The task seemed simple enough: Spend a week "living on air." No credit cards, no trips to the ATM, no pulling that dough out of my wallet, no rendezvous with Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, John Adams or any of my friends of old. I couldn't prey on my first-year friends for swipes into Newcomb, I couldn't refuel my car and I couldn't stop by Greenberry's to get me through my 8 a.m. discussion. Yet I had the solution: Sunday morning I woke up, printed out the Student Activities Calendar and found my ticket to a moneyless week.
My car parked on empty, I hopped across the street to catch the UTS bus at Grady. Free transportation not only saves the environment but also valuable pennies in my pocket. First-year students shouldn't take their lack of wheels for granted -- the University is doing them a favor. Settling down into an orange and blue seat, I pulled out the calendar, rummaged in my tote for my planner and started penciling in options: a free dinner provided by class council, bagels outside of Brown College on behalf of Hillel's Sukkot Survivor Sleepout, pizza from the English department alumni panel. Looks like food wouldn't be a problem.
Entertainment was taken care of as well. Habitat for Humanity took care of my musical needs via their SLAMitat sing, the International Relations Organization was throwing a bocce ball party on the Lawn, and I pondered how nice it would be to join in that game of fratastic Frisbee at Mad Bowl. This week would fly by.
If this were a movie dialogue, the wheels of the UTS bus would come to a screeching halt right about ... now. Fast-forward to about 12 hours later when the doleful sound of a banging gong started to go off in my head. I was horrified by the reality: I didn't have time in my schedule to attend half of the events I penciled in.
Tuesday: Class from 8 to 3, work from 3 to 7, meetings from 7 to 9 then cramming that last-minute paper in until you crash around 3 a.m. to wake up three hours later and start it all over again. Where in this hectic schedule did I have time for tea at Newcomb art gallery or to swing by the Lawn and pick up those apples that FORCE was handing out? I didn't. And then I looked around me and realized that half of the people I knew were in the same exact boat.
I pulled three all-nighters without food, sleep and barely enough time to breathe. I sold Method Man tickets over Facebook while typing up 76 paragraphs of Polish history for a midterm. Any social interactions happened on the second floor of Clemons, and those were hurriedly exchanged words with blood-shot eyes and exasperated sighs. The verdict was in: Students at the University are potentially too involved to partake in all of the wonderful events the school has to offer.
"Sometimes I think it is impossible to live a college life the way you are supposed to while keeping up your GPA and participating in all the University activities that we are expected to take advantage of," second-year College student Margaret Anton said.
Anton is not alone -- as I scroll through my 600-person instant messenger buddy list on a Saturday night, I repeatedly see signs of the same symptom: "Library," "Should be out but still have one more midterm," "Too bad Clemons doesn't have a live band because that's where I'll be tonight ... again."
Not only do University students keep incredibly busy, but it seems to cause a physical and emotional drain on the majority of them.
"With all my classes, group projects and being in a frat, I barely have time for myself, let alone doing anything in U.Va. that doesn't have to do with school or frat life -- usually at the end of the week I'm just beat," third-year Engineering student Brandon Im said.
What is supposed to be the best four years of a student's life has turned, for some, into an experience more tumultuous than even the 9 to 5 working world stereotype.
My question is: How can students find time to participate in these extra activities without sacrificing their classes or health needs? Is there something that University officials can do to aid in this process?
"Between working, being an executive social chair and team member of club softball and attempting a double major, I really don't have that much time for additional non-mandatory activities around the University," third-year College student Eliza Crowther said. "I feel like money and time spent for these activities go to waste because no one actually gets to enjoy them. Once, for an art class I was taking, the professor made it mandatory for us to go to the art gallery to see a show. I really enjoyed this experience that I otherwise wouldn't have made time for."
Crowther said she believes professors should perhaps make special efforts to include guest speakers, art shows and other programs into their curriculum so students have more of an incentive to check these things out. This may, however, lead others to worry that their course load is going to cause an even heavier burden on their daily lives.
The solution certainly is not a simple one, and until it is reached, students must continue to improve the time management and other skills taught to us from the time we step on to these hallowed Grounds. The idea of "living on air" has become a depiction of students worn thin and chugging along, and this is not how Thomas Jefferson envisaged our educations to be.
Though I only made it about 12 hours out of my week, this experience taught me a lesson more useful than the value of a dollar.
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