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(02/01/20 5:00am)
College is a great experience, truly. It’s your first taste of real freedom! Your first time living away from your parents and getting to truly spread your wings and fly!
Until you realize that keeping up a living space takes a lot more work than you ever knew. Sure, it’s easy to maintain a small bedroom when someone is constantly reminding you to do it, but when you’re juggling classes, work, clubs and a social life all on your own, it’s pretty hard to stay tidy.
We all know that college housing isn’t the cleanest, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a part of the stereotype. Who says that your apartment or dorm has to be as messy as your life?
College is all about learning how to be an adult, and I’ve found that living in a cleaner environment makes me feel like I have my life more together than I really do. In the grand scheme of things, isn’t that what being an adult is all about?
So don’t you fret. I’m here to tell you how to make your college pad feel a lot more like your adult home with just five easy chores.
Empty the lint trap on your dryer
Okay, this is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. Not only is a full lint trap a major fire hazard — yes, you heard that right, your dryer can burn down your apartment building — it makes the dryer run a lot less efficiently. But still, a lot of people don’t know that it even exists.
Most of the dryers I’ve encountered have the lint trap at the bottom of the drum — where your clothes go. So next time you do your laundry, make sure you clean out all the old lint. Your landlord will thank you.
Do your dishes promptly
I get it, not everyone has the luxury of a dishwasher and washing dishes takes so long… except it takes a lot less time than you think. Handwashing all the dishes from a home-cooked meal for two takes less than ten minutes! In fact, it’s so fast that I don’t even use my dishwasher anymore.
Old dishes can smell, stain, attract bugs and even grow mold. Because of all the nasty stuff that can take place in your sink, it takes even longer to wash dishes once they’ve been sitting for awhile. Do your kitchen, your roommates and your dishes a favor and wash them right away.
Stop shoving junk in your closet and under your bed
I’m so passionate about this list because I’ve been guilty of not doing all of these chores at some point in my life. And yet, of all the chores on this list, this is the one I was the worst about. Before, “clean,” to me, meant that I didn’t have clothes and trash all over the exposed floor, but as long as it didn’t spill out of the closet or out from under my bed I called it a day.
Now that I actually clean though, the results are amazing. My friends have all commented that my room feels huge, and I even have a home office in my college apartment! Whether or not my home office doubles as my closet is information that cannot be divulged, but seriously, if you stop pushing clutter into a closet or under your bed, you’ll have a much cleaner room and a lot more usable space.
Clean under your couch
In the same vein as the last point, cleaning under your couch is a super important chore that gets overlooked a lot more than anyone realizes. It feels unimportant until you’re looking for the remote and find last week’s chow mein, last month’s potato chips, and last semester’s lab report hanging out together.
Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but cleaning under the couch belongs to a category of chores that my mom likes to call the, “No one notices if you do it, but everyone notices if you don’t do it” chores. You’re already vacuuming the living room, just push the couch a few feet to the side and vacuum under there too.
Spray down your toilet/shower
I hate cleaning my bathroom as much as anyone else. Let’s be honest for a second, a lot of gross stuff happens in the porcelain sanctuary and most of us would rather not think about it. But where gross stuff happens, gross stuff grows. No one wants gross stuff growing in their bathroom, but how can anyone find the time to keep their bathroom spotless with such a busy schedule?
If you want to know my dirty — or, I guess, clean — little secret, it’s Scrubbing Bubbles Foaming Bleach. One bottle costs less than $10 and lasted me a full semester. This one cleaner kills all the gross germs and washes away all the gross stains, and all you have to do is spray it and walk away. My bathroom is always clean and I spend no time cleaning it.
So now you know how to make your college place cleaner than the average. Whether you live in Plunkett or the Lofts, these simple tips can help you feel a lot less like a college kid and a lot more like an adult.
(10/14/19 4:13pm)
There’s a dominant religion in the southern United States, and it’s not what you think. It’s college football.
Saturdays are the most important Sabbath in the land from September to December, and no Saturdays are bigger than home games.
Mercer’s campus truly comes to life whenever the Bears play at home, but with all the food, fun and festivities, how can you have the most spiritually fulfilling Sabbath this Saturday?
Lucky for you, I have attended nearly every single home football game in my time on campus — and many before I became a student, going all the way back to 2014 — and have all the tips you need to make the most of your game day this week.
Tailgates
If there’s any way to celebrate a game day, it’s tailgating. Food, music, friends and cornhole all make for a great time, so what’s better than having them all in the same place?
Mercer offers not one, but two different locations for tailgating, with student organizations gathering on Cruz Plaza and other groups congregating by Black Field. Finding your favorite group and stopping by for a burger is a must on game day.
Black Field isn’t just the home of tailgates though. This year, Mercer is introducing even more festivities to liven up game day. From the Ford Concert Series to the Bear Garden, inflatables for the kids — sorry students, we don’t count — and all sorts of other fun, Black Field is the hub for pregame activities.
Hit the game
This seems like a given, but I honestly get surprised at how few people actually attend the games. It seems like most people just go to the pregame festivities and then go home.
That defeats the whole point of football!
Mercer games offer a fun, relaxing atmosphere that everyone can enjoy. Watching the Bears take the field is exhilarating as the team runs out through a cloud of orange smoke. Miss the entrance? No problem! Awards, recognitions and giveaways all take place on the field throughout the game, many of them benefiting or at least involving the Macon community.
Are you a Mercer student? If so, then great! Because not only does that mean that you get a free ticket, it means that you get to sit with your classmates and get hype while you cheer on your Bears.
The Mercer Maniacs bring the student section to life with their energy, face paint, streamers and chants flowing like Gatorade throughout the section.
Hungry at the game? Don’t sweat it! There’s food for sale all around the stadium, and you can use your Dining Dollars and Bear Bucks at any of the Mercer Dining concession stands on popcorn, nachos or any of your other game day snacks. Snag a souvenir cup from one of these stands and get a free refill! What a deal!
Catch the marching band
Okay, I admit it: not everyone is as big of a football fan as I am. Maybe spending three to four hours of your life watching big, muscular dudes pound each other into the dirt over a leather ball is just not the way you want to spend your Saturday. That’s fine, but there is something you should want to see at all of the football games: the marching band.
Under second-year band director Blake Garcia, the Mercer Marching Band has truly become the best halftime show in Middle Georgia. The band sounds incredible and plays amazing songs; I could talk for hours about this year’s New Orleans themed halftime show.
To reiterate how good the band is, I have been attending Mercer football games for five years. The band has literally never sounded or looked better than they do right now.
Conclusion? If you haven’t heard the Mercer Marching Band, you need to. If you don’t want to go to the whole game just to see the band, they play on the UC steps before every game, and play their way back to Penfield Hall after every game. You have no excuse to not hear them.
Go out to eat
I get it, it’s 100 degrees out still. No one wants to sit out in that heat. However, you can still catch plenty of football from the TVs in the restaurants around campus. Margarita’s and Amici are probably your best bet, but who can complain about any place with great food and big TVs?
Experience it all with your friends
I know, this point is cheesy. Maybe Mercer doesn’t have tens of thousands of students like UGA, or the best team in the country like Clemson, or decades of history behind our football program like Notre Dame, but Mercer does still have something great: community.
We don’t just know that we’re a small school, we embrace it. We don’t put our athletes in insultingly easy classes and elevate them to celebrity status, they’re our friends and classmates. We are the Bears, and we love to show it on the field, in the classroom and in the world around us.
As easy as it is to take those things for granted now, don’t do it. You’re only here for four years, which means you only have 20 or so chances to experience a Mercer gameday in all of its glory. Once school is over, you can no longer just roll out of bed, throw on your favorite orange shirt and take a leisurely walk to the student section.
Take it from a senior, college flies by fast. Make sure you hold onto every opportunity you have to “Be the Bear” with your friends while you still live within walking distance of each other. Before you know it, you’ll be a senior too and wonder where the time went. Embrace the community, enjoy the events, spend the days with your friends and eat all the free food you can get your hands on.
Make sure to make your Mercer memories.
(09/27/19 9:35pm)
The road from Durham, North Carolina, to Mercer University has been paved with hard work and determination for Dorian Kithcart.
The redshirt senior nose guard has played with drive and determination since he first played football in seventh grade. As a current graduate student pursuing his master’s in mechanical engineering, Kithcart is looking forward to suiting up one last time for the Bears this fall.
Coming off a dominant campaign in 2018 — which saw him record 29 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks — Kithcart has lofty goals for the 2019 season.
“I want to make sure I do everything in my power to be the best leader I can; pay it forward to the guys who are coming up behind me and help Mercer Football bring home its first SoCon Championship,” Kithcart said.
However, high goals are the standard for Kithcart and he has yet to disappoint — whether on or off the field. As a redshirt freshman in 2016, he was named to the SOCON All-Freshman team. Off the field, Kithcart received All-District academic honors in 2017 and was the student speaker at Mercer Commencement in 2019.
As a senior, even more is expected of Kithcart, but these expectations are part of what attracted him to Mercer in the first place.
“The opportunity to do big things on the field and off it really drew me to the program,” Kithcart said in an email. “My coaches expect a lot out of me, especially being a senior, but I hold myself to those same high standards because that’s the only way I can keep bettering myself and others around me.”
Kithcart is grateful for the opportunity he has had at Mercer to play football and develop more as a player. Although he plans on continuing his football career in the National Football League, there is more to Mercer Football than just big plays and bigger hits.
“The ultimate goal once anyone leaves this program is to first graduate and secondly become the best version of themselves, or what we call the ‘Mercer Man.’ A Mercer Man is a leader in their community, accountable, dependable, have the ability to adapt to adverse situations, and someone who will give their all for the betterment of others,” Kithcart said.
Football means a lot to Kithcart. From his pre-game ritual of listening to R&B to physically dominating the man in front of him, he loves the game, his coaches, and his teammates.
The game is not everything to Kithcart and his teammates though. To them, the Mercer community is a big part of why they push themselves in practice every day, and why they lay it all on the line every Saturday.
“We would like to thank all the students, faculty and staff for all their support throughout the school year. You all don’t know how much it means for us to see you all support us not only around campus but on the field as well.” Kithcart said.
Football season is already underway for Kithcart and the Mercer Bears. Kithcart recorded two tackles in the Bears’ dominant 49-27 win at Western Carolina to open the season and is looking forward to continuing to help his team as the season continues.
(09/24/19 4:10am)
The momentum of two early wins on the road seemed destined to carry the Bears to a win in their first home game of 2019.
In fact, it seemed certain it would happen when David Durden, returned the opening kickoff 78 yards to set up the Bears inside the red zone on their first play from scrimmage. The drive stalled though, and Mercer had to settle for a 28-yard field goal off of the excellent field position.
Austin Peay University responded quickly with a three-minute drive capped off by a 5-yard touchdown run to take a 7-3 lead. The Bears were not to be outdone though, and Robert Riddle tossed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Durden less than three minutes later to give Mercer a 10-7 lead just halfway through the first quarter.
The defense came up big at this point, as the teams traded punts and field goals for the rest of the first half. After a 39 yard Austin Peay touchdown pass was overturned and placed on the 1-yard line thanks to video review, the Bears’ defense clung desperately to a 13-10 lead with mere seconds remaining in the first half.
A strong goal-line stand forced the Governors to settle for a field goal and the teams entered halftime tied 13-13.
Unfortunately, the Bears bid to start 3-0 fell apart in the second half.
Austin Peay took their first drive of the second half down the field and punched it in on a 5-yard touchdown pass to take a 20-13 lead. On the ensuing Mercer drive, quarterback Riddle threw his first pick-six of the game to give Austin Peay a 27-13 lead just nine seconds after the Governors had scored their first touchdown of the second half.
On the Bears’ next possession Riddle threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Chris Ellington cutting the deficit to 27-20 with 6 minutes left in the third quarter, but that was the closest the Bears would be for the rest of the game.
Neither team scored again for the rest of the quarter, but on the first play of the fourth quarter, Austin Peay once again found the end zone on a 3-yard touchdown run to take a 34-20 lead. Mercer took the ball and began a promising drive down the field, but the drive came screeching to a halt when Riddle threw his second pick-six of the game: effectively putting the final nail in Mercer’s coffin by giving Austin Peay a 41-20 lead.
Riddle threw two more touchdown passes to Brandon Mays and Durden respectively, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit and the Bears fell 48-34.
Despite their strong first-half performance, the Bears suffered from inconsistency, uncreative playcalling, and questionable decisions in the final thirty minutes, all of which led to a sloppy loss in their first home game.
The Bears (2-1) traveled to the Furman Paladins (1-2) for their second SOCON game of the season on Sept. 21. The Bears lost 10 to 45.