Dear Ana,
My favorite anonymous columnist is back! After I worked through my joy, I thought of this question… Will you still be giving fresh baked goods to the people who ask the best questions/shower you with the most compliments?
One of my/my only Fan(s)
Dear Fan,
Yes! I’m trying to teach students that asking questions and stroking egos will get them further in life, and so I will be baking sweets for the person sending the best question starting next column.
Ask Ana will now be every other week instead of every week, but that just means that there will be more quality questions for me to answer for each column (it also means that I am really lazy).
Anyone who has a question that they would like an answer to, and anyone who enjoys home baked cookies can send me a question via Facebook – my name is Ask Ana. You can also send questions, love, hate mail, etc. to my email, askanagraham@ymail.com.
Dear Ana,
My friend texted me and told me that he is dropping out of college and getting a job in a coal mine or something similar. He is completely serious about this and I have no idea what to say to him at all. He should be a senior and he just completed an internship at a place that loved him so much that they offered him a job after graduation.
I can’t help but feel angry because this is so stupid to throw away what you’ve worked on for four years.
I haven’t been able to reply since he told me that. What should I say to that?
Ticked
Dear Ticked,
That sounds like a huge transition and it definitely couldn’t have been a spontaneous decision. He had to have thought about this for some time before feeling that giving up on his degree was the right decision.
If you haven’t asked him why he’s decided to do this, then that should be the first text you should send him in response. And even though it may seem stupid of him to do (and it may very well be a very stupid decision that he will regret), this may be what makes him happy.
If you’re his friend and he seems happy with his decision, then you should support him no matter how you feel about it.
Dear Ana,
Why is financial aid taking so long to be distributed to the students?
Every College Student Ever
Dear College Student,
It is because Governor Corbett is hoping that students will drop out before their aid comes in.
Just kidding! Financial aid is frustrating because of all the avenues it must go through before it can finally enter your bank account. The system is more complicated than it should be, and I have no explanation for this. And although I don’t understand how some people get their financial aid days before someone else with no obvious difference between the two people’s financial situations, I don’t envy the folks up at Maltby who have to manage thousands of students’ only way to get an education.
This frustration comes along every semester, with students complaining about having to wait for the aid for a few more days before they can use it for tuition, bills, kegs, and video games. Like the end of a long work day, your aid will soon come. It just has to go through a bunch of (expletive deleted) first.
Dear Ana,
Is there any such thing as too much?
First Lame Question of the Year
Dear Lame,
This is a deep question with many possible answers, and you are a jerk to ask me it. I’m a Communication major, not a Philosophy major, but I will try.
There is such a thing as too much information, such as when you overhear your mother suggest to your girlfriend that she read “50 Shades of Grey.” However, there is no such thing as too much ice cream, unless you are lactose intolerant.
There is also no such thing as too many questions being sent to me, and if you think this is a vague hint to send me some more questions to answer in my next column, then you are absolutely right.
