Dear Fellow Students,

One of the most important skills you can learn in life is communication. Knowing how to initiate conversations with peers and respectfully speak to your authority figures is a necessity. Coming into my freshman year, these were abilities I lacked, but by pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I have learned to carry myself better around both students and adults.

Talking to others can be awkward and embarrassing, especially when you don’t know how to start the conversation. Simply asking, “How are you, ” or talking about something that anyone can relate to is a great way to begin. Try and push the conversation onto them. People like to talk about themselves and their interests.

Some people struggle making eye contact with others when they speak. Although these people think they can float through conversations just fine without doing so, they are actually doing themselves a disservice. Looking someone in the eyes when you talk to them shows that you are invested in the conversation and that you are giving them your full attention.

When going to a job interview, always dress nicely and shake your interviewer’s hand when you first greet them. Leave your phone and watch in your car, since these are potential distractions. Make eye contact and answer questions honestly. It is better to tell them you don’t know than to lie or exaggerate.

I am by no means perfect. One issue I have struggled with in the past is keeping discussions going. I have found the best thing to do is keep drawing from different topics and trying to expand upon them or link them to other topics. If someone tells you about something, tell them about how that reminds you of something else.

Chance the Rapper has been an extremely polarizing rapper in the 2010s because he has always been himself in his music. Since his first mixtape, “10 Day,” he has shown a massive amount of talent, which he has tapped into more and more throughout the years with all of the sound diversity that he has put on display in his music.

All of the build-up from Chance’s career definitely made his official debut album, “The Big Day,” a highly anticipated album in 2019. Chance has had quite a few major life events since the soulful “Coloring Book,” the most prominent being his recent marriage, and if you did not know about it before listening to “The Big Day,” you definitely will after.

The title “The Big Day” refers to Chance's wedding, and he covers this topic over almost every single one of the 22 tracks on this 77 minute album. If you told us that a modern-day hip hop artist was making a full album dedicated to his love for his significant other, we would have been amazed ... as long as the music was tolerable. That is the problem with this album -- the whole concept is very sweet, but the execution is completely mediocre throughout its runtime.

The first thing that we noticed in “The Big Day” is how many features there are on the album. Overall, there are 22 features, out of 16 songs total. All 22 artists come from varying genres, each adding their personality to the album. The problem is that the amount of features on the album makes it seem as if it is less of a Chance the Rapper album and more of a Chance the Rapper and collaborators album.

One of the defining features of Chance’s music is his extremely recognizable voice. He has never been one to shy away from eccentric vocals, but this new album brings some of his worst to date. This usually occurs when he tries reaching into his falsetto on songs such as the opener, “All Day Long,” and the title track, “The Big Day,” or when he tries to use different inflections. An example of this would be his scratchy vocals in “We Go High.”