After the tragedy at last year's Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) and Boston Police Department plan to enforce tighter security restrictions to ensure that an incident of last year's nature does not occur again. While some of the rules are necessary to maintain a safe environment for runners and spectators alike, the BAA announced a new rule that I cannot comprehend-the prohibition of bandit runners from participating in the 118th Boston Marathon.

This column is a conversation with Old Nate, a continuation of my first piece about the recent changes made to the Boston College campus and the messages those changes send. Stokes Hall is the most high-profile of these changes. Everyone and his or her mother loves it, with its overwhelming eager-to-please-ness. But hey, this country was founded on the sweeping rejection of received wisdom, so with that in mind, here's another take.

The problem of etiquette today is a trite topic in some sense. The older generations chide the younger, and the younger rebel against the older. It's cliche.

In the time it took to write this paragraph, three people have been detained for illegal entry on the border between Mexico and the U.S. Once, two of these people were my parents.

Frank Underwood, of the Netflix hit-series House of Cards, is the kind of politician you hope doesn't actually exist in the reality. He is ruthless, stopping at nothing-bribery, intimidation tactics, deception, and even murder-to get where he wants and what he wants.

We are often so hesitant to admit our weaknesses. But, a part of being human is the struggle to make sense of ourselves, our role in our society and environment, and life itself.

When we look up more, and think outside of ourselves more, there is so much we can give, and from that, so much we will receive.

My major is useless. Or at least that's what I'm told-"An English major isn't practical," or "There's no money in journalism." I've heard it a thousand times. And yet it hasn't made me question my choice to study the thing that excites me and what I knew would make me happy, even if that meant I might end up making less money.

For the third time since 2009, the U.S. has witnessed yet another horrific shooting at a military base. The media is swarming with reports addressing the unfortunately familiar, yet sensitive, topic of gun control in the U.S. At the same time, many target and blame the influence Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may have had in Lopez's rampage, and, therefore, they simultaneously question the role PTSD plays in the lives of other war veterans.

The alarmingly un-alarming truth is that the U.S. still has some of the highest high school dropout rates among OECD countries despite being one of the most democratic and economically developed, according to The New York Times, which makes the accomplishment of completing an education in the "Land of Opportunity" all the more a testament to personal responsibility.

Who needs the drama of a human relationship when you know your dog will always love you?