Moe Naqvi Columnist

Are you a serious individual? Then chances are you will succeed in life, but people will still hate you for being serious. For as long as there has been light, there have been serious people who make happy people annoyed. Serious people are everywhere: some of our professors, our passionate feminists who write hate mail and most of our honors students. Life is too short to be stern and staid - cheer up, people!

I am an honors student myself, so it's OK if I make fun of other honors kids. I just pray they will not stab me with their TI-198 Calculators as I walk down the sidewalk. This weekend, I went into the honors dorm, Posada San Pedro, to pick up a friend and it was quite interesting.

As I was walked down the hallway, I overheard a guy on the phone saying, "Sorry bro, I can't go out tonight. I have a math test in three weeks, I have to study for that."

Three weeks? Unless the test encompasses Calculus Level 11 and coming up with a mathematical theory to determine what God looks like, there is no need to start studying three weeks in advance for a test.

College is indeed a place to edify one's mind, but it is not all about studying and doing well in class. It's also about going out, developing social skills, and becoming mature in the physical world.

College shouldn't be taken lightly, but it shouldn't be taken seriously. It should just be taken as it comes. Over-seriousness is a disease that can only be cured with a 3-letter word: "F-U-N."

Go out, mini-golf, search for funny images on Google, watch drunk people try to order food at restaurants, do anything to lighten up. Fun can come in many forms and there is no short supply of it on a college campus.

Seriousness can lead a person to being stressed. In turn, a person who becomes overstressed can develop high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the chance of a stroke and a stroke can kill or paralyze an individual. So through the rationale of science, seriousness can kill a person.

I will admit that there are some situations where an individual has to be serious, such as if they are in the armed forces, a parent who has a drug addict for a child, or a student who is failing all of his/her classes except for Modern Pornography in Society. But there aren't very many instances when an individual needs to be serious. Most instances call for a person being rational instead of serious. There is a thin line between being "serious" and being "rational." Seriousness can tend to make a person go overboard, where as being rational will keep an individual balanced and liked by others around.

Most of the general population is not conducive to accepting others who have a serious personality. For example, if an individual has ever had a serious instructor, the consensus among that class is, "Wow, I wish I had a log to throw at this teacher." However, if the teacher is witty and can relate to their students without being stern, the students are more willing to listen to what the teacher has to say and less likely to bombard them with blunt objects.

We can also take the two presidential candidates from the 2004 election. There was obviously a huge personality gap between George W. Bush and John Kerry, as supported by a Zogby/Williams Identity Poll that came up stating 57.3 percent of undecided voters would rather have a beer with Bush than Kerry. Essentially people believed that Bush is the kind of guy who would share a beer with you, whereas Kerry is the kind of guy who would start reading the label and lecturing you on the caloric intake of such a drink.

People enjoy jovial and cool personalities, which is why society has always been run like it has. Movie stars, athletes, comedians, and people who can lick their elbows or do other stupid human tricks have always labeled to be the "upper class" and "best class" in the United States. These groups of people are cool and that's why the general population likes them better than politicians, protesters and other groups of serious natures.

A major goal in everyone's life, no matter what country or culture, is to be accepted and liked by others. Being serious is the first and foremost way to get beaten up and thrown into the trash. If you want to be cool, you don't necessarily have to use drugs - just don't be too serious.

Moe Naqvi is a physiological sciences freshman. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.