Avery Naughton

If you’re not mature enough to use birth control consistently, you aren’t mature enough to be having sex. I’m infuriated when I hear stories about Carleton students having unprotected sex regularly. I’m alarmed by how many of these stories I’ve heard. I understand that everybody makes mistakes and we all…

I don’t think I’d ever consider myself a hopeless romantic, but I do drastically romanticize and overestimate people. It’s one of my major flaws. I have exceptionally high expectations for everything I do academically and professionally: grades, internships, and aspirations, to name a few. And the same rings true for…

As part of most applications, you’re supposed to answer a question about your hobbies. In the past I’ve always written down that I genuinely love reading for pleasure. Growing up, a majority of my summers were spent curled up on the corner of a couch or on my trampoline reading…

I think most students on campus would take pride in saying that clothing isn’t all that important to them. Carls care a whole lot about academics, but not so much about their appearance. Most people are completely fine showing up to class in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, completed only by…

Professors and administrators only know as much as we tell them. I always assumed that professors, especially the ones that I was close to, knew what was going on in the social lives of students. I was led to believe this after a brief stint as an office assistant where…

This week we asked incoming freshmen to answer the question,“Why did you choose Carleton?” My idealistic, naïve freshman self had a list of reasons why Carleton was going to be the perfect fit for me. I recently went through the points from my own first article, just so I could…

I lied to myself about my virginity. I pretended that “losing it” was a decision I made all on my own, completely separate from social pressures and the opinions of others. I lied that the other person didn’t matter, and that he could be anyone so long as I had…

I am a chronic overpacker. I pack my entire wardrobe into one faithful, awkwardly large purple suitcase, “Giant,” that takes a great deal of effort to carry up and down the stairs of my house. Whether I’m traveling back to school in Minnesota or to some hostel in Tanzania, I…