OP-ED: I Sacrificed My CIS 110 Midterm Grade for a Bountiful Corn Harvest and You’re Welcome

Sacrifice: it defines us.

No house can be built without cutting down trees for lumber, no class can be attended without leaving a bed’s warm embrace, and no harvest can be reaped without toiling to sow seeds in the soil.

The seeds were mine this year, and you’re welcome.

It’s no secret that harvest has been thin. First, only Commons was serving seitan. Next, New College House started replacing its starch dishes with tempeh. Ever stopped to wonder why you don’t see crops on College Green? Our soil is barren. 

The Administration won’t tell you that our corn yield has been down because they don’t know any way to fix it. Public alarm is not our enemy, though. Only through fear of consequences will people find it within themselves to sacrifice for something they believe in. 

I knew this when I turned in my CIS 110 midterm. If I hadn’t vomited creamed corn on the blank exam, sealed it in a plastic bag, and turned it in after five minutes, who would have? It’s not the public’s fault that they’re not being informed about our dying lands, and this generation can’t be held culpable for the fact that the old ways of matching blood for blood and sacrificing to our fire-and-brimstone god were never passed down to them.

Our survival demands sacrifice, and if I was the servant of the harvest that was called upon to devote myself to my people, I accept that. I’ll attend office hours every day if that’s what it takes to keep me from failing out of school after this. I will do whatever it takes to help my people survive.