If I were still carrying a TPUSA title, what happened on April 22 would have been enough for me to walk away. You don’t fight for free speech by banning student journalists. You don’t build a movement by turning away supporters who drove hours to be there. And you don’t honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy mocking fellow students in a half-empty room.

If the majority of your principles as a voter align more closely with one side or the other, failing to vote with that party is not only throwing away one of our most important rights as Americans, but it is also helping the people you disagree with win.

As we near the end of the year and move out of or into a new place, I wanted to share a reminder that we don’t need to buy everything new. It’s okay to not have all the latest and greatest things. Keeping up with the Joneses is all fun and games until it runs you into the ground.

For some students, figuring it out later could mean taking an interesting class or switching their majors a few times. For others, it means risking financial aid, wasting time or choosing between passion and stability. These are not the same situation.

Nothing feels normal anymore. There is an underlying sexualization of everything, even though it is completely unnecessary. That’s the problem — people should be able to scroll through social media without suggestive content being forced on them.

Excuses like “this person did this” or “I should’ve been different because …” do not make the world better. Everyone wants to sit atop a pedestal, but wants to be placed there rather than working to earn it.