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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.
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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.