An Unethical Solution to an Ethics Problem

January 09, 2018 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, life lessons, Life In Your 20's

In college, we had to take an ethics course to graduate. The Director of the Research Office taught the class. And incidentally, Dr. Franklin also wrote the required textbook for the class.

Curious that the head of the university’s ethics curriculum required a class to graduate that also required the textbook he wrote 15 years ago.

More curious was that the campus bookstore did not carry the textbook for rental. Most college textbooks are available for permanent purchase or for rent. This one only had the option to buy for good, through death and through health and through undergrad, and that was it. As if I want to keep a book on scientific misconduct on my reading shelf.

Less than 24 Truths Learned at 24

April 28, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Today is my birthday. In the real world, this means I'm accepting gift cards to Starbucks, Kroger, and Amazon. In the blogging world, this means I'm supposed to deliver a numbered listicle (the number matching the arbitrary year of life where my matter took shape and emerged from another clump of matter) of triumphs and insights from the past year or else promises for my coming year of life. Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint. But I don't have exactly 24 (or 25) revelations to share with you - unless you want to hear my theory that the song "Angelina" on the Lumineers' sophomore album is connected to the song "Slow It Down" on their freshman album.

Instead, earlier this month on my walk to work, I composed the following list of truths I've experienced or reaffirmed this past year. At least if I'm remembering correctly in my old age. And some are revelations, but not all.

Feel free to comment or question what I consider "truths" at 25. Knowledge grows with debate. (Oh, that should be added to the below list!)

Wisdom comes with Age, Not Teeth

February 11, 2014 by Sara Woznicki in Life In Your 20's, Sara's Column, Social Media, Tweets and Mascara, Work, Young Professionalism

The past two days have been fraught with a dull pain in the back left side of my mouth, right around the location I would expect a wisdom tooth to be. While I was eating lunch fajitas with some co-workers, I mentioned that I think that I might be getting a wisdom tooth in. "Aweee, you're teething," says one of my co-workers. I bust out laughing. It's a running joke that I'm a baby at my work, as most of my co-workers are much further along in their lives than I am. Some might argue that the usual jabbing at my youth is undermining my authority, as I've read that's a technique for older people to assert dominance. Here's an opinion piece about age discrimination in the work place, just in case you didn't know what I am talking about.

I can't say that I agree. When it comes to my work, I am the authority. No one knows social media better than me at work. I grew up on it. I took classes on it in college- classes I am sure most wouldn't have even been able to take when they were in school, as social media wasn't even a thing at the time. People respect me and ask how I think they could work with them to benefit from social media.

Then we collaborate and come up with a way that their needs are met, as well as best using social media. We're a team. They share their ideas, and mine count just as much. Yes, I report to people and their say can override mine, but that's how it should be. They're in a position of power not because of their age, but because of their wisdom.

I am still relatively new to this whole full time employment thing, so you're damn right there's times that the older people have to reel me in. There are constraints that I often can't see. They've been around the block a few times and can forecast better than I can how things will turn out. That's where wisdom trumps youth. It's not because I drink coffee and get overly excited about plans, which apparently stops once you've matured a bit and have felt similar success before.

So what if they poke fun at me because I have no idea who Donny Osmand is? Or ask if I'm even allowed to go to the company happy hour? I'm young. I have a ton of energy and enthusiasm for my job because I haven't been jaded by years of work. Let people remind me of my youth. I hope at least one person does everyday. Because one day I'm not going to be young, so I mine as well revel in the traits it presents me with now.

On Taking Advice

October 30, 2013 by Sara Woznicki in Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara

A few weeks ago, someone was talking about using StumbleUpon, and I was like, "OMG that's not even a thing anymore!" Seriously, hadn't been on that website in years, and I have long since thought it gave way to Buzzfeed, Reddit, and Mashable. So naturally, I dug out my old password and got back into stumbling just to see if it still enthralled me like it used it. I can't possibly conceive wasting the amount of time I used to on the site, but it was still fun and entertaining. This one article from it stuck with me above all the rest, "45 Life Lessons, written by a 90 year old."

I can't say I take advice very well. People tell me things and I consider it, and then do whatever I feel like anyways. However, I love reading advice and seeing if any of it matches up with things I already think about or were planning on doing. So, when I stumbled upon the article with 45 pieces of advice, it seems natural to ignore 44 of them and listen to one:

"Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple."

This is my favorite piece of advice from the list because sometimes I imagine being old and getting away with everything. No one gets mad when old people say mean things because they grew up in a different time or they don't know what that means in this day and age. Old people can wear whatever they want and NO ONE SAYS SHIT TO THEM. I'd love to be old, except for all the health issues and the whole being closer to death thing.

So any advice that tells me that you can embody the old person eccentricities without being old, I'm all in. Out of all the advice from that list, I probably picked the worst one to follow. Here's how I applied it in real life:

Yellow Pants

No one would suggest this as a work outfit, except that old lady that said I am allowed to be eccentric. And you know what I have to say?

I LOVE IT!

No one else likes this outfit. There's glitter, sheer, boots, yellow, Ray Bans, a cardigan. Total confusion, but you know what? There's no point in waiting until you're old to be who you are.