Henry Kraatz's Blog

If you go to Uni, you’ve probably had the experience of seeing me do something stupid. You may have thought to yourself, “Why did he do that? Has he no shame?” In reverse order, the answers to those questions are: I have no shame, and I probably did it on a dare. It would take forever to list every development that led me to become the idiot I am today, but I will try to explain some of it in one post. I used to get annoyed at my little brother. Sometimes there would be real annoyances, like when we first shared a room. He refused to sleep unless a light was on, and he constantly asked me nonsensical questions like, “what are tigers for?” Other times I’d get very angry over small things he did. If he chewed with his mouth open, refused to blow his nose, or talked too loudly around me, it could send me into a screaming fit. I don’t know exactly why I had such issues with him. Maybe the small things he did annoyed me so much because my parents would let him get away with them while...

           Most of you have probably had the experience of losing something important. Maybe it was your wallet, your phone, or your dad’s car keys. You went through all the stages: first the initial realization when your heart drops into your stomach, then the panic, and finally the frantic searching.             Perhaps fewer of you have had the experience of having something important stolen. In some ways, it is better to have something stolen. Instead of taking responsibility for your irresponsibility, you can pin all the blame on someone else. Your feelings of guilt and shame for having done something so stupid can turn into anger towards someone else. It’s always easier to fault other people than it is to fault yourself. As nice as blame-shifting is, having something stolen from you is also much worse than losing something in a few obvious ways. The tried-and-true method of retracing your step...