It’s official. The dog days of summer are right around the corner. The weather outside is beautiful, the skies are a perfect, clear blue and students swarm outside onto open fields with their book bags and homework, though not much work really gets done. Even allergies can’t keep us away from the gorgeous outdoors.

It’s April, the daffodils are blooming, and admitted students are touring the Washington University campus. In the last few weeks I have seen enough incoming freshmen to make me wonder whether the class of 2014 has already taken up residence on the South 40. But they haven’t yet.

As Chancellor Wrighton has taken a prominent role in the imminent St. Louis County elections, most Washington University students have heard about the issues on the upcoming ballot. There have even been cardboard cutouts of buses and a staff member in a prom dress encouraging students to vote for Proposition A. Regardless of how you vote, I encourage you to participate in the voting process.

I was in the St. Louis airport this Tuesday after having come back from a college-sponsored trip to Boston. I had long debated going because it would be extremely hectic, but the trip was very successful because I learned a significant amount at the conference I attended and also enjoyed myself.

I’m really excited about watching the upcoming movie “Valentine’s Day” over its namesake’s weekend. A few days ago I was going through the movie’s all-star cast list to see exactly who’s in the movie when it struck me how almost completely homogenous the cast is. Virtually all of the actors and actresses are white.

I love Ke$ha, it’s true. I think she’s fun and witty, and her upbeat, carefree songs like “Tik Tok” can get virtually anyone dancing. Now some of my friends have criticized this recent pop sensation as “brainless, crude and just ridiculous,” but I disagree with their characterization.

Young Americans for Liberty is a student group on campus that claims to work toward providing a venue where people who hold different beliefs and ideologies can come together, express their opinions and agree to disagree. In the group’s apparent acceptance of such a wide variety of political opinions, however, the organization seems to have no coherent, focused or palpable direction.

Thanksgiving and the subsequent holiday season are just around the corner, and in the chaos of midterms, papers and impending travel plans, most of us on campus are anxiously counting down the days until we can escape home. School and campus life are stressful, and I know I certainly forget at times to be grateful for all that I have, but with less than two weeks before Thanksgiving, now seems like the perfect time to appreciate the blessings most of us usually take for granted.

When I walked into Umrath House last week, the first thing that grabbed my attention was a digitally-demonized image of former Vice President Al Gore in front of a twisted (literally) version of the American flag that had been transformed into a hurricane on a flyer advertising the premiere of the movie “Not Evil, Just Wrong.”

While no freshman girl really minds being saved from a speeding vehicle by an attractive male upperclassman, I think I am fairly certain that I have begun to develop post-traumatic stress disorder from the numerous bicycling accidents I have witnessed during my six weeks on campus.