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The Hilltop Monitor — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 22:48:40 +0000

Do you want to be a part of The Hilltop Monitor next year? Staff applications are now open for the 2024-25 academic year. Scan the QR or click the link below to fill out the form.

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How to get a Valentine’s date, as told by single people

The Singles — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 14:00:36 +0000

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The Single Members of the Hilltop Monitor Editorial Staff

Are you single and wondering how to land a Valentine’s date on short notice? Well, look no further because we, the single members of the editorial staff for The Hilltop Monitor, will impart our valuable, indispensable, totally correct advice for getting a date to you. Keep reading for some love wisdom.

Single 1:

So, it is now a mere two days before Valentine’s Day, and you are scrambling to find a date. Same. I have never really put much stock into celebrating Valentine’s Day – it’s never been an excessively exciting or depressing day for me. I generally find it kind of cute, but that’s the extent of my worrying about it. However, this year I am craving some combination of chocolate and strawberry. I also feel somewhat starved for human interaction after suffering through nearly a year of a pandemic, so maybe a Valentine’s date would be exciting.

My advice for navigating this situation? Give yourself a couple of avenues, don’t overwhelm yourself with opportunity and keep a solid backup plan.

1) Hop on a dating app or two. Two solid go-tos are Tinder and Hinge. I am 100 percent positive you will see at least a couple of people on each app fishing for a Valentine’s date. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can choose which app to focus on. If you want sex or another primarily physical contact with someone whose personality is relatively unimportant, spend some extra time on Tinder.

If this is your goal, please be COVID-19 safe, wear a mask and be sure to follow all Operation Safe Campus guidelines. And please use protection and have safe sex. Condoms are in all residential halls, courtesy of GIF, if you have an emergency need for one.

If you want to have more of a conversation and potentially meet someone you would want to see again, spend some more time on Hinge.

Regardless of the app you choose to focus on, spend some time swiping ASAP and just focus on getting some potential suitors. After a decent amount of swiping, switch to charming a few of your matches. Don’t try to message and entertain everyone because you will become overwhelmed and more boring to each match. If someone starts out poorly, drop ‘em. Find a few decent options that you can cultivate into potential Valentine’s dates.

2) Check your results from CUA’s Match-Making survey. Maybe your top recommended match is your Jewell crush! While it may be slightly awkward, you can totally come up with a funny slide-in about the survey to gauge if they may be down for a date. If not, you made a potentially funny, not-too-embarrassing joke about a campus-wide dating survey. No harm, no foul.

Also, I find it objectively hilarious to try to slide in on someone via email. So if you don’t have a match’s phone number or social media, email them and know I am getting immense joy from your actions. Please cc the Monitor if you choose to do so. Our email is monitor@william.jewell.edu

3) Keep a fun, not-too-depressing backup plan. If you cannot find a date for Sunday, have a plan to do something, even if it’s small. Find another single friend, order a pizza, drink some champagne or sparkling grape juice and get a dessert. Yes, it is a little depressing to be with another single friend on Valentine’s Day when all your other friends are on dates, but at least you get a meal that’s not from the caf and some socialization time.

Alternatively, make and drink a bunch of espresso martinis with friends. I will warn that this may make you nauseous, but, yes, they are nevertheless delicious and totally worth it.

Single 2:

Ahh yes, Valentine’s Day looms. Like my colleagues, I have never been particularly concerned with this holiday. My favorite part of the holiday is usually hearing the eclectic combination of sweet and cringeworthy stories that inevitably emerge from it. Yet, perhaps due to the need to socially distance for the last year, I’m more sympathetic to Valentine’s Day this year.

In finding dates for Valentine’s Day, first of all, be mindful of COVID-19 precautions and make sure you are not putting yourself at increased risk. The pandemic is still spreading virulently here in the U.S.

My best advice for those seeking to find a Valentine’s Day Date is to start with a healthy dose of self-awareness. Figure out what you want and adjust your approach accordingly. Though matches and love stories are found everywhere, generally an app like Tinder will be more conducive for hookups than for beginning long-term relationships. Plus, this will help ensure you and your prospective partners have a similar understanding of the nature of the relationship and prevent miscommunications.

Single 3:
I’m known for two things: being in long-lasting, fulfilling relationships, and being pre-med. It is for these reasons that I am known – both colloquially and professionally – as Dr. Love.

Now, let me give a little prescription to all the lonely hearts reading this.

Last Valentine’s Day Eve, I made what I believed at the time to be a critical mistake. In search of some company on what I thought was about to be a lonely evening, I decided to shoot a “wyd” message to a prospective Valentine’s companion on WhatsApp. Twenty-five minutes later, I checked for a response. To my dismay, I had sent my “wyd” message to not only the wrong individual but the wrong individuals. The 40-person group chat full of other students that I had been added to at the start of my year abroad had all witnessed me requesting a late-night intimate hangout.

How embarrassing, you’re probably thinking. I get it – I thought the same thing at first. Though the message was up (unanswered) for 25 minutes in the group chat before I realized I sent it to the wrong recipient and unsent the message (bless you, WhatsApp), I now look back and wish I had not deleted that message.

Why? Because it was exactly the sort of audacious move I needed to pull in order to not spend my Valentine’s Day alone.

“Wyd” is perhaps the most versatile and palatable phrase one can use to relay an interest in intimate activities. If someone is not interested, they could simply interpret your “wyd” as a polite inquiry regarding your recent goings-on. Or, if they, like you, are looking for a Valentine’s date, they’ll read your “wyd” as the proposition it is, and before you know it, you’ll have the date you were looking for.

Be liberal with your “wyd.” Send it to your 150-person sophomore class group chat. Send it to the Army recruiter who somehow rediscovers your phone number every 16 months. Send it to your RA, even.

Might you wound your pride a little bit? Absolutely. But think about it: after sending out 4, 40, 4,000 “wyd”s, I can guarantee that someone will respond, and you will successfully secure a Valentine’s date. But, please, don’t file a medical malpractice suit if it doesn’t work.

Hilltop Monitor Editorial Staff rings in the Holidays

Editoral Staff — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 03:27:32 +0000

With only three weeks until winter break, the holiday spirit is increasing on campus with many events in the coming weeks. Many of these events are long standing traditions at William Jewell College. The Editorial Staff at The Hilltop Monitor took a few minutes to reflect on some of our favorite traditions.

Hanging of the Green- Evan Lott, Sports Editor

Photo by Chandler Eaton

Personally, I’m not one for ritual or an extreme amount of forced holiday cheer. Call me Scrooge, but I don’t really enjoy singing holiday carols just because they are on a program or a monitor tells you to stand up and sing. That being said, I think the Hanging of the Green is a good event to attend at least once while you’re at Jewell. This year is the first time I have gone, as a sophomore, and while I don’t plan on attending another one, I feel all Jewell students should at least experience it once.

Maybe in the future, if I’m in the Kansas City area, I would come back as an alumnus with my children so that they could experience Santa pelting them with candy, but as a 19-year-old I feel it was more ritual and forced fun than an actual outlet for holiday spirit.

Lighting of the Quad- Kristen Agar, Social Media Manager

The Lighting of The Quad is one of my favorite events at Jewell, and not just because I’m crazy about Christmas. I was overwhelmed as a first-year student when I attended my first one. As I walked into Gano Chapel, I struggled to find a seat. This may be because I arrived at the event exactly at 7 p.m., but it was also a result of the massive number of Liberty residents who had decided to join our school for this event. I finally found a seat in the balcony to watch the choir and band perform, but little did I know what I was about to experience. While the whole performance was slightly less than perfect, the finale really drew me in. As a result of holiday magic, it began to snow during the final song. But much to my dismay, the snow was not falling outside. Instead, fake snow was being blown from the rafters of Gano Chapel. I still regressed to my five-year-old self as I became filled with a little more holiday cheer.

As the audience filed out to the Quad for the actual lighting ceremony, the energy radiated. Santa was on the roof of the Union, and more carols were being sung on a makeshift stage. However, I was slightly disappointed by this ceremony. Having recently attended the Plaza Lighting Ceremony in Kansas City, Jewell couldn’t hang. I recognize that Jewell is no Plaza, but there was no build up to the flipping of the switch. I at least expected a countdown. Instead, I just got a sudden switch on and people struggling to clap without dropping their candles and catching the Quad on fire. Maybe this year will be better now that my expectations aren’t as high. Maybe this year will be better if I get over my fear of holding candles and join the rest of the community. Maybe this year will be better because I’m so much more in love with Jewell and the people that come with it.

Photos with Santa- Chandler Eaton, Photo Editor

Photo by Chandler Eaton

Photos with Santa occur during the reception after Lighting of the Quad. While Jewell students and children from the community crowd the line, it is a reminder that you are never too old to tell Santa what’s on your wish list. Last year I was wishing for at least an A- in “Music Theory.” However, after ridicule from my brother, I had stopped believing in Santa by the age of eight and decided that my 20th Christmas was no time to start believing again. So last year, as I was walking around the reception taking photos, I discovered that Santa was more British than I had thought. In the end, the jolly ole Saint Coleman probably could have performed a Christmas miracle for my GPA. Alas, this year will be different.

This year I will be the photographer taking photos with Santa, and I may be more excited than I ever was as a child. I get to take photos of community children meeting Santa and telling him about their Christmas wish lists. What could be a more precious and innocent human interaction? Also, when taking the photos, I will get to witness my classmates become children again and tell Santa what is on their wish lists. However, I’m more interested in which Jewelligans made it on the naughty list and who are nice. Surely Santa can grant a few of our wishes and cancel finals week. Or perhaps that’ll take a few gifts of milk and cookies sent to the music department.

Campus Christmas Party at the Sallee household- Brianna Steiert, Features Editor and Kelsey Neth, Design Editor

Every year, Dr. and Mrs. David Sallee open up their home for a Christmas party for the Jewell community. According to Mary Sallee, decorating begins right after Homecoming, starting with the upstairs rooms. Rosa Langston, the house manager, helps Sallee decorate. Sallee decorates all the trees, making many of the ornaments herself. Langston does centerpieces, mantles and the stairway, ensuring that there is greenery to be found in every room. No corner of the house is left without a bit of holiday cheer.

Photo by Kristen Agar

There is always a theme for the open house. This year the theme is “Cardinal Is Her Color.” Attendees will see the theme represented throughout the house by the presence of the color red and many cardinals. The birds can be found nestled in any of the 30+ trees, clustered next to poinsettias, on the tableware at the dinner table or even in a nativity scene complete with a cardinal baby Jesus.

In addition to snacking on holiday food, singing along to Christmas carols and admiring the decorations, attendees can participate in the hide-and-seek game. This year mini cardinal ornaments will be hidden throughout the house.

The Christmas open house tradition began with the Sallees. The rationale for the open house reflected the same thinking they used for Jewell Time.

“We recognized that there is always a cultural tendency for members of a community to gravitate, in any social setting, to their most-comfortable place. Unfortunately, on a college campus that often translates into the ‘silos’ that come with the designation ‘Faculty,’ ‘Staff’ or ‘Student.’ We saw this as a simple way to erase some of the lines that define the potential silos and bring everyone together in a festive moment,” said Sallee.

Sallee reflected on her favorite part of the event.

“Just as your mom or grandmother want the entire family at their table for Thanksgiving dinner, I love having my ‘family’ together at the Christmas party. It gets a little crowded at times, but I love having as many of us as possible sharing a festive moment,” said Sallee.

Features editor Brianna Steiert reflected on her experience at the Sallee’s last year.

“I absolutely loved the Christmas party last year. As a first-year student I was hesitant about going, but I am so glad I did. Last year the scavenger hunt revolved around the many nativities in the house. It was nice to be able to walk around their home admiring all the decorations and counting the nativities while snacking on some cookies. I was amazed by the number of people that attended, and I enjoyed the overall merry atmosphere of the event. I would encourage everyone, especially first-year students, to attend,” said Steiert.

Design editor Kelsey Neth looks forward to attending the open house for the first time.

“I was not able to go the event last year as a first-year and was so sad I missed it. However, that makes me even more excited to go this year. I’m also sad that the one time I get to go is the last time the Sallee’s will be hosting it but I hope that this tradition will be continued in the future,” said Neth.

Holiday Music on the Hill- Sarah Crosley, Editor-in-Chief

While some may think it appropriate to play Christmas music before Thanksgiving, we can all agree that the holiday spirit on the Hill would not be the same without the hard work of the campus musicians. From the jazz band to different choir groups to Liberty Symphony Orchestra, music is one of the best parts about celebrating the holidays with your Jewell family.

Matt Rosado, senior physics and mathematics major, is a member of the Jewell Symphonic Band and plays the tuba. He reflected on last night’s performance at the Lighting of the Quad.

“What I enjoy the most is the audience. It is huge during this concert, bigger than any other performance we put on, so we take it very seriously. Gano is filled, there are decorations everywhere, and of course the surprise we save for the first years. The fake snow definitely sealed the deal for me because it just makes the whole chapel feel incredibly festive,” said Rosado.

If you missed last night’s performance, you can hear faint twinklings of holiday music in the Union and the PLC.

CUA Winter Formal- Lisa Brune, Lifestyle Editor

William Jewell College’s CUA’s Winter Formal is one of my favorite events of the Jewell holiday season. We have many traditions here, but there’s nothing like getting dolled up and eating yummy, free food to get you into the holiday spirit. As an independent, I have limited opportunities to get to dress up and go to dances, so I am always grateful when CUA holds events at which I can do these things. Winter Formal is a time when all Jewell students can come together and celebrate the holidays, regardless of their different affiliations. As a free event at fancy locations, Winter Formal has always given me the chance to dance and eat the night away with my friends and fellow Jewelligans in a beautiful room that I rarely would have had the chance to be in otherwise. I cannot wait to attend this year’s Winter Formal, which will be held at Crowne Plaza Hotel at 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11. The Crowne Plaza Hotels has a beautiful view of Kansas City and plenty of room on the dance floor, so I’ll see you all there!

Sledding on Browning Bowl- Erin Melton, Chief Copy Editor

Sometimes, when the harsh Missouri winter actually hits and the College is coated with a beautiful layer of powdery snow, students take the opportunity to appreciate the seasonal campus. For some, this means donning an unusual level of sneakiness, repurposing a tray from the caf and sliding at full speed down the hill behind Browning, more appropriately known as Browning Bowl.

If the excitement of speeding uncontrollably on a coat of icy snow toward a winding hill of a driveway that people treat like a racetrack just does not quite do it for your adrenaline fix, just remember that you get to temporarily borrow something, too. I recall a sweet day my first year when a close friend tried walking out of the caf as inconspicuously as possible while holding a surprisingly bulky tray. He was subsequently chased down by one of the staff members.

If we get blessed with snow this year, I hope to see you all committing crimes and taking risks because it will be worth it just to say that you participated in one of Jewell’s highly logical and cool traditions.

Feature photo by Cole Allee.

From the Ed Staff: A goodbye to Kyle Rivas

Editoral Staff — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:00:26 +0000

The following comments reflect the opinions of the Editorial Staff.

Kyle Rivas’s departure from William Jewell College feels particularly bittersweet to the Editorial Staff of “The Hilltop Monitor.” Bitter because one our biggest supporters and contributors is leaving, but sweet because we are confident that wherever he ends up, he’ll do great things.

Rivas’s photos can’t be beat, whether it’s a perfectly timed action shot at a football game or a candid picture of a student caught doing something unaware. For a publication like the Monitor, these are the sorts of photos that make a good publication great.

If you sift through our publication, you’ll notice how often we utilize a photo that Rivas has taken. His consistent attention to detail and his positivity and willingness to help out the Monitor has always been encouraging and inspiring.

We’ve all seen Rivas’s passion, dedication and talent at work at Jewell, and we know those qualities will make him successful wherever he goes. We appreciate all Rivas has done for the College and the Monitor, and we wish him good luck and a happy future.