Hannah Benson

Campus Voice: Celebrate the time you have now

I walk with a spring in my step, and I am usually the chattiest kid in class spreading good vibes around campus. But the past few weeks have brought hardship into my life, and it's a little difficult to keep up my bubbly persona. 

BENSON: Be mindful this holiday season

Capitalism will fight for you to sell your soul to materialism this time of year, but a cute new outfit can’t move someone the way that compassion and generosity can. 

BENSON: Stay motivated in the year of women

Try not to get bogged down by the micro-invalidations of the people you find yourself with at a holiday party. Try to tell yourself that maybe they grew up in a different time where female independence wasn’t celebrated, or if it was, that they didn’t have the courage to grab it by the horns.

BENSON: Stay civil on Facebook

You’re scrolling through your Facebook feed when you stumble upon a controversial video shared by your lab partner from your sophomore year of high school. They had received over 40 comments from adversaries who evidently think their opinion is superior and have a little too much free time during their lunch break. 

BENSON: Learn to embrace physical discomfort in traveling

BENSON: Living abroad shows there is no one way to live

Friendly face in familiar place

Opinion |Moving in will be messy. Embrace it.

Your countdown app has reached its final date, your final goodbyes have been made and your car has been packed in places you didn’t know you could squeeze everything that you’re sure you’ll need.

BENSON: Digital conversation should not take priority over real life interactions

It likely comes as a surprise to absolutely no one that we live in a digital age. We take photos of everything that moves — we wouldn’t dare miss a chance to post something fun or interesting on our Snapchat stories.

BENSON: Get off campus to break the Elon bubble

Everyone in attendance here at Elon is familiar with the concept of the “Elon bubble” and all that it entails — the idea that students at this university find themselves sticking around on the weekends, attending the same parties, having breakfast at the same dining hall and going to bed at the same time Sunday night to do the whole monotonous week again. But here’s a shocker — you don’t have to be victim to the same routine time and time again.

BENSON: Push yourself out of your comfort zone

As the trees bloom and the spring months dwindle, each day brings me closer to a momentous event in my life — one where I am afraid to mix navy blues with blacks and struggle to try a new flavor of ice cream. This fall, I will be going abroad with Semester at Sea, where I will spend 106 days visiting 11 countries and crossing four continents.

BENSON: Millennials must stop cancelling plans

The world and all of its inhabitants loves to use millennials as the punching bag for blame — other generations tend to pin fault on this young, innovative and self-concerned sector of society for its handful of flaws. We have been perceived as lazy, stubborn, arrogant and resistant by other generations, and these allegations can be fought and challenged in numerous ways.

BENSON: Dress codes encourage judgement of women's bodies

I’ve grown up in a world that is over-sensitized to bodies. As a young girl, I was exposed to billboards over which sprawled airbrushed women in lingerie, commercials featuring flawless goddesses in sensual attire and magazines rife with models sporting the newest trend — each somehow more revealing than the last. I was taught by television, movies and the lyrics on the radio that in order to get the boys I wanted and the friends I needed, I had to dress like everyone else and flaunt my body, because physical beauty was just as important, and sometimes even more important, than the things in my head or in my heart.

BENSON: Take off your ‘busy’ buttons and stop complaining

We see it all the time here, in the land of acorns and squirrels: A peer sports a backpack covered in pins and buttons boasting their heinous spread of campus involvement, including SPARKS, Student Government, 110% sorority allegiance, SUB, Club Soccer — you get the gist — and drops it down on the seat next to you in your 2:20 class.

BENSON: Please ignore the fraternity and sorority tier system

Maybe you’ve seen yaks about it, heard chatter about it or been directly affected by its abstract presence, but the stereotypes in our greek community revolving around one “tier system” have simply got to go. For those of you who don’t understand (in which case I either applaud your ability to focus on what’s really important or urge you to get out from the rock you’re living under), the so-called “tier system” is built on the belief that, in Fraternity and Sorority Life, there is a totem-pole style ranking of coolness or widely-known reputation from one sorority/fraternity to another.

BENSON: Political posts need open discussion

Another day, another scroll through your Facebook feed. It’s not long before you stumble upon a controversial video, shared by your lab partner from sophomore year of high school, with over 40 comments from fuming adversaries who evidently think their opinion is superior.

BENSON: The binge generation

“The next episode of 'Grey’s Anatomy' will play in 15 seconds,” you read on your screen as Netflix churns out the next chapter in the McDreamy saga. Without even having to blink an eye, you are soon watching season 8, episode 12, and wondering how you got here.

BENSON: There is still success in being single

We’ve all been there; at a busy party or reunion with family and friends, just trying to make it to the bathroom for a moment of silence when the sister of your aunt’s cousin begins lightly interrogating you and poses the question, “So, do you have a boyfriend?” Here we go again, you think to yourself. And it’s not necessarily the question that bothers you, but the answer you get, regardless of what you tell them.

BENSON: 'Busy-bragging' is a thing and we need to stop it

We see it all the time here, in the land of acorns and squirrels. A peer sports a backpack covered in pins and buttons boasting their heinous spread of campus involvement, including SPARKS, Student Government, 110 percent sorority allegiance (and here’s a thing that bothers me: you statistically cannot be 110 percent anything, so now we’re just being inaccurate. And yes, I do own one, but it doesn’t mean I agree with the diction), SUB, Club Soccer — you get the gist — and drops it down on the seat next to you in your 2:20 p.m. class.

BENSON: Party of one, please

We live in a world with 7 billion people with millions of likes, dislikes, experiences, interests and hobbies, and, a lot of times, the very best person to spend time with isn’t far at all—it’s yourself.