Chalk Full of Inspiration

Throughout the UW-Milwaukee campus, inspirational quotes by famous poets such as Walt Whitman, Edger Allen Poe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson and many others decorated the school’s landscape. Some of the quotations were accompanied with chalk art.

“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams,” a quote read written in yellow chalk. “Fear does not prevent death, it prevents LIFE,” read another written in blue-and-pink chalk.

As UW-Milwaukee students, we all know how hard school life can be. One student organization on campus is aiming at indirectly helping create stress free thoughts, as we all get ready for the end of the year. The event is called, “love fare” hosted by the Hmong Student Association at UWM. It is literally chalk-full of inspiration.

Utilizing the simplicity of chalk and the brilliance of several different colors as well as plenty of retail space across campus, inspirational quotes and small factoids about things across the globe put the stress of college life in context.

Pao Vue, the director of the Hmong Student Association, tells what the chalking event is all about, saying, “The purpose of this chalking event is to raise awareness around us and around the world through social issues.”

The event continued throughout the day until almost every square inch of campus from the Student Union to the Golda Meir Library was colored in a sequence of color. Students gathered to watch as the student organization members wrote quotations out in chalk, while others stopped to admire the art work already written.

One striking piece of information written on the ground was one that read, “There is enough food produced worldwide, but 854 million people go hungry every day.” A 2013 report done by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an independent engineering society, headquartered in central London, found that nearly 30 -50 percent of all food produced worldwide never reaches the human stomach.

Another statistic written on the ground read, “More teens die from prescription drugs than heroin and cocaine combined.” In a recent article written by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it is reported that nearly 370,000 children die from overdose of prescription drugs each year. The National Institute on Drug Abuse mentions that most cases of teens overdose on prescription drugs comes from “hand outs” from either a friend or relative.

Things were not all centered on social issues, though; as mentioned earlier, inspirational quotes also graced themselves across the pavement, their words eloquently written, heartening students as they came across many of the quotes.

A member of the Hmong Student Association, Kat Yang, explained the importance of the quotes, saying, “It’s to help lift the spirits of the student body during these very stressful times as a college student.” Yang continued, “It’s just good to see these quotes; physically seeing them versus just thinking good thoughts can leave more of a lasting impression and make you reflect in the moment.”

To quote Henry David Thoreau, “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”