t think people should assume that I am more Asian or the other,” Beaumont said. “I feel that I am a good mix of the two cultures, so it’s hard to just classify myself as more one than the other.”

I, too, can vouch as someone who has a non-traditional family structure but doesn’t want to be seen as anything less than normal.

At 22 years old, I’m three years shy of the age my mother was when she gave birth to me, 25, but less than half the age my father was, 50. With one parent who was older than my grandparents and the other who was younger than one of my brothers, ‘non- traditional’ began to seem like an understatement.

Despite having five half-brothers, I grew up as an only child with a single parent. My mother instilled many of the values I cherish today. An education, a strong work ethic and a kind heart are all you need in a world that seems to try and put you down around each corner. With these values, I remind myself that the unusual dynamic that comprises my family doesn’t define who I am as a person.

Family, whether traditional or not, is less about who your parents are and how many siblings you have. It’s more about the bond that is created through shared love, understanding and heartaches.

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Photos courtesy of families

For decades, the all-American family was illustrated as a two-parent household with two to three children and a dog. The two parents, one man and one woman, would marry at a young age, work in genderappropriate industries and shy away from anyone who spoke of a divorce. This portrait of the “nuclear family” was most prevalent in the ’60s and ’70s and in shows like ‘Leave it to Beaver’ or pictures like Norman Rockwell’s ‘Freedom from Want.’

With nearly 20 years into the new millennium, many Americans recognize a shift in today’s definition of a traditional family structure. The once-traditional nuclear family is now replaced by a plethora of components such as gay parents, a single parent, a blended family, multicultural, multiracial and more. But how and when did these changes occur?

The rise in education, employment and technological advancements have led to the change in family arrangements today, according to a report for the Council on Contemporary Families. After the ’60s, women had more freedom to choose a degree program, a career or when to have a child. In return, these choices have led to fewer marriages and lower birth rates.

In 2012, statistics showed nearly 23 percent of children being raised by a single mother, 3 percent of children being raised by a single father and about 60 percent of children being raised by married parents. These components illustrate the transformation in American social norms, which in turn, brings awareness of what each of us may define as ‘normal’ or ‘traditional.’

Abigail Beaumont, a 24-year-old registered nurse at UF Health Shands Hospital, grew up in a multicultural family with her English-American father and Filipino mother.

“My dad is more easy-going with his more American values,” Beaumont said. “I mainly grew up with my mom’s influence because she instilled the significant family values that Asian cultures typically have.”

Beaumont and her younger sister, Cathy, didn’t think of their family dynamic as ‘non-traditional,’ but normal in their

Real Talk: The Shape of Virginity Story by Brooke Henderson and photos by Alexis Miller Her stepfather told her it was her gift – a gift for her husband alone. Her virginity meant giving herself to him, as if her only worth resided between her legs.

Preserving that gift meant protecting herself. Augeni Taylor, an animal science major at the University of Florida, couldn’t wear certain clothes, couldn’t shave and could only speak when spoken to.

“Because no man wanted a woman that’s seen as ‘desperate’ and ‘fast,’ right?” Taylor said.

Growing up in West Palm Beach, her relationship with virginity was stifling. For someone else, it might have been a source of peace or pride.

These days, people are waiting longer to have sex, yes, even into college. The average age people have their first sexual encounter is 17.4 years old, older than previous generations, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control. Each person’s reason for abstaining, or not, is their own: real, tangible and sometimes emotional.

For Taylor, not believing in virginity has drawn harsh criticism.

“I’ve actually been called a harlot and people didn’t want to be associated with me,” she said.

Some friends won’t even talk to her anymore. She was so tired of being told what she could and couldn’t do in order to make men more comfortable. She shaved her head and pierced intimate places.

She began to match on the outside the brave person she was inside.

By reclaiming her sexuality and independence, Taylor peeled back the layers and found herself to be innately wonderful.

“I’m not what I can do for man, but what we can do for each other,” she said. “My body and virginity isn’t the definition of me.

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I am ME – my laughter, my flaws, my attitude, my insecurities, simply my being is what makes me and my worth.”

With joy and self-actualization came even more judgment. Taylor faced slut-shaming from people who thought that because she didn’t value virginity, she didn’t value herself. A study conducted

by Dr. Jean Twenge at San Diego State University found that millennials have fewer sexual partners than their parent’s generation, and yet, it’s a conversation Taylor has had to have over and over.

“Guys are either not interested because they don’t like the fact that I have had sex with someone they know or so many people,” she said. “I wish people understood that women don’t have sex for your satisfaction, approval, or acceptance. I do it for me because I enjoy it. Thoroughly.”

Akil Reynolds, a UF public health major, also feels that it’s time to rethink the way we view virginity. To him, virginity is a social construct made real through religion.

“If someone's having sex for the first time and they think it’s significant, that’s valid, but the way religion has made us view sex is very heteronormative,” the 21-year-old said. “It’s not just for reproduction.”

Heteronormative means excluding the LGBT community by centering the concept of virginity on heterosexual couples, he said.

It means phrasing sex in the terms of women losing something, instead of something positive.

“I celebrate the benefits of sex in life and what that individually means to people, centering the pleasure that comes from sex, but I feel like when people talk about sex they only think about the physical,” Reynolds said.

Centering emotional connections has led Reynolds to wait to have sex.

He hasn’t met someone that he’s clicked with emotionally, and he plans to keep waiting until he’s in a deeper, meaningful relationship. Until then, Reynolds maintains that he’s sex-positive, just not sex-ready.

Still, if he’s being honest, he feels the pressure to have sex weighing on his back.

“Sometimes it feels like I should just do it,” Reynolds said. “As a black man people expect me to anyway – I’m very much sexualized.”

Reynolds’ situation is not that unusual. A 2016 study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that out of teenage boys, only 47 percent are sexually active. It’s a big jump from the 69 percent of

sexually active male teenagers recorded 25 years ago.

“I don’t think about my virginity on a daily basis,” Danie Etienne said. “It’s my choice, and I don’t judge others for their choices.”

Even though some people may say her choice is pointless, the 21-year-old isn’t concerned. As a dancer, she has always been intimately aware of what her body can do, and how only she can command it. She is in control of her body, she said, and she’s in no rush. Etienne chooses not to have sex because she hasn’t found someone who she felt loved her as much as she loved them.

When dating, some men tokenize Etienne, excited by the sense of purity. It’s something Ashley Garner, a public relations major, finds exhausting.

“I know that people want to have sex with me. I’ve heard people make bets on getting me, but I wouldn’t let anyone just add me to their list,” Garner said.

It’s a big factor in why she hasn’t been in a real relationship.

Garner is tall and curvy, statuesque in a way that draws men’s attention, she said. But the 20-year-old doesn’t want them to just notice her body. Garner wants to be acknowledged purely based on the person she is.

As soon as people find out that she’s a virgin, Garner said they either don’t believe it or want to marry her because of it.

The ones that are okay with her being a virgin? They just want to be the one to take it, she said.

“Their excuse is they only date girls who they can say their homeboy hasn’t had,” Garner said. “It’s such a double standard, I mean, my husband probably won’t be one.”

Still, Garner likes the idea of being able to give her virginity to someone with whom she’ll spend eternity. She believes in fairytales and old-school romance. Even if she doesn’t wait until marriage, she will keep things on her own terms.

“Whenever it happens, I’ll be okay with it,” Garner said.

“Because it’ll be what’s meant for me.”

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HONEST

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Debunking Diet Fads

The reality behind some of today's most popular diets.

Story and photo by Caroline Strogis

The diet and weight-loss industry is a billion-dollar market. Americans spend $60 billion annually in efforts to lose weight, according to Statista. However, Americans are also fed new information daily about diet trends, ways to lose weight and “miraculous” quick fixes. But what is the truth? What foods should we cut out of our diet? According to popular diet books, celebrity claims and social media, the answer to that is all of them. If all of this were true, there would be very few foods left for us to eat.

The problem with fad diets is that they are difficult to maintain and often misused from the real intent. Forget the buzz, here’s the simple reality behind five of the most popular diets today.

Juice Cleanses The Claim – Juice cleanses claim that drinking juiced fruits and vegetables and removing solid foods from your diet cleanses and detoxes the body, according to Paige Hartnett, registered dietician and nutritionist. Popular juice diets recommend doing this anywhere from three days to a whole week. The claim is that juicing your foods allows the body to absorb nutrients more quickly. It is also said that by removing the fiber from these fruits and vegetables, juice cleanses ease the digestive tract. A popular reason that people start a juice diet is to “kick start” a healthy diet or weight loss routine.

The Reality – Juicing is a great way to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet easily. However, Hartnett prefers eating whole fruits as opposed to juicing, as juicing removes the skin and fiber along with many vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The removal of fiber also speeds up digestion, meaning the juices won’t keep you full as long. As far as cleansing and detoxing the body, we have a liver and kidneys for that. A diet consisting only of juice often leads to diarrhea, which causes temporary weight loss and dehydration, according to Healthline.

Keto Diet The Claim – By virtually removing carbohydrates from the diet and instead eating a diet high in fat and protein, the body reaches a state called ketosis. In ketosis, the body has raised levels of ketone bodies in the tissue and is in a metabolic state where it burns fat instead of carbs. When lacking carbs, the body is left without glucose as a source of energy and turns to stored fat as an alternative type of fuel. People hear this and turn to the keto diet to burn fat and shed unwanted pounds.

The Reality – The ketogenic diet’s original use was to control medical conditions such as diabetes and epilepsy. It has also been tested as a treatment for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, according to Harvard Health. The diet has gained popularity as a weight-loss plan because it is low-carb. However, reaching ketosis is less natural and riskier than most people realize. People who eat a ketogenic diet for medical reasons use blood and urine tests to make sure their body is in ketosis. They also do this to make sure their bodies aren’t too deficient of glucose, because the brain relies on glucose to function. When ketone bodies reach harmful levels, the body enters ketoacidosis, a toxic level of acid in the blood. People who follow this diet are usually under close supervision of a medical professional, Hartnett said.

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Raw-Food Diet The Claim – The raw-food diet surrounds the idea that uncooked and unprocessed foods are healthier. This comes from the belief that cooking food destroys the nutrients and enzymes that occur in food’s natural, raw form. People have used this diet to reduce the risk of chronic disease, aid in digestion, increase energy and lose weight. Raw food is praised for its high-fiber content to keep you feeling full and relieve constipation.

The Reality – A diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables and whole grains has many benefits. However, without meat, eggs and fish, it is difficult to avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Not being able to cook your food leaves you with limited options for getting your daily intake of iron, calcium and protein. A diet balanced with both raw and cooked foods is the easiest way to receive enough nutrients.

Furthermore, some nutrient levels in food actually increase after food is cooked, according to Verywell.

Gluten-Free Diet The Claim – Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye and is, therefore, found in most processed carbs. By removing these foods from your diet, you reduce inflammation, improve digestion and feel less lethargic.

The Reality – People with gluten intolerances and celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that causes the body to react poorly to gluten, avoid gluten to prevent inflammation and damage to their intestines. Approximately one percent of the population suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance, according to Harvard Medical School. Those affected remedy the symptoms by cutting out foods containing gluten such as bread, pasta and other starchy carbs. This has been a weight loss “hack” for the past century as low carb diets grew in popularity, but the hack itself has nothing to do with gluten.

Alkaline Diet The Claim – Alkaline dieters claim that eating too many acidic foods can make you more prone to disease and feel lethargic. Acidic foods have also gotten the bad reputation of breaking down bone tissue. There are claims that the body runs more smoothly and has a healthier gut biome when it is an alkaline environment.

The Reality – The main claim of the alkaline diet is to keep the pH levels in your blood steady. However, your body does that on its own regardless of your diet, according to Healthline. People on the alkaline diet do often see weight loss results, but not for the reasons they think. This is simply due to cutting out acidic foods such as red meat, sugar and alcohol and instead eating mostly plant-based and drinking more water. Typically, the alkaline diet is used to keep pH levels steady for individuals with kidney stones, back pain or muscle aches.

Real, Healthy, Balanced Diet The term “diet” simply refers to the food that an individual habitually eats. More often than not, any weight loss observed from fad diets is not actually attributed to the specific diet, but rather consuming fewer calories as a byproduct of paying more attention to the foods consumed. The best diet is balanced and made up of a variety of foods that can easily be implemented to an individual’s lifestyle, Hartnett said.

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When Art Imitates Life: 10 Must-Watch Films Based on True Stories St o ry an d p hotos by Sum m er J arro

“Based on a true story.” It seems in recent years, many trailers for movies are starting to say those five intriguing words more often. An array of movies based on true stories have already been released and more are to come. Releases in 2018 include films about the rock band Queen and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury, and the life of United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Such movies are able to inform and educate audiences about events or people around the world while entertaining them. They aren’t a new trend and have been a part of the movie scene for years.

Before heading to the movie theater and enjoying the film about Ginsburg or Queen, be sure to check out these must-watch movies based on true stories:

“Schindler’s List” (1993) "Schindler's List" follows Oskar Schindler as he saves thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

When I think of movies based on true stories, “Schindler’s List” comes first. One of my favorite things about “true” movies is that they can share the lives of real people doing great things.

Schindler saved thousands of Jewish People, which allowed their families to grow for generations. This film dealt with a difficult time in history but shared a positive aspect of one man going against the Nazi regime to help innocent lives.

“12 Years a Slave” (2013) Solomon Northup, a free African-American man in New York was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana for 12 years.

"12 Years a Slave" tells his story.

Inform. Inform. Inform. That is something I can’t stress enough about the importance of true-story films, and that was the big takeaway for me when watching “12 Years a Slave.” I've learned about slavery in school for as long as I can remember, but the brutality, inhumanity and mistreatment of slaves resonated more with me after watching the film and seeing the way slaves had to

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live through the eyes of Northup. Using the true story of one person can have a bigger impact and more of a cultural significance to people than sharing a story about thousands of people.

“Catch Me If You Can” (2002) Based on the life of con man Frank Abagnale, "Catch Me If You Can" follows him as he poses in multiple roles, like a pilot and surgeon, while the FBI tries to catch him for fraud.

Upon watching “Catch Me If You Can” for the first time, I couldn’t believe it actually happened. The sets, music and props made the character’s life seem so glamorous and unrealistic. I thought, “There is no way a teenager could trick the FBI that many times.” That’s what I love about true films like “Catch Me If You Can.” They don’t have to be boring. They have the ability to share entertaining stories about real people to the point they almost seem fictional.

“All the President’s Men” (1976) Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward investigate the Watergate political scandal for the paper in "All the President's Man."

Ask any journalist what they think is the best journalistic film, and they will probably name this iconic movie. The film encapsulates what is, arguably, considered the best reporting of all time. What makes it a fantastic movie is its ability to transport the audience into the events on screen. This movie allowed me to truly see the ups and downs and true difficulties Bernstein and Woodward went through when investigating Watergate.

“Hotel Rwanda” (2004) "Hotel Rwanda" is about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and how Hutu hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina saved thousands of Tutsi refugees by sheltering them in the hotel where he worked.

Before I watched Hotel Rwanda, I never knew about the Rwandan genocide or even the country itself. The film introduced me to issues outside the United States and helped open my eyes to greater problems that have happened in the world. The genocide is rarely ever talked about, so making this movie allows the victims to be remembered while communicating that this should never happen again.

“Apollo 13” (1995) Depicting the failed Apollo lunar mission in 1970, "Apollo 13" tells the story of three astrunauts' perilous journey home after an explosion tampers with shuttle oxygen supply.

There are those who remember seeing the three astronauts return home safely. However, I was born a little before the turn of the millennium and only knew what I had learned in school. One feature of true-story films is that they help give historical context for younger audiences.

“Spotlight” (2015)

“Hidden Figures” (2016)

"Spotlight" is based on the true story of the Boston Globe Spotlight team and its series of investigative stories on child sexual abuse among Roman Catholic priests and the cover-up by the church.

This film is the story of three black female mathematicians who worked at NASA and helped with space missions in the 1960s.

“Hidden Figures” helped me feel empowered. It was inspiring, especially considering that the field was male dominated. The movie highlighted their important roles in the space race.

“Gandhi” (1982) Following the life of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, this movie tells the story from when he was thrown off a train in 1893 for sitting in a white’s only compartment to his activism and leadership of the Indian people until his assassination in 1948.

Beforehand, I knew the basic facts about Gandhi, but seeing this film educated me more on Gandhi’s life and what led him to become the icon I’ve learned so much about. Also, I learned more about India’s history. Despite elements being dramatized, I feel there is still educational value in “Ghandi.”

I feel many people don’t understand the hardships journalists face.

Journalism may seem like an easy profession, but this film reveals how demanding journalism can be and what it takes to inform the public. Each character was faced with challenges in reporting, but they didn’t let that stop them from finding the truth.

“127 Hours” (2010) In this the story of survival, mountaineer Aron Ralston becomes trapped by a boulder in an isolated area in Blue Rock Canyon and must find a way to break free.

Superhero films show the impossible. Anything is easy when one has super powers. In the case of “127 Hours,” Ralston realized the only way out was to cut off his arm or die. Just the thought of having to do that would seem insane to anyone else, but Ralston actually did it.

I was overcome by a sense of hope that we have our own version of powers, even if we aren’t Batman or Superman.

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Music Festivals:

From electronic performances to ecstasy bliss Story by Savannah Hill Imagine being shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of sweaty, scantily clad people as they bounce up and down to the beat of electronic-dance music while giant strobe lights flash all around.

You’ve eaten once and slept a few hours the night before, but thanks to the ecstasy you’re rolling on, you’re able to make it through the performance in a euphoric state. Welcome to the Electronic Daisy Carnival (EDC).

Most people who attend EDC have that experience. However, the festival lifestyle doesn’t just stop with EDC. Hundreds of music festivals similar to EDC occur annually in cities across the nation.

Festival attendees plan months ahead of time to attend these monstrous events and the experience can be described as nothing other than immersive.

To non-attendees, a music festival looks like any other concertan opportunity to hear a band or performer you enjoy for the night or weekend. However, to those who attend the festival craze regularly, it is much more than a concert. The passion and thrills surrounding festivals drive people back year after year in a pervasive manner that you wouldn’t expect from an average concert.

Maggie Lennon, 19, has been attending music festivals for a year and hasn’t looked back.

“One of my best friends was going to EDC and multiple other festivals around the time of my 18th birthday,” Lennon said. “She convinced me to buy a ticket to EDC as a way to celebrate my birthday, and I had no idea it would change my life the way it did.”

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After attending the festival, Lennon said she became a more accepting person and incorporated the rave principles of unity into her personal life, she said.

Lennon now attends multiple music festivals a year. Her closest friends, or her “festie fam” as she calls them, are all part of this deep-rooted lifestyle. While we’re all working for the weekend, diehard festival fans are working for their next ticket.

For most attendees, activities at the festivals later become hobbies.

Poi, hooping and gloving are all considered artistic talents that you can find throughout festival grounds. Poi is when a person uses two poi light balls to twirl in a way that creates a mini light show.

Gloving refers to the diode lights on the fingertips of each glove that allows the wearer to create a visually stimulating dance with their fingers. Hooping, a derivative of hula-hooping, is exactly what it sounds like. A hooper normally dresses in a fun outfit and hula hoops in a very flowy, mesmerizing way.

All of these activities create intense, visually stimulating performances that are intended to appeal to festival goers who are ingesting hallucinogens. Drug use at festivals has become a controversial norm. Many attendees partake in drug use of some kind, the most typical drugs being ecstasy and acid. The logistics behind the festivals themselves lend to the side effects of using these drugs and attempt to further stimulate the senses heightened by the drugs.

Lennon also partakes in this aspect of festival life and does feel that it is vital to the experience as a whole.

Photo courtesy of Megan Shea and Maggie Lennon

“The drugs we use are considered love drugs and they make everything, especially the lights, physically feel good,” Lennon said.

Attendees who don’t participate in this aspect may be missing out on part of the community, she said.

Katelyn Harrell, a 21-year-old biology major at the University of Florida, enjoys going to concerts to listen to her favorite bands. However, Harrell could never see herself buying tickets to a music festival.

“A hug turns into a feeling of pure ecstasy and the connection you have with people is unlike anything else,” Lennon said.

“Concerts are normally in a controlled environment for a few hours and then you go home,” Harrell said. “Festivals normally seem to be multiple-day events.”

Unfortunately, overuse of these drugs, despite the euphoric qualities they may possess, can result in death. Twenty-nine drug-related deaths at rave-like music festivals over a span of 10 years, according to a 2016 report from the “Los Angeles Times.”

Most of these deaths occurred in people between the ages of 18 and 25, many of which were caused by ecstasy toxicity. It was reported that most victims died from organ failure while their bodies reached a temperature of 107 degrees or higher.

“Most of all, I loved festivals because for the first time I felt like I belonged,” Lennon said. “After my first EDC experience, I came out feeling more loving, generous and kind.”

A lot of people have mixed feelings about EDC and other music festivals, especially people who fall outside of the young-adult age range. The barely-there attire and clear drug use turns off a variety of people and gives people second thoughts about attending a music festival.

A large reason for Harrell's hesitence about music festivals is the well-known drug use that occurs at these events.

“That kind of atmosphere just doesn’t seem like it’d be my thing,” Harrell said.

However, Lennon believes everyone should erase those fears and give it a chance.

“If someone had a negative perception of festivals, I'd tell them to pop in a tab and attend a fest,” Lennon said. “There's no way of understanding the beauty and awe of a music festival without attending one.”

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Fake News: Living in a Culture of Media Distrust Story and photos by Savannah Edgens Fake news has been a phenomenon ever since Donald Trump rode down the golden escalators in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president in June of 2015. Since that historic day, Americans have watched the president call out journalists and news networks for being “fake news.”

“Fake news is a fiction that is being presented as a truth or being presented in a manner to make you doubt a verifiable fact,” said Kristen Jackson, 20, a civil engineering student at the University of Florida. Jackson is president of the UF College Democrats.

“Fake news is news, or articles, written with a political bias that misleads readers, but it is specifically done so by networks or newspapers that claim to have no political bias,” said Andrew Jamison, a 20-year-old political science major at UF. Jamison is the president of the UF College Republicans.

The trouble with the fake-news era is that there doesn’t seem to be a singular accepted definition for fake news. It means different things to different people, said Clay Calvert, a media law professor at UF. “Something that is false could be fake news,” Calvert said. “I think many people mean there is an intentionality to deceive

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people, which is different from something being false.”

Most people conceptualize fake news as being the publication of knowingly false information made with an intent to deceive and influence someone’s behavior, he said.

“The term has been misused and abused by many people, including the president of the United States, to tar-and-feather any news organization and/or news story with which he disagrees,” Calvert said.

Journalism, despite its reputation and demand for objectivity, is subjective from the start, Calvert said. Journalists obtain information from often-quoted, or popular, sources for stories. This tends to make the news more biased because it rules out the minority voices as sources, Calvert said.

“The First Amendment protects some false statements about public officials, providing that they were not published with actual malice, which means knowing the information was false,” he said. “The First Amendment protects a lot of speech that would be false, unless you can prove that there was actually harm caused by the speech.”

Fake news has existed throughout history. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were two of the country’s most

successful leaders in yellow journalism, which is journalism based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration.

The two publishers began a media battle during the SpanishAmerican War, particularly through comics featured in their publications. Ironically, two of the highest honors journalists can receive are the collegiate Hearst awards and the professional Pulitzer prize award.

“Fake news, almost exclusively, seems to apply to political reporting because it’s used as an excuse or way to throw off the narrative of something,” Jackson said. “It’s an easy way for you to defend yourself from answering hard questions.”

In today’s polarized society, fake news does seem to only apply to political reporting. However, fake news lines the check-out lanes of grocery stores, and the headlines mostly revolve around popular culture.

“Kate Middleton pregnant with twins,” “Jennifer Aniston desperately trying to win Brad back,” or even, “Meghan Markle to divorce Prince Harry” are all based on the sensationalism of yellow journalism.

“When it comes to political news, a lot of it is pretty subjective,” Jamison said. “There are statistics on different things, but politics mostly revolves around how a person says things. When writing about politics, it opens up opportunities for the writer to include their own personal opinion.”

There is what is known as the third-person effect in the media, according to a study by the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture. The third-person effect occurs when people report that others are more influenced by the mass media than they themselves are.

“In terms of falling for fake news, it’s the classic type of negative findings that a media effects scholar would study in the context of the third-person effect,” said Frank Waddell, an assistant professor at the UF College of Journalism and Communications. “The tendency would be to think, ‘Oh, other people are not going to be able to distinguish

between news that is real and news that is fake, but it’s unlikely that I would make such a mistake.’”

This double-standard, driven by a societal self-interest is one of the consequences of this theory, Waddell said. It makes people less critical consumers of media.

“There is an attempt to put people into groups, sort of the ‘us versus them,’ in works of the press in deliberate ways, especially when it comes to partisan news outlets,” Waddell said. “Prior to the recent explosion of fake news, a lot of our studies on fake news fell under this umbrella of misinformation, and it actually wasn’t focused around politics.”

Fake news studies have revolved around misinformation in science and other areas of study, he said. It was a way to test and prove or disprove certain reports within the media.

“I think our attention has become so squarely focused on fake news in a political climate,” Waddell said.

“Perhaps it also derives from this growing distrust in media that has really been part of partisan political messaging since the 1990s.”

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Bona Fide

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One Girl's Quest

For a Real Margarita

Story and photos by Savannah Edgens

It is great having a birthday on National Margarita Day, which is Feb. 22, by the way. Almost every Mexican restaurant in America has some kind of amazing deal with half-priced, specially created margaritas for lovers of the cocktail like myself.

However, I have found that very few places have mastered the art of creating the perfectly authentic sweet, yet sour and oh-so-tangy margarita here in Gainesville. There is nothing worse than getting a mouthful of generic, yellow margarita mix with a splash of the beyond-the-bottom-shelf tequila. It’s an abomination.

So, as I sit at my very festive booth and stare at my bottomless chips and salsa, I find myself asking my waiter, “Are your margaritas real?” I’m usually stared at for a long time until they reply, “Yes, we serve margaritas.” I keep asking if they’re real, and they don’t know what I’m talking about. Then I just end up ordering water. I love the places that actually list the ingredients used in their margaritas, and I will happily pay more money if it means getting a quality drink. So, what is a “real” margarita you ask? Ahhh… pure heaven!

A real margarita consists of fresh lime juice (yes, that means juicing the limes), silver tequila, agave nectar and triple sec, and don’t forget to salt the rim of the glass. There really shouldn’t be anything else in the margarita. I’m not one for girly flavors like

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watermelon, strawberry or raspberry. Just give me a classic drink made properly – I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

I actually bought the ingredients recently so I can start making my own. It proves the old adage that if you want something done correctly, then you have to do it yourself. It’s not quite the same as ordering a perfect margarita on the first try, though.

I’ve experimented with a few different margarita recipes, but nothing beats the classic ingredients I mentioned above. It shouldn’t be complicated, yet I’m usually disappointed. I have friends who mean well when they say a particular restaurant has good margaritas. They’ve just never had a real one, or they are willing to sacrifice quality for a cheaper price.

On my 22nd birthday, I went to Felipe’s with my roommate for buy-one-get-one margaritas. That should have been a clue to me that they were going to be three-fourths tequila and a fourth margarita mix. Amateurs. I give it one star out of five.

After that experience, I set out on a quest to find the perfect “restaurant margarita.” I tried several different places in town, starting with Las Margaritas.

Las Margaritas, despite the name of the restaurant, didn’t live up to my hopes. The drink was frozen, and it tasted like syrup mixed with Minute Maid lemonade. The best part about it was that it was a relatively cheap drink, which probably explains why it wasn’t the authentic margarita I was looking for. Overall, I would rate it two out of five stars.

Most recently, I went to Blue Agave with my roommates.

I ordered the “Blue Agave” margarita, which was listed as freshly squeezed. The only part I didn’t read closely was that it’s actually blue. It didn’t look like the most appealing drink, but it wasn’t bad. Mediocre, but not unpalatable. It did help that the limes were freshly squeezed, so it was not unbearably sweet. In all, I would give it a solid three-star rating.

Boca Fiesta’s margarita was pretty damn close to fresh. In fact, most things on the menu at Boca Fiesta are ‘muy fresco.’

I went to Margarita Monday with a large group of friends, and I was not disappointed. The limes were freshly squeezed, and I didn’t feel like I immediately needed to go to the dentist. I would highly recommend going to Boca Fiesta for a fresh $4 margarita on Mondays. Finally, a five-star rating for my favorite drink.

Interestingly, I got another truly great margarita at P.F. Changs. That was a bit of a surprise – it’s not a Mexican restaurant, and it’s a corporate chain. I guess it proves why we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Sure, I’ve been called ‘bougie’ for my attitude toward margaritas. It is my drink of choice, and I want it made correctly. Drinking a margarita from a mix is like listening to “Taps” played on a trumpet instead of a bugle: anticlimactic and just plain wrong. Maybe I wouldn’t feel this way if my birthday wasn't on National Margarita Day, but I like to think I would keep my strong convictions about alcoholic beverages regardless of what day I was born on.

Nothing really compares to the sweet nectar of a classic margarita. It’s the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and it doesn’t taste like a toothache waiting to happen. It’s not overbearing, and it complements a meal nicely.

In the days just after I turned 21, I was someone who ordered margaritas without thinking about whether they came from a pre-made mix. I hope to never be that person again. It’s such a notable difference that a person has to experience for themselves. Maybe this makes me posh, and maybe it makes me a margarita snob, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. I know what I like.

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Photo courtesy of Charles Allen

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A Gainesville Entrepreneur's Climb to Success Story by Ellen Andreu

After losing two different jobs, Charles Allen saw an opportunity, an opening, something Gainesville needed. It was a miniature golf course.

Many college graduates look to build their careers right out of school or work in an office. Others decide to make their own route to success and create their own business. Charles Allen has been designing his own business path since he realized he wanted to be in control of his future. He seeks opportunities instead of a career.

Due to the recession during the early 1980s, Allen couldn’t hold a job.

“I started to get tired of this because it wasn’t my fault,” he said.

He decided to look into what he could do to start his own business so he could be more in control of his job, his environment and his future.

“I’d always had this idea that Gainesville needed a miniature golf course,” he said. After a lot of research, he bought franchise in PuttPutt Golf Courses of America, Inc. In November 1984, Allen opened his 36-hole miniature golf course business about a mile away from the University of Florida.

Two years later, Allen bought the two acres next to the course and built a nine-station batting cage and a game room. He ran this center for 18 years. It became the largest game room in the county, he said.

It might sound silly, a young college graduate with a finance degree opening up a family entertainment center, but that’s what entrepreneurs do. They seek out each opportunity, no matter how crazy it seems, and they run with it. If you had asked him in high school what he would be doing in 10 years, Allen said there’s no way he would’ve expected to run a three-acre family entertainment center.

With the constant changing of the market – rising property taxes, higher insurance rates, and the rising popularity of online gaming, Allen decided it was time to bulldoze the Putt-Putt center after 18 years, and built the Stratford Square Retail Center.

“We became landlords, the hours were better, and I didn’t have to inventory colored golf balls anymore,” he said referring to he and his wife.

Another one of his crazy ideas, he said, was starting a fine dining restaurant in the middle of a recession, the Ember’s Wood Grill.

“We had a tenant that ran a dysfunctional restaurant,” Allen said.

“He fired his staff, me and my wife re-hired them the next day.”

Allen renovated the building and with the help of the general manager of the previous restaurant, Ryan Todd, and the chef, Briton Dumas, Ember’s Wood Grill opened five weeks later.

He originally saved 14 jobs and now the staff is up to 42.

When the governor dines in Gainesville, he goes to Ember’s, Allen said. From famous athletes to politicians, Ember’s is known for serving reputable people who visit this city.

The previous owner had a vision that Gainesville needed a fine dining restaurant, but he wasn't able to run a successful restaurant, Allen said.

“And out of the ashes of that, Ember’s Wood Grill was formed,” he said.

“We have literally gone from Putt-Putt hot dogs to prime steaks.”

Many people serve steak in town. Ember’s Wood Grill came from a steak house with virtually the same menu, the same staff, the same

chef, the same amount of debt, the same marketing and the same location.

“What’s the difference in the owners? It’s in the decisionmaking process,” Allen said. “We made the organization make good decisions," he added. "You don’t need to reinvent the wheel…Usually big business success is only a few tweaks away.

The advice I always give is: tweak your game plan.”

It’s not what you do it’s how you do it, he said.

“We light 50 plus candles every single night, we buy the absolute, over the top best ingredients money can buy," he said.

"A lot of other restaurants don’t have that consistency.”

“There is great opportunity in the most simple ideas.”

Allen has seen things come and go, he sees how businesses go out of business and which businesses take their place.

He said what usually takes the place of a tanning salon, is a tanning salon, and it’s always a pizza place that takes over a former pizza place.

Allen notices how the successful business took what the original business had but made it better. The new tanning salon can see what the old one did wrong, and then they can tweak their plan to become more successful. “There are patterns that are universal to the success of a company,” he said.

It’s also about having a ‘board of directors.’ Even if someone doesn’t have a company, Allen said it’s important to have advisors to ask about important business decisions. People who have experience running a company and people who can answer questions and guide a new business in the right direction.

Starting a business is all about the “what ifs.” Every time Allen started another company in Gainesville, everyone thought he was crazy. But he looked at the books, he saw the errors former companies had made and realized how they failed.

“You have to have the vision, to know and understand what the world needs," Allen said. “There is great opportunity in the most simple ideas.”

From building his own businesses, Allen has learned a lot as an entrepreneur and realized that small changes can turn a simple business idea into a very successful company.

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Gainesville: Story Where Musicians are Made and photos by Sean Denison Gainesville is a quiet, North Central Florida town synonymous with the University of Florida, known by many as the preeminent university in the state.

Like any typical college town, the morning air reeks of stale beer.

Students dressed in pajamas and one minute fresh from crawling out of bed, pack the UF halls and eateries around town like rats rummaging for their next meal. It’s where school spirit is felt and seen throughout the numerous signs that pervade the area.

However, Gainesville is more than a college town. It’s a southern contingent that takes us back to a simpler time, one where people sit on their front porches and wave at passersby. It’s where the smell of southern fried chicken and barbecue fill the air and into our souls. It’s where the cicadas sing like a choir in the night and where people drink domestic beer and watch SEC football on Saturdays. It’s what Hollywood directors try to capture in films when depicting the region.

What many people don’t know is that this college town, smack dab in the middle of nowhere, was the birthplace for many great musicians. It’s where a thriving music scene spanned for over four decades. The streets of Gainesville produced legendary rock musicians like Tom Petty, Don Felder, and Gregg and Duane Allman. It’s also where notable punk rock acts like Hot Water Music, Against Me! and Less Than Jake got their start.

Gainesville isn’t only about UF and it’s sports teams. It’s about music history. It’s become the breeding ground for some of the best musicians in the world.

But what made Gainesville a mecca for great musicians?

“It was a combination of liberal politics, the hippie days of outdoor concerts and the big role of music in the counterculture of

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the time, ” said Marty Jourard, guitarist for The Motels. Jourard, who moved to Seattle in 1989, grew up playing and going to shows in Gainesville during his youth. He and his family moved to Gainesville in 1958, and his father was a psychologist and professor at UF. Jourard, 64, knew guys like Don Felder and Tom Petty before they were famous. He first got a glimpse of Petty playing bass for Mudcrutch, one of the more popular Gainesville acts in the 1970s.

In 1969, Jourard even got bass guitar lessons from Felder, who went on to play guitar for the legendary rock band, The Eagles.

"I don’t think there was no other town that size that had so much rock and roll music culture,” Jourard said. “The town gave me the opportunity to explore the world of rock music, and if there were any dormant talent in a musician, Gainesville would draw it out of you. Just look at how many Gainesville musicians are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

As of today, there are nine Hall of Famers who have called Gainesville home. Petty, along with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Ron Blair and former member Stan Lynch; Felder and Bernie Leadon, who both played for The Eagles; Stephen Stills, co-founder of Buffalo Springfield and member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; and Bo Diddley, the rock ‘n’ roll blues pioneer who moved to Gainesville in the late seventies.

Jourard remembers crashing house parties and fraternities, where he tried catching the next “hot” band. He was influenced by these musicians and started his own band, Road Turkey. His group would later open up for Mudcrutch at various gigs around town.

Aside from house and frat gigs, the most notable spots for bands to play were two topless clubs, Dub's and Trader's.

“That will leave an impression on a teenager,” Jourard recalls.

As the 1970s came, many musicians in Gainesville left town and headed for Los Angeles to make it big in the music business. Jourard, with his band, the Motels, was one of the many in 1976. Although thousands of miles away from home, musicians who went back to visit Gainesville brought a sense—or in this case, a taste—of home back with them.

“If someone went back to Gainesville for a visit, the deal was, when you came back to L.A. you ‘had’ to bring back some Sonny's barbecue ribs,” Jourard said, “and at least a quart of the barbecue beans, and share them with other Gainesville musicians. It was a ritual.”

With local acts now displaced in California, and the disco era unfortunately in full swing, the Gainesville rock scene became a shell of what it once was. Shortly after this minor hiccup, a strong, underground punk scene would emerge.

Gainesville soon became the central hub in Florida and much of the southeastern U.S. for punk bands to play in the early '80s. Notable bands like The Ramones, The Cramps, The Police and Devo played in Gainesville in front of people witnessing this new trend called “punk.”

“It started with some of the early bands that played here,” said Matthew Walker, author of Gainesville Punk: A History of Bands & Music. “They were really active in booking shows and getting these bands to come through here.”

Walker, 39, said that the community really came together to bring a big punk scene to Gainesville. Var Thelin and Glenn Coffelt started an independent zine called No Idea in 1985. The zine, which covered the local music scene, album reviews and band interviews, brought the Gainesville punk scene to prominence. The zine would later become No Idea Records, an independent record label known for recording many punk, hardcore and ska bands.

Walker, originally from Valdosta, Georgia, was a musician in various punk bands. He said he came to Gainesville often for punk shows throughout his youth.

Walker later made Gainesville his home when he came to UF for graduate school in pursuit of a master’s degree in journalism, which he received in 2011.

“Having a university here brings more and more kids from different places that combine their interests,” Walker said. “They meet up and create art.”

Walker, who said he always had an interest in writing about music, said journalism school taught him the tools that allowed him to focus his efforts better on his craft.

Being a musician, learning the tools, and having lived in Gainesville for almost a decade, Walker knew that writing a book on the area’s music scene would be the perfect project for him when he was approached by the publishing company, The History Press.

“I’ve been in this music scene for a while now,” Walker said. “This was perfect for me.”

Walker’s book, published in 2016, goes over the history of Gainesville’s punk scene. It covers the bands, the venues and those involved who made it such an attractive destination for many punk bands.

He remembers some of the well-known punk bands that graced Gainesville stages back in the '90s. In fact, some of those bands, like Hot Water Music and Against Me!, remain some of Walker’s favorites to this day.

Hot Water Music became pioneers in the punk scene in Gainesville in the early '90s, playing the once sought-after punk club 'Hardback Café' religiously. Hot Water Music inspired many punk

bands at that time, including those they shared the stage with in Gainesville.

The scene soon catapulted into national prominence when Gainesville’s own Against Me! formed in 1997. The band recorded its first album "Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose" on No Idea Records in March of 2002, soon becoming a folkpunk classic.

Against Me!, led by songwriter Laura Jane Grace, has named Gainesville a significant inspiration for their music in several interviews. The band has grown into prominence in recent years, headlining big tours and opening for large acts such as The Foo Fighters.

Walker has been a part of several projects with local Gainesville musicians, including playing guitar in Human Parts with Against Me! bassist Andrew Seward.

Walker, after conducting research for his book on the Gainesville scene, said he was wowed after “learning how all the bands really connected with one another.” He said band after band were influenced by each other over the years.

“It’s like a family,” Walker said.

Every October since 2002, students run off to Jacksonville to take part in the festivities of the Florida-Georgia rivalry game, and Gainesville reverts back to the punk-rock haven it once was when it throws its annual music festival, The Fest.

The sounds of amplifiers screeching, bass drums thumping and the screams of people in attendance donning studded jackets, band patches and multicolored hair, once again, permeates the streets of a town that has given us so much great music.

It’s a town that Jourard says he’s fortunate to be from.

“It's hard to exaggerate how perfect a place it was in the late '60s to mid-'70s to be in a band, make money, make music, learn how to play and travel around the South,” Jourard said.

“When we all moved to L.A., that's when we realized how rare that kind of environment was.”

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Post-Grad in Gainesville Story by Savannah Hill

When I first entered the University of Florida as a Gainesville virgin, I had no idea why all of my older friends seemed so ready to leave. They talked about graduation and some of their biggest fears revolved around ending up in Gainesville after making the transition into real adulthood. Gainesville, for many of them, was a last resort. I couldn’t understand what could be so bad about making a permanent residence in Gainesville.

Kristina Svatos, a 23-year-old UF graduate, now lives in Tampa.

The idea of starting a life in the same city she attended college didn’t feel right to her.

Through my years at UF, I continued to hear friends and classmates making comments about their disdain for the city of Gainesville and the idea of ending up there permanently. They didn’t want to become the person from their friend group that wound up stuck in Gainesville after graduation. The idea of putting down roots in the same town where they lived in a dorm, sharing a bathroom with 50 other people, can be daunting.

This same thought process deters recent UF grads from accepting job offers or making long-term living arrangements within the confines of Alachua County. Friends and classmates of mine have echoed the opinion that the idea of staying in Gainesville would be “settling,” which deters young adults from pursuing a future in the city.

With everything in life, there are two sides to every story, and there are certainly two parts to Gainesville. Yes, there’s the university and Midtown, scooters whizzing by and drunk young adults skulking around after dark. No, this isn’t ideal for starting a family or a life for oneself that doesn’t feel stunted by the enigma that is the collegiate lifestyle.

However, this isn’t all there is to Gainesville and it certainly isn’t all there is to Alachua County. The scenery changes as one gets farther away from the UF campus. The bars, fraternity houses and tightly packed apartment complexes begin to fade. Subdivisions, parks and elementary schools become more prominent. Couples, families and friends take evening strolls with no thought of the line at Grog House that night. The noisy Saturday night hum surrounding the area encompassed by UF is nonexistent here, and this is the intersection of adult life and Gainesville, a place most UF students don’t believe exists.

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“The thought of putting down roots in Gainesville wasn’t viable for me,” Svatos said. “I’ll always be a Gator, but I could never really leave college if I didn’t leave Gainesville.”

For Kelcie Roscoe, a fifth-grade teacher at High Springs Community School, Gainesville is a college town. Roscoe graduated from UF in 2017 and decided to pursue a career in Alachua County after her fiancé was accepted to graduate school at UF. Now, that college town is starting to mean something different to Roscoe.

“Staying in Gainesville wasn’t my original plan,” Roscoe said. “But I’m really happy that I did.”

Roscoe is thankful for her time at UF and feels like being a college student gave her a connection to Gainesville that she wouldn’t have been able to experience otherwise, she said. While Roscoe’s favorite place in the city is still the UF campus, she said she’s finding new hidden gems outside of the university every day.

One of Roscoe’s favorite parts of Gainesville is the way the university and the city are intertwined. She feels that UF is an

integral part of Gainesville’s culture and appreciates the nods to local history that UF incorporates into its traditions.

“The first time the Gator band played ‘I Won’t Back Down’ after the third quarter of a football game was one of my favorite experiences as a Gainesville resident,” Roscoe said. “I appreciated the incorporation of Tom Petty. It showed how connected UF and Gainesville really are.”

“Staying in Gainesville wasn’t my original plan,” Roscoe said. “But I’m really happy that I did.”

Photo courtesy of Carly Mackler

Roscoe knows she might not be able to live in Gainesville forever. Her situation may change once her fiancé finishes graduate school. She does know that she’ll always remain thankful to UF for introducing her to the city of Gainesville and all of the unique things it has to offer.

Samantha Massari was introduced to Gainesville when she was 8 and grew up in the city with no exposure to the university lifestyle to sway her opinion. The 27-year-old now lives and works in Gainesville.

“I left Gainesville to live in Tampa for a few years,” Massari said. “I came back when I was 25, and I don’t think I’ll ever leave again.”

Massari was drawn back into the city by her family. She wanted to be closer to her aging father at the time she moved back. Now, Massari said she’s set on staying in Gainesville to raise her own family in a positive atmosphere.

“My daughter just started kindergarten this year, and I feel like Alachua County schools will offer her more than Hillsborough County schools could have,” Massari said.

Roscoe and Massari both show what the outskirts of Gainesville can look like: adults living the lives they are completely happy to be living in an area they know and love. They both made it clear that without venturing outside of the university borders, students and visitors would be missing a lot of the charm the city has to offer.

Gainesville and the UF campus are vastly different places, despite one being in the other. If UF is the loud, obnoxious younger cousin who won’t stop talking at holiday gatherings, then Gainesville is the sweet aunt who makes delicious baked goods but still considers herself one of the kids.

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Star Reality

Story and photos by Jessica Fondo Celebrities are ditching their perfectly manicured, professional personas in favor of transparent talk about their personal lives, and fans are following.

Whether we have stayed up past our bedtimes to watch our favorite crooner on the couch with Johnny Carson or ogled tabloids while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store, famous people have always been at the forefront of American minds.

Busy Philipps, an actress best known for her roles in the shows “Cougar Town” and “Freaks and Geeks,” has 1.3 million Instagram followers. During the Supreme Court confirmation process, she used her platform to speak out against confirming Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She came out as a survivor of rape in an Instagram post that gained so much attention Ellen DeGeneres invited her onto her show to talk about it.

There, DeGeneres disclosed that she had also experienced sexual assault. Through Philipps’s transparency, she has led by example to encourage others to use their voices, speak up and share their experiences.

“I can do this,” Philipps said on “Ellen.” “We can do this. We can all do this.”

Claudia Pérez-Brito, a 21-year-old journalism student at the University of Florida, had seen Philipps on television attending awards shows. She became a fan after seeing Philipps starring in her own atypically authentic Instagram stories, posts that live for 24 hours, on the picture-and-video-based social media platform.

Scrolling through her feed one day, Philipps’ account was recommended to her. She soon began religiously tuning into her Instagram stories.

“Oh, this is cool because she’s real,” Pérez-Brito thought. “She’s honest about her struggles.”

Philipps documents the genuine daily life of a working actress, not just the glitz of Hollywood like most other celebrities, PérezBrito said. She is not an international model showcasing her glamorous travels. She is a working mom in the entertainment industry. Recently, she posted a teary story confessing she felt like a bad mom because, rushing out the door one morning, she sent her two daughters to school without their lunches.

“These are real people,” Pérez-Brito realized. “They have real struggles too.”

In her stories, Philipps shares the music she is listening to with her many fans, and she sweats through her workouts in front of a camera, but anytime Philipps starts a story with “You guys,” PérezBrito knows something sincere is coming.

After becoming one of her Instagram followers, Pérez-Brito became a fan of the actress’s on-screen work as well. In a television-saturated society, Philipps’s social media presence helped her stand out.

“She’s not just another person on another show,” she said.

As a young professional, Pérez-Brito feels pressure to maintain a straight-laced social media presence, and she views Philipps a social media role model who uses her Instagram recreationally.

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“It’s a platform to be creative and just have fun,” Pérez-Brito explained.

Unfiltered, she retains a raw Instagram persona similar to Philipps, candidly telling stories to her followers.

“If this is what I like,” she reasoned, “this is probably what other people like.”

There is an equation to the perfect Instagram account, PérezBrito said. It is a balance of professionalism with a hint of personal life, but sometimes she just posts whatever comes to mind. That same spontaneity in Philipps’s Instagram is one of the reasons she enjoys her stories so much.

“She’s honest and funny, and she’s relatable,” Pérez-Brito said.

“She could be my friend.”

Seeing Philipps’s daily struggles makes her seem down-to-earth, but it also helps her gain attention for issues she supports.

“Including your personal life makes people feel invested in you a little bit more,” Pérez-Brito said. “That makes people care about what you care about a little bit more.”

Celebrities have a captive audience in their fans on screens big and small, in movie theaters and on cell phones alike.

“We’ve always had a celebrity fascination,” said Andrew Selepak, the director of the UF social media master’s program. “We just have a much greater access than we ever did before.”

Celebrities hold a friend-like influence over their fans, in part because of para-social relationships, he said. We, as fans, feel close to a person who has no idea who we are because of one-sided exposure to them through television and other media.

“Now, because a celebrity can go on Facebook Live and answer our questions or respond to our tweets, we feel closer to them,” he said.

“By seeming more real, the audience will connect to them more.”

Celebrities are always manipulating their public image, Selepak said. Because of the plague of the paparazzi, they have mastered the art of perfecting their public image. They are not usually pointing out their zits or putting their holiday weight gain on display, but when they are, it is intentional. With 18- to 24-year-olds, celebrities have even more influence.

“These are the people that have grown up with social media,” he

said. “Relationships with celebrities have always been in this environment.”

Celebrities have always been active in the public sphere.

Even during the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda and John Wayne publicly took sides in the political controversy.

“The difference now is with the fact that they’re not restricted by what the media will say about them,” he said.

Through social media, celebrities have a direct line of access to their fans. There are two sides to this coin, Selepak said. Celebrities are not always the most qualified advocates.

Ill-informed celebrities can lead to ill-informed audiences.

However, celebrities can shed light on an issue in front of a large, impressionable audience.

“Sometimes it takes celebrities to expose things,” he said.

“Having a face to a cause gets a cause more attention.”

Putting a face with any story helps gain a more captive audience, but a famous face amplifies that response.

Celebrities also have a greater impact because large followings have the potential to snowball: fandoms can drive social change en masse. When our role models and the other people who look up to them participate in something, we want to participate, too.

“It feels like it gives you the permission to speak up,” he said.

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Defining (Dis)ability Story by Brooke Henderson

Photo courtesy of Anthony Sanchez

The lights are on. The set is ready. All the studio needs now is an anchor.

There’s just one problem–there’s no way Drew Dees' 400-pound powerchair is getting onto that stage without a ramp.

Dees, 23, is Gainesville born and raised. He loves his city, especially his university. His first year of college, he discovered the university wasn’t made for him.

“I’m going to school to be on the news, but you don’t see a person in a wheelchair on the news. You just don’t,” Dees said. “It’s 2018, and it’s time to change that.”

Dees has cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects his muscle tone and movement.

“I’ve had a lot of people say, how are you going to do it? How are you going to make it? And I just want to let them know that I’m not going to let this chair stop me, and I’m going to be just as good of a reporter, if not better, than anyone else.”

This month, a ramp was installed in the studio, and Dees is ready for his moment.

Alyssa Cheeseman, on the other hand, doesn’t need a big moment. She just wants to get her Starbucks in peace.

“I know people mean well, but it’s annoying when people assume I need help,” she said. “If I needed help reading the menu, I would ask.”

Cheeseman is visually impaired, but she doesn’t think that means people need to treat her differently. Growing up in Interlachen, Florida, she had less mobility and had to rely on her family members to get around more. In Gainesville, the bus system makes things so much easier.

“Sometimes bus drivers try to guide me off the bus. They grab my elbow, but I’m good. You might want to ask me before you just do it,” she laughs.

What would actually help, she said, is if people redefined normal. For her, not being able to see is normal. For others, that might not be true. Treating people as if they’re all the same means missing something special.

“What you may think is normal could be completely different than me.

There are so many differences in people around the world, you can’t enjoy it to the fullest if you’re looking through one lens,” she said.

Then she added, “And no, we don’t have heightened senses. ‘Daredevil’ really fed into that stereotype.”

Dylan Raymond, a 34-year-old veteran who served in Afghanistan, says television isn’t so helpful for those struggling with PTSD. In movies, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—a mental disorder developed after severe trauma—looks the same. Soldiers trying to adjust to civilian life dive behind

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bushes at the sound of a car horn, a bumped shoulder triggers a defense mode.

For Raymond, it’s scents: fuel, burning paper, everything that doesn’t smell like home.

“Weird things will smell the same, and it just takes you to a dark place,” he explained.

Trying to adjust for Raymond meant getting professional help, but also validation. To some, having PTSD means you’re weak or dangerous. You lose your space in society, and with it, your sense of self.

“Some people think trigger warnings are dumb. I think they’re thoughtful,” he said.

The bottom line? Listen to what people with disabilities want, from their own perspective.

“You really care about how we feel?” Raymond asked, “Stop making us relive all of that all the time.”

Football, Family and the Lord Story by Melanie Prescott

Football is more than a sport or an American pastime; it’s a culture of its own. Each touchdown or field goal, followed by the band’s adaptation of the team’s fight song, emulates the spirit of the fans. Whether the game is collegiate or professional, football culture extends beyond the field to include tailgating, superstitions, rivalries and more. How someone engages in these activities distinguishes the amateurs from the die-hards. To these die-hard fans, football is family, and these are their stories.

Kennedy Paredes, 21, was born the night the Jacksonville Jaguars played the Pittsburgh Steelers for the first time in Monday Night Football history in 1997. While Paredes was swaddled and placed in her mother’s arms, her father was at the game rooting the Jaguars to their 30-21 victory.

Now, as a third-year special education major at the University of Florida, Paredes continues to support the team she was born to love.

“I watch the game every single weekend,” Paredes said. “I have never missed [a game], even when we were traveling around the world, we would make sure we could always watch the football game wherever we were.”

Paredes and her family were on a cruise in the Caribbean and still put a hold on all the activities provided by the ship so they could watch the Jaguars take the field. As the saying goes, "Home is where the heart is." To the Paredes family, home is where the Jaguars play.

“Whenever we go to a home game, my dad and I always paint our faces,” she said. Paredes and her family continues to tailgate on the riverbank next to TIAA Bank Field before each home game.

Although Paredes personally doesn’t have any superstitions, her father must wear a jaguar-head necklace to each home game.

Nevertheless, to anyone who enjoys the game of football, Paredes always leaves a room with one final rallying cry.

“DUUUVAL,” Paredes roared.

In the United States, football generates more than $45 billion in sporting-goods store sales alone, as reported on the Statista website.

In 2016, about 44 percent of Americans had bought two to five sports-apparel items in the last 12 months. Despite the sizeable revenue of the industry, football continues to touch American lives in more ways than one.

Nathan Frymire, 25, became a Florida State fan at an early age when Bobby Bowden (head coach from 1976 to 2009) visited his church in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.

“He gave me that desire to love football and love the Lord all in the same,” Frymire said. “He’s a great guy and a passionate football coach, when he was coaching.”

As tradition stands, Frymire watches the Marching Chiefs’ skull session at each home game before taking a seat in the student section of the stadium.

“There’s nothing better than cheering with 80,000 other fans and singing the war chant,” Frymire said.

Apart from watching the game, some of the best moments of college football come from participating in hate week against each rivalry, Frymire said. The two infamous rivalries for Florida State include the Miami Hurricanes and the Florida Gators.

Every year, the Florida Gators and Florida State game is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a day of leftover turkey and tailgating for the die-hard fans.

“Football is family, so [for] all the guys on whichever team, no matter what, it means something more than the game,” Frymire said.

“All of these kids come from all over the world and are united by the football program,” he said. “It teaches these kids to be more credible human beings and well-rounded individuals; it does a lot more than what happens on Saturdays.”

Skylar Swanson, 25, became a Florida State fan in a different way – out of spite for her Gator-loving family.

“I grew up in Gainesville, so I didn’t want to stay for another four years,” Swanson said.

When she arrived in Tallahassee, the campus and overall atmosphere became her home away from the Gator-loving home of her childhood.

Swanson now works as the director of fundraising for the Keith Perry campaign in Gainesville, but she continues to support Florida State from afar.

“It’s hard sometimes to watch the game, especially in a public place, because no one really wants to turn on the FSU game,” Swanson said. “If I can’t watch it on TV, I have the app on my phone to keep up with the score at the very least.”

Considering both her immediate and extended family attended the University of Florida, Swanson’s love for Florida State football often spawns debates with her family members during the season.

“Usually it’s just funny, but sometimes it can get heated when it’s the same week of the Florida and Florida State game,” Swanson said. “There’s usually a lot more people in town because it’s the Thanksgiving weekend.”

Football, whether collegiate or professional, is an opportunity for fans to connect with others through the shared interest for the game and its traditions. Die-hard fans like Paredes, Frymire or Swanson turn to football for that sense of connection. When one picks a team, that team becomes their family.

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Raw

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Educate, Advocate, Vaccinate

How One Couple Took a Real-Life Tragedy and Turned it into Action Story and photo by Summer Jarro

Photo courtesy of Amit and Melissa Rawal

The night of Oct. 16, 2013, was like any other night for new parents Melissa and Amit Rawal. They put their happy, dark-brown-eyed fivemonth-old daughter, Avnee Rawal, to bed, not knowing the next day she would be gone.

In the early morning of Oct. 17, Melissa noticed Avnee had a fever.

Concerned, she woke up Amit, an emergency medicine physician at North Florida Regional Medical Center, to check on Avnee as well. Amit gave her Tylenol, which helped her fever and put her back to sleep. Shortly after, Amit went back to check on Avnee, which is when he noticed a rash on the side of her neck. The couple realized something more serious was going on and took her to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. There, her health drastically changed. The rash began to cover her entire body. She had multiple seizures and required a breathing tube as time progressed.

Just 15 hours from the first sign of Avnee being sick, she passed away from Meningitis Type B, or Meningococcal Meningitis Type B. The time after Avnee’s passing is difficult for the couple to put into words.

“The best way that I try to describe it to people is this feeling of your heart just exploding into a million pieces and you’re just in this kind of shock and fog,” Melissa said.

From the moment Avnee was born on May 6, 2013, there was an instant love connection for the couple, Melissa said.

“She was just amazing. We loved every moment with her, enjoyed so many great memories,” she said. “We’re very fortunate to have a lot of memories for five-and-a-half months. She was precious.”

Amit and Melissa have since poured their love for their daughter into the Avnee Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Gainesville created in Avnee’s name to beat Meningitis B. The couple co-founded the foundation, which is under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of North Central Florida and began simply as a fund in December 2013.

“We started the Avnee Foundation to educate, advocate and ultimately vaccinate as many people as possible against Meningitis B, so that others won’t have to suffer from a similar loss that we did, which is now thankfully a vaccine preventable disease,” Amit said.

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Meningitis is inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord that comes in many forms. One of the most common and deadly types of meningitis is caused by the bacteria Neisseria Meningitides, which effects hundreds of people in the United States each year, Amit said.

“Even with the best of medical care there’s still a 30 to 40 percent rate of either death or amputations of arms [and] legs, brain damage, hearing loss or other really severe consequences,” Amit said.

There are five types of Meningococcal disease: A, C, Y, W and B. “The two most at-risk groups are the infant population under the age of 1 and the 16- to 23-year-old young-adult population,” Amit said. “Meningitis can affect anybody at any age.”

It’s still unclear how meningitis is contracted, but scientists are doing research to better understand the disease. Up to 15 percent of the general United States population is a carrier of the disease in their nose and throats without ever being infected. Some people when a carrier exposes them, can get the full disease instead of just being a carrier. When someone does get the disease, it usually spreads by close contact or through respiratory interactions like kissing, coughing, sharing drinks or being in close breathing contact, Amit said.

Avnee most likely contracted the disease from someone who was unknowingly a carrier, but Amit and Melissa will never truly know, Amit said.

While a vaccine has been around for more than 20 years that protects people against Meningitis types A, C, Y and W, it wasn’t until late 2014 that a vaccine for Meningitis B was approved in the US. The new vaccine is meant for young adults from ages 16–23 but is only recommended and not required for the age group or students entering college like the older vaccine.

In order to be completely protected from Meningitis B, people need to receive both the old and new vaccine, which many people are unaware of and makes them vulnerable, Amit said.

Since the tragic loss of their daughter, Amit and Melissa have become very motivated and passionate to protect and help others from the disease through the Avnee Foundation.

“If we can prevent another family from going through what we have,” Melissa said, “then this foundation will have fulfilled its ultimate importance."

Over the last few years, the two have been working to develop the foundation, along with the support of volunteers and their Avnee Foundation advisory board, by forming partnerships, getting grants, researching the disease and spreading awareness with physicians, parents and students.

Amit and Melissa’s work advocating and educating the community about Meningitis B has touched many people including Dr. Mary Grooms, one of the foundation’s advisors, who has been a part of the foundation since the beginning, and a pediatrician at Gainesville Pediatric Associates. Grooms said she sees them both as heroes.

“Most people with children will tell you the worst thing they can possibly imagine would be to outlive their children, and so they’ve survived that terrible loss, and they’ve turned it into something really positive and created this beautiful legacy of protection of others out of their loss,” Grooms said. “I just am so impressed with not only their strength and courage, but also their prevision to realize that this was an opportunity to educate others about the risk of Meningococcal B disease.”

The Avnee foundation had its official launch this past March starting several programs to spread its mission on Meningitis B to others.

The foundation currently has two vaccine programs, one for University of Florida students and the other for Alachua County high school students.

The Avnee Foundation’s UF Vaccine Program partners with the UF Student Health Care Center (SHCC) to bring awareness, education and protection to the UF student population under 23. They emphasize the importance of the new Meningitis vaccine and the need for two doses for full protection, Amit said.

With the partnership, the Avnee Foundation has been able to attend two of UF’s vaccine events so far on Sept. 7 and Oct. 17 where just fewer than 1,000 Meningitis vaccines were administered to students through the SHCC between both events.

The vaccine event held on Oct. 17 was a heartening day for Melissa and Amit since it was the 5-year anniversary of Avnee’s death, but both of them were still in attendance with the foundation advocating for people to be protected.

“It was a very emotional, all-encompassing whirlwind of a day,” Amit said, “but to be able to help protect others and see the evolution of the foundation was very heartening and was very warming for us.”

Later that afternoon, the couple had a butterfly release in honor of Avnee. It has become a tradition for them on that day. They honor her with their younger daughter and son, other family members and close friends, he said.

The Alachua County Vaccine Program partners with the Alachua County Health Department, the Medical Reserve Corps, the UF Department of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Alachua County Public Schools System. Together, they give high school students the opportunity to receive vaccines as well. The vaccines are distributed by the Alachua County Health Department and Medical Reserve Corps with the foundation’s support, Amit said.

The Avnee Foundation also supports and funds programs like Music in Me, Chords of Caring, the Tonewood Family Music Scholarship and Southwest Advocacy Group. Most of the programs the foundation chose to support are based around music because of Avnee’s love for music when she was alive.

“We’re very passionate about Avnee’s likes,” Amit said.

Forming and building the foundation has been a humbling and exciting experience for Amit and Melissa. With the foundation in just its infancy, the couple is excited to see where things will go in the future, Amit said.

Their short-term and medium-term goals are to enhance their local programs and export these programs to other universities across Florida and the country. Their long-term goals are to have the new Meningitis B vaccine be completely required at all universities and for age groups with the most risk in the US, Amit said.

“If we can prevent another family from going through what we have,” Melissa said, “then this foundation will have fulfilled its ultimate importance and that’s what’s happening and we want to continue that.”

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Finding "the One" in a Hook-up Culture Story and photos by Savannah Edgens

Relationships have evolved over the last 20 years. Now, more than ever, it seems like the traditional model of relationships, dating followed predictably by engagement, marriage and children, has been replaced by the modern trend of “hooking up.”

An examination of the term “hooking up” conducted by the Sociology and Criminology department at Wesleyan College in Virginia revealed that hooking up connotes a mutual lack of serious commitment between the people involved.

Sure, hooking up isn’t new. However, the hook-up rates have increased with technological advances, according to the Wesleyan study.

“You turn on the TV, and it’s all about, ‘Oh, I like this guy, or this girl is hot,’” said Hannah Paprzycki, 21, a marketing manager at Pepine Realty in Gainesville. “They treat it as a challenge. Even when people go out to midtown, they’re scouting out who they can go home with that night.”

Wholesome dating, or dating in the traditional sense, implies the presence of a satisfying intimate relationship. This, according to a study from the Association of Psychological Science, is one of the strongest predictors of happiness and emotional well-being within a partnership. However, it can mean different things to different people.

Paprzycki met her boyfriend, Alan Gary, 27, through mutual work functions. Gary is a senior partner service coordinator at Gator IMG sport marketing. For them, wholesome dating means dating with a purpose and seeing themselves with each other long-term.

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“Dating is hard in the social-media culture,” Gary said. “Instead of seeing what’s right in front of you and comparing yourself, you’re comparing yourself to thousands of people daily.”

Hookups are becoming increasingly normative among adolescents and young adults in North America. This represents a shift in openness and acceptance of uncommitted sex, according to the Wesleyan study. Paprzycki and Gary say they maintain their wholesome relationship through their commitment to God. “We put Him at the center of everything,” Paprzycki said. “We have to be really good at communicating. I’ve always struggled with that.”

Social media has created a culture of instant gratification, which perpetuates the trend for young couples to hookup, Paprzycki said. It’s a breakdown in the core, Judeo-Christian values in society, she said.

“Social media makes it easier, but really, it’s only the accelerator,” Gary said. “Your values and what you think is right or wrong is going to drive your decision-making. It comes down to what you want to make a priority.”

With dating apps such as Tinder or Bumble, there doesn’t have to be any face-to-face contact. People are being judged based off of one photo of another person. The apps match individuals based on their locations and proximity of each other. We live in a society where everyone has what they want at their fingertips, said Miranda Newsome, support specialist at Dixielectricar in DeFuniak Springs.

“The generations after us have grown accustomed to not having patience and not wanting to wait on anything,” Newsome said.

“Dating is hard in the socialmedia culture,” Gary said.

“Instead of seeing what’s right in front of you and comparing yourself, you’re comparing yourself to thousands of people daily.”

Newsome met her husband, Daniel, when she was in high school.

While the two were originally connected via social media, it was not the foundation of their relationship. They met in person, dated and met each other’s families before getting engaged and eventually married. In December, they will welcome their first child, a girl named Idalyn.

As with any relationship, honesty is the most important part of their marriage, Newsome said. The couple believe social media has been the driving force in society’s hookup culture.

“The media pretty much say it’s okay to just hookup,” Daniel said.

Daniel is a service specialist at the Walton County tax collector’s office and founder of Walton Shirt Company. “If you look at all the MTV shows like ‘Are You the One?’ It’s all about just hooking up.”

“Social media makes it seem like finding the right person doesn’t take time,” Newsome said.

Social media definitely has a negative impact on young people, she said. They think they can hookup, and no commitment is actually needed.

Casual sex can be what people are looking for. Social media sets the example that it’s acceptable to have “casual sex,” according to the Wesleyan study.

She and Daniel believe that the traditional, societal values are still intact. However, they believe technology has contributed to the hookup culture of today more than anything else.

“When you have people who just want to hit it and quit it, they can goof off real fast, and it’s over,” Daniel said. “Talk to one another.

Share a connection, and make people put their phones down.”

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Understanding the Unseen:

Life with an Invisible Illness

Story and photos By Caroline Strogis Having an invisible illness comes with a bigger burden than just the physical symptoms.

It often comes with doubt, assumptions and others thinking they know what’s best for you.

For me, it came with friends thinking I wouldn’t go out because I was boring, teachers assuming I didn’t have the assignments because I wasn’t hardworking and coaches thinking I didn’t take sports seriously because I often needed to sit out. If others had realized that appearances aren’t always the entire story, it would have saved me a lot of self-doubt.

I started seeing a counselor in seventh grade for headaches and anxiety. She tried to help me organize and set up “tools to succeed.” I just wanted to tell her that school hurt. The early mornings, the bright lights, the workload and the stress. I remember the headaches and sleepless nights. I remember slowly shifting from someone who loved school into someone who was anxious just thinking about it.

In eighth grade, the headaches were such a common occurrence that I began to keep a diary in hopes of finding a common theme for what could be triggering them. I logged my sleep, my diet and the time of day the headaches started. I ranked their pain on a scale of 1 to 10.

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This, eventually, led to sleepless nights and depression setting in as the sun went down. I knew I would have to try to sleep soon only to get up the next day and do it all again. I remember standing on the field during soccer practice late at night and, suddenly, getting a sinking feeling in my chest when I imagined going to sleep that night. I certainly did not want to attempt school the next day.

I had many doctors run different tests, which included MRIs and wires. Maybe there was nothing wrong with me. Maybe I was just weak.

In high school, I was accepted into the International Baccalaureate program, which is challenging even without chronic pain.

The competition was intense, so I pushed myself. The other students constantly talked about homework, exams, extracurricular activities and crafting the best college application. I pushed myself to the point that I was sobbing in the hallways and throwing up between classes. I even passed out in the school bathrooms.

I felt a sense of underachievement. I could feel the judgment of teachers and students when I needed another extension for an assignment, did poorly on another quiz or missed another class. My classmates were hesitant to help me catch up because all they could see was a girl who looked perfectly fine.

Without a diagnosis or explanation, I was lost and hopeless. Many days of the week, all I could do was lie in my bed, in the dark, because the migraines made me sensitive to light and sound. My childhood bedroom, once vibrant like me, was now painted a dark grey.

Blackout curtains blocked the sun from coming through my window.

In 10th grade, I was referred to a new neurologist who saw my optic disks were swollen from the pressure in my head. The neurologist ordered a lumbar puncture to measure my cerebrospinal fluid, which was at an unhealthy level. The healthy range for cerebrospinal fluid is an opening pressure between 18 and 20 – mine was 35. I was diagnosed with intracranial hypertension, also known as pseudotumor cerebri, which caused the pressure in my eyes, as well as the migraines, dizziness and blurry vision.

The diagnosis was bittersweet. It felt like a breath of fresh air and reassured me that I was not a wimp, stupid or lazy. However, I continued to struggle with early mornings, bright lights and overworking myself. I didn’t sleep through many nights without waking my parents telling them I had a migraine. I had ‘as needed’ pain killers, but those came with drowsiness and nausea, and taking them almost guaranteed I would be in the bed the rest of the day.

My aunt painted my walls yellow and green with flowers in 2007 to match my Marimekko comforter. We painted over that color with a dark grey in 2012 due to how bad my migraines were.

Halfway through sophomore year, I switched to an educational hybrid program, which gave me more flexibility in my schedule. Half of the classes were online, and the other half were in the classroom. It allowed me to continue my involvement in extracurricular activities.

I rarely made it to my traditional classes, and online school piled up quickly. I was still finishing courses from 10th grade when I attempted to start 11th, and my grades continued to slip. I was attending only 10 of the first 20 days of school, fading from first chair clarinet to sitting in the third row. I lost my position as captain of the soccer team.

My parents and I knew something needed to change before attempting to do this again for my senior year. We made an appointment with a college application specialist. It was clear that my grades weren’t going to get me into a university of my choice right away. We knew that to remedy my college application, I would be better off earning an associate’s degree at a state school before transferring to a university.

We also knew that I could choose my own schedule with college courses. I did what I felt was right. I dropped out of school, and I earned my General Education Development (GED) diploma.

People tend to laugh when I say this, but not just anyone can get a GED. I had to prove why I couldn’t complete high school, with letters from doctors and therapists. When I took the GED exam, I ran into a former teacher at my high school. He told me I shouldn’t be getting a GED, that I was better than that. He told me to keep trying.

It was a stressful decision, and all the doubt around me weighed a ton. Was that really what was best? What would colleges and employers think? What would my friends think?

I was called a quitter, lazy and lost a lot of friends. One comment that stuck with me is that allowing your child to drop out of high school was bad parenting. My parents were scared, stressed and heartbroken as they watched me over the years. However, they trusted me and pushed effortlessly to get me all the help I needed. They believed me even though they couldn’t see or feel what was wrong, the way I wish everyone had.

to the University of Florida only one year behind my peers, and in the spring of 2018, I walked across the stage at graduation, alongside the same kids that I started high school with. I never thought it would be possible to graduate from my dream school, and evidently, neither did anyone close to me.

People are still shocked to hear that I dropped out of high school. At a top - 10 public university, full of students who applied with the perfect résumé, no one expects the answer to “What’d you get on the SAT?” to be that I didn’t take it, or that I put on a cap and gown last spring for the first time. As I’m nearing the end of college, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m proud of my accomplishment.

The traditional path isn’t for everyone. I wish more people realized and accepted this. Just because someone looks fine, it doesn’t always mean that they are, and if someone confides in you, try to change your initial reaction from doubtful to understanding.

I got almost a perfect score on the GED exam and studied at Valencia State College to earn my Associate of Arts degree. I earned my A.A. in two years, including what would have been my senior year of high school. I was accepted

A sleep study in 2012, trying to discover the cause of my migranes.

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