It is a new year, and that means only one thing: resolutions. Toward the end of last semester, the end of my second year, I suffered from an affliction carried only within the 22904 zip code. Prevalent among Lawn residents and JPA hermits alike, this infectious disease is the reason Student Health requires every patient to wear a SARS mask. More common than the cold and more cold-sweat-inducing than the flu, it renders its targets scatterbrained and lethargic - Everyone Else Is Doing So Much More Than Me and I Don't Have Confidence In Anything I Do Anymore: How Can They Balance Everything, and I Really Need To Start Social Climbing-itis. Side effects include second-year slumping and the fear of missing out. It is time, then, for us to do something different this year. We need to make a collective resolution. We need to cleanse our hallowed Grounds of the Hoo Flu once and for all, or else we might need a University-wide appearance on Intervention staged by the ghost of Thomas Jefferson.
The first step toward recovery comes when you realize that the Commerce School does not govern the University. Maybe I am planning on ostentatiously using a Comm school pen I acquired to appear more legitimate as I peruse Facebook in the library, but I have really recovered from the Comm school bug. I knew it was bad as I sobbed to my mom on the phone, lamenting my English major status, saying, "and the Comm School! I didn't even know about the Comm School! They actually have a purpose, and all I do is read 'Beowulf' every semester!" She aptly reminded me that the lowest grade I ever received was in basic Algebra, it was too late anyway and that I pun far more than is appropriate for any respected businesswoman. As always, my mom made me believe what I already knew: I am destined for a future of unemployment or scattered editing jobs, and I need to base my academic path on my own academic interests.
There are other ways in addition to academic endeavors in which you can contract the Hoo Flu. You may start feeling sick as you begin to analyze your involvement in the University. To recover, you need to immediately stop comparing your resume to that of Lawnies. They live there precisely because they represent supreme achievement and involvement - striving to follow in their footsteps is worthwhile and perhaps admirable, but it will never instill the self-confidence necessary to recover. Every once in awhile, you need to step back and think about what you do: chances are, you lead, you care and you might even be someone's role model. If you can't see this in yourself, call up your parents because they will always be the first to say it. In fact, 98.9 percent of parental mingling involves bragging about children. Arthritis and wine comprise the other 1.1 percent.
We also fall into a trap by thinking in terms of cookie-cutter experiences. You do not succeed by joining the Honor Committee, UGuides, and Residence Life. Certainly folks in all three organizations do well, but that should be a reflection of the individuals rather than the groups in which they participate. Think of the person you respect the most at the University. For me, that person supersedes labels yet remains a leader, explores all facets of the University and thus fends off the Hoo Flu. Obviously, I am alluding to Dean Groves.
As corrosive as the Hoo Flu can be, at the core it represents the University's spirit of activism. Everyone cares about something and everyone has leadership capabilities. We get bogged down when we feel like we are not living up to our potential or making the most of college. This passion is my favorite thing about the University, but there is a fine line between healthy pressure and overbearing anxiety. Let's resolve, then, to collectively calm down Grounds. If the students truly run this place, we need to change the pace. Also, speaking of running, there are far too many 5Ks. For heaven's sake, think of a new philanthropy.
E.P.'s column runs biweekly Thursdays. She can be reached at e.stonehill@cavalierdaily.com.
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