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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1997)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL P.0 80X3159 ode@oregon uoregon.edu Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: darkwing uoregon edu/~ode Perspectives editor-in-chief Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach night editors Eric Collins Nicole Krueger Winning the college game School brings a lot of stress, but there are ways to deal with the pressure If you were me, what would you write about? Not sure? It’s probably because your brain is so filled with syl labi and exam dates that you’ve gone into overdrive. We've already sped down the high way with loads of essentials, hurried to set them up and hustled to the bookstore to beat the crowds. Now we’re flying into class just in time to watch our notes pile up too fast to comprehend. Jonas Allen iNtJtJUicaa iu ady, getting back into the swing of things can be pretty stressful. This week, we heard how impor tant each profes sor’s class is and how vital it is to memorize our text books. (We also heard we were all going to hell, but uuii i gei stressed over uiai.j uaaiy enough, with all the enlightening in formation, we failed to learn the most basic, but important, lesson of Uni versity life — college is a game. It is a game with four basic rounds: notes, papers, tests and weekends. In this game, we play long enough to get the pigskin (in this game, the synthet ic sheepskin), then we’re off to the real world. The final score is deter mined by how we handle the stress of those rounds. And how we survived is all the real world cares about. Right now, it seems as though the University started the game a few points ahead, but if we stay focused and don’t get overwhelmed, we are virtually guaranteed a win. The key to winning this game is stability. The bad news for University students is that our stability is often found in the form of questions. Questions such as "Where do we park on campus?” and “Will printing prices skyrocket or fizzle?” are some of the more pressing issues. Others, such as whether to boycott Garden burgers, are not exactly problems but will nonetheless resurface. At least we know what to expect. Luckily, we can also find stability in our friends. Talking with friends can be therapeutic because they are playing the same game we are. That means, however, that we’re all stressed in one form or another. Sure, some peo ple claim they work better under stress. Maybe they do. But perfor mance under stress and health problems because of stress are two completely differ ent issues. According to the American College of Health Association, large amounts oi stress can play major roles in half of all illnesses, from the common cold to heart disease. Stress can also lead to smoking, drinking and doing drugs, all of which can be problems on campus to begin with. Ahh, how I missed college life this summer. Actually, I did. I simply forgot about the stress of being a student. I forgot about the small costs that add up so quickly. I forgot about all the late nights of studying. I forgot that the only time we get to relax is when we’re eating, but even CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald then we’re pressured to think about what we’re putting into our mouths. Basically, 1 forgot about the little things. That’s why college is like a game. Once you’re on the field, it all comes back to you. Of course, the de tails come back too, and they are per haps more stressful than the rules of any other game you’ll play. We’re not playing to make a mil lion-dollar contract, we’re playing to make it to the rest of our lives. So whatever curves the year throws at us, we have to stay in the game. We can’t get caught up in the halftime show; we just have to do what it takes to win. That obviously means studying, but it also means re laxing and not worrying about things that don’t really matter. Today is the last day of “warm-up” week, and it's time to get down to business. We’re going to ace the term or drop some classes, do well on pa pers or bomb a couple of tests. It doesn’t matter. As long as we remember today’s lesson, all the others will fall into place. Jonas Allen is a columnist for the Emer ald. His columns appear alternate Fri days. His views do not necessarily repre sent those of the Emerald. Drawing Board COME ON, AAARV UTS 60 HOME.. JVSTICE .with E*CfPTroN$. When USED properly, The atom >5 Perfectly safe... Whim used PROPERLY, OU*S ARE PERFECTLY SAFI... ...WITH Exceptions WHEN USED PROPER IY. TMALtDOA^/DE 15 PERFICTIY Safe... .TRUST US/ PDA. Thumbs TO FOREST FIRES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Massive fires are burning a large swath of Indone sian rainforest, unchecked since they roared out of control in July. The haze from the fires has been linked to at least four deaths from respiratory ill nesses, andthe thick smoke proba bly contributed to a plane crash that killed 234 people. All this because of bad forest manage ment and corpo rate greed. Rain forests in the area, especially on fhe island of Borneo, have been suffer ing from extensive logging for some time. One practice of the loggers has been to set fire to logged areas to help clear the land for farming. A re cent ban on this practice is about to go into effect, and companies eager to increase their last-minute profits appear to have in creased their burn ing in the final days before they are re quired to stop. For the sake of a profit, corporations that already made mon ey by destroying the planet are how destroying peo ple's lives and health as well. TO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION We would never tell people what to do in their own homes, but what they do on the EMU East Lawn is another matter. There are some things we don't want to see, and a hormonally driven couple exploring their sexuality in the wet grass is definitely one of those things. If you can't keep your hands off one an other for half an hour, cut class and get a room.
