Identity on Campus

For him and his classmates, registering for next semester’s classes and activities is equally stressful as final exams. Students are sort of like unsaturated solutions – thirst after unknown, imbibing new experience as a spongy tissue. Baldheadedly, they pounce on each opportunity in order to get the most out of college rhapsody, but usually end up like poor Sisyphus: rolling a huge mass of unfinished work just to find out that the continuous change of brightness outside means nothing but sunrise. Good old friend sleep went to Bahamas on a vacation.

Is it possible to blame students for this greediness? Not if you live in the Hub of the Solar System (as Beantown is nicknamed by Oliver Wendell Holmes). For a moment, try to sit in the chair instead of that student. Your grey hoodie has a scarlet sign saying “Boston University” and you can feel the Atlantic breeze coming through the open window. Now ask yourself the student’s question.

Can you see a clear picture of your educational trajectory? So in which of those 7000 offered courses are you going to enroll? Masculinity in Jewish Literature? You look more like a Rock’n’Roll History or Primate Biomechanics kind of person, but you might also enjoy Cosmic Controversies. Are you going to take on a leadership role in one of 500 student organisations? Organic gardening club seeks for a cultivator operator and Society of Women Engineers is open for males too. How about your plans for the weekends? Do you fancy readings of Irish poetry or you’d rather dance to the beats and riffs of hard rock hits? You still lack sources of lactic acid in your schedule, but fencing lessons, a wiffleball tournament or a lacrosse game should make it. Your sport is watching others sporting? Then you must head to the North End – to listen to the roaring of Boston Bruins, to watch the clover leaf mysteries of the Celtics and to wear your Red Socks. Ask the student’s question again. Is your picture clearer now or rather gleamless like a carbon crystal? Do you find yourself liking all of the options? Then why don’t you sign up for every one of them?

The key to the highest profit from college live rests upon a stable arrangement of your academic, extracurricular and sporting activities while the measure of stability depends on your time management, concentration and regeneration skills. Living on campus is like balancing an equilateral triangle on a pencil tip. Each activity is a weight that shifts balance to one of the three sides. If you apply an extensive load, the armature of the triangle cannot withstand its tension and, if you don’t relieve the material, the whole system will collapse. Likewise, if you apply too much weight on one side only, the triangle will follow the shortest way to the lowest energy state – the bottom. Only a uniform load can make the system remain in a stable position. However, Ms. Balance likes to play hide and seek and most people don’t manage to find her.