Editor's Note: Laura Acuff, 2011 alumna, is a Fulbright Scholar teaching English in Bulgaria. She publishes a travel blog at lauracuff.tumblr.com. Before I left Texas for Bulgaria, a dear friend told me she hoped I'd be able to use my time abroad to "learn about myself." The idea shocked me, at first. It sounds so self-serving, so ... [Read More…]

Growing up, I thought the kids that could watch rated R movies in elementary school were savages, barely even human. Now, I just feel sorry for them, because they can't relate with the songs and one-liners we all know best. But it wasn't until I was humming a song and a friend shouted out "we must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force ... [Read More…]

By Raymon Fullerton Enrollment was up, a student center replaced the lovable and creaky Grill, and newly installed president John C. Stevens followed the legendary Don H. Morris who led the college for 29 years. Abilene Christian College was on the move during the 1970-71 school year when the editorship of the Optimist fell into my lap. Knowing ... [Read More…]

Two eagerly anticipated video games were released last week: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. EA's Battlefield 3 came out just weeks before. These games' release dates have been etched into many gamers' calendars, and their release has been watched by numerous media sources. They each sold millions of copies within ... [Read More…]

It seems as if, these days, an acceptable motivation behind a plethora of activities, memberships and projects can be summarized in one word: resumé. College, alongside the pressures of the professional world, has shaped students into individuals that are accustomed to utilizing as many displays of membership and accomplishment as possible to show ... [Read More…]

Imagination can make your day more interesting, and even help you perform tasks better. Just this weekend I was attempting to sketch a statue from a picture on my laptop. The picture on my screen showed the face of Michelangelo's David, but the picture on the paper in front of me looked more like a comic book villain. I grabbed another sheet of ... [Read More…]

Anyone with siblings knows that one of the sibling gets blamed for everything the other one does. In my case, my brother was the one that constantly got in trouble for things that I had done. I'll go ahead and say it, I was a brat. My little brother was the nice one out of the two of us. As a three year-old, Christian offered to take spankings in ... [Read More…]

When I was 21 and ready to graduate from ACU, I viewed my two years as Optimist editor through these lenses: • The awards we won, signifying we were the best college newspaper in Texas. • The controversies we battled through, signifying we were holding student leaders and university administrators alike accountable for their ... [Read More…]

The TV in the corner of the newsroom first said that Al Gore won Florida. Then the vote was too close to call. It was a little after 2 a.m. when I finished a story that said George W. Bush had narrowly won Florida's vote and would be the nation's next president. I lay down to nap on the couch in the Optimist office, knowing I didn't have time to ... [Read More…]