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Make New Friends and Keep the Old: Making Plans

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Do you remember those two friends I talked about before?  The couple who recently got engaged, the guy in the Navy and the girl in college?  Well, now they’ll be farther away from each other than New York to New Jersey – try New Jersey to Washington…state, that is.  See, Navy Boy just finished his first two years of training, I guess it is, and after that comes his assignment.  In this case, he’s being sent to Washington State.  College Girl, on the other hand, is still in college, and will be for the next couple of years – not even taking grad school into consideration.  On the one hand, she could go with him.  However, for the Navy to pay for her housing Navy Boy needs to sign on for another six years – that’s a really long time.  College Girl would also have to go to school out there, and leave all of her family and friends behind for the foreseeable future.  Or, they can be separated for even longer.  It’s a tough choice, and I can’t honestly say which is better or what I would do, because their situation seems so extreme.  Navy Boy’s brothers are all in some sort of service; his younger brother is also in the Navy and is about to be shipped overseas, so I guess his family has adapted to these big changes and grown used to talking to each other over Skype only.

The reason I bring this up is because College Girl and I were recently making plans for next summer – like driving to Vegas once we’re both 21, or even just a day trip to DC when we both have the time.  These kinds of plans, though, can all fall through depending on where our lives bring us over the next year.  Like Navy Boy, just last June the thought was that he would go to Virginia…Washington is a lot farther away than Virginia.

There’s that Death Cab for Cutie song, “What Sarah Said.”  In it, Ben Gibbard sings, “And it came to me then that every plan / is a tiny prayer to father time.”  Now, okay, that song is about watching someone die, but those lyrics really work in any situation.  In two years, a year, none of us can really know where we’ll be no matter how many plans we make, or vacations we plan.  But we still make plans, hoping that despite everything else we’ll be able to meet up with so and so for this or that.  I’m not really one for change, but it happens every day regardless of my feelings or opinions.  So, College Girl and I will make our plans for trips across the country cause that’s what friends do, and Navy Boy and College Girl will make their plans to get married and talk every night, no matter where they are, because that’s what people who love each other do.  There you are, father time, a few more prayers to look over.

-Mary K

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VegEats! A Rationale

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

The poster for the wonderful documentary by Robert Kenner - a must-see!

VegEats is a Campus Clipper column where we discuss the benefits of vegan/vegetarian-friendly eating in New York City and find ways for students to eat healthy and be environmentally friendly with their food while still saving money.

I want to share with you why I went veg. I am not trying to tell you to make the same choice. But most students who move to New York City encounter a much larger number of vegetarians and vegans than they have before, and I want to offer an idea of why someone might have chosen this diet/lifestyle. And for those of you who might be considering going veg, I hope to give you some things to consider and some advice. I went veg because I researched and educated myself about how eating animals and animal byproducts affected my health, the health of the planet, and the life of the animals. What I learned upset me and made me not want to use my money to support a system that has so many negative consequences. (If you would like to educate yourself, there are a abundance of resources online. I would personally recommend the site goveg.com, as well as other resources like Robert Kenner’s excellent 2008 documentary Food, Inc.)

But I think the reason I was successful in going veg and have felt so good about the decision is I didn’t make any changes too quickly and allowed myself to work at my own timeline. There’s a term in psychology, cognitive dissonance, which means the uncomfortable feeling you get by trying to maintain two contradictory ideas simultaneously. I was brought up, like many others, believing it’s okay to eat animals. But as I learned more about the consequences of this action, I increasingly found reasons why it wasn’t. Over time, months and months, my discomfort grew so that when I ate meat or cheese or eggs, I didn’t feel good about it. The food didn’t seem satisfying anymore.

Even once I decided to actually change my diet, I did it in baby steps: I gave up red meat, then waited a few months, then gave up turkey, then waited; and when I began to consider veganism, I went on “practice runs” every few months for over a year, adopting a complete vegan diet for longer and longer periods of time. During both of these process’, I was careful to note what cravings I had and what foods assuaged them. For example, when I went vegetarian, I kept a jar of crunchy peanut butter within reach at all times – I even had one under my bed with a spoon! Whenever I was feeling sluggish or craving a cheeseburger, I ate a big scoop of crunchy PB. Almost immediately I trained my body to crave peanuts when it needed protein instead of meat; it’s amazing how quickly and easily the body will adapt to changes we make as long as we are attentive to it and make sure it gets what it needs.

I paid attention to how hungry or not hungry I felt, my energy levels, how well I was sleeping, my mood, everything. Diet is probably one of the easiest ways to change your whole life, for better or worse; making huge sudden changes and expecting your body to immediately adjust is a recipe for disaster. By the time I was fully vegetarian and fully vegan, I no longer had any craving for those foods – I knew what my body could use to replace them, and I liked being able to eat food that was not only delicious but good for me, animals, and the planet.

If you are interested in going vegetarian or vegan, that’s great – I’ll have more advice about that in future posts. But even if you’re not, college is an important time for your diet. For many of us, this is the first time we’re deciding what’s for dinner, and that’s actually a really important decision. The quality and quantity of food you put into your body affects you physically and in a multitude of other ways – underestimating the importance of a healthy diet is a huge mistake too many students make. Please research your food – where does it come from, how is it prepared, what nutrients, fats, and calories does it contain, and how will these properties affect you. Knowledge is power, so do what you came to college to do: learn.

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Broadway On A Budget

Monday, June 7th, 2010

One of the many allures of this enchanting city is what some call the Great White Way. That avenue of dreams where thousands of artists spend countless hours hoping for a chance to pursue their passion and where electric lights are as numerous as the stars. Most commonly this magical place is referred to by a single name: Broadway. Millions of tourists from across the country and around the world come to Broadway to catch a play, a musical, or a theatrical production. The problem for many, however, are the exorbitant ticket prices that go along with a theatre going experience.

Luckily, you have access to a number of options that can drastically cut down those prices. The most popular way in town to get a discount is by visiting the Theatre Development Fund (TDF) (or TKTS booths) at Times Square (Broadway and 47th Street), at the South Street Seaport (Prudential Building at 199 Water Street), or in Downtown Brooklyn (1 MetroTech Center at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue Promenade), where you can buy day-of Broadway and Off Broadway tickets at 50%, 40%, 30% and 20% off the full-price (plus a $4.00 per ticket service charge). Be prepared to wait in line, especially on a Friday and Saturday. Another popular alternative to high prices is by checking online ticket distributors, which sell tickets that are comparable in price to TDF. There are plenty in this category (broadwaybox.com, stubhub.com, and theatermania.com are a few), so finding a ticket should be fairly easy.

A third way to get some amazing discounts is by searching for rush tickets offered for many shows on Broadway (you can check which shows offer rush tickets at playbill.com). These tickets are fantastic in price (usually $25-$35), but require some patience on your part and occasionally cash only so make sure you head to the ATM before standing in line. There are three categories of rush tickets: lottery, general rush, and student rush. Lotteries usually start 2 hours prior to a performance, with a drawing one and half hours prior to a performance. You never know what kind of crowd will show up, but it pays to bring a friend and sign up separately to double your chances and/or to both sign up at two different theatres and have one person stand at that theatre while you wait at another theatre (you must be there in person to purchase the ticket, so be prepared to race over to the theatre your friend is waiting at and vice versa, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue considering almost all of the theaters are between 44th and 50th street). General Rush tickets are usually handed out when the box office opens. A show’s popularity will determine how far in advance you should line up, so expect to sometimes to wait an hour and a half for hot items. The last category is Student Rush. This is obtained with a valid student ID (the most important card in your wallet next to your driver’s license) and works the same way as general rush. All in all, these are great ways to get tickets if you have some patience and are not too particular on what you’d like to see and the kind of seats (or standing spots) you’d like to watch the play in. I waited in line for an hour before the box office opened for Fences, but I also walked into A Behanding in Spokane in the middle of the day and scored a $25 ticket. It’s a bit random, but totally worth it. It never hurts to just go into a theatre and ask what kind of rush tickets they have, because you may get really lucky.

Please share your Broadway on a Budget stories as well! It’s always great to hear about new ways to see great theatre. Happy bargain hunting and enjoy the show!

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-Roni Tessler

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Chambers of Solitude: the October Schlump

Sunday, June 6th, 2010
Big Apple

New York City: you don't have to see all of it in a month

About a month into the fall semester, a phenomenon occurs that I refer to as the October Schlump. It’s easy to recognize: first-year students, (who every night up till then have turned Washington Square into a giant social playground,) suddenly disappear. For a few weeks they are conspicuously absent, and then slowly, as Halloween approaches, they begin to tentatively reemerge from their dorms. What happened?

I know, because I went through it. For students new to this amazing city, that first month is like a dream. So many wonderful things to see and do that were never available before; new friends to make, new places to go, new things to discover. But it really feels like a dream: there’s a constant sense that this is illusory, that at any moment you will wake up and this opportunity you worked so hard for will dissolve around you. When a new friend invites you to go to this party at their friend’s place in Brooklyn, you think, Brooklyn! When else will I get to see Brooklyn?! When you read about a new exhibit at the MoMA, you think, the MoMA! When else will I be able to visit the MoMA?! When you pass a new Mexican restaurant in the Village offering a two-for-one Margarita special, you think . . .  well, you get the idea.

This lifestyle is, of course, impossible to maintain. About a month in, you wake up one day, maybe around 5 PM, and think, what day is it? You realize that you slept through an entire day of classes. See, you meant to just take a short nap – it was 3 AM, you’d just gotten back from a party at a friend’s – Happy Wednesday! – and you realized you didn’t have any clean clothes, so what a perfect time to do laundry! You threw a load in the washer, and then came back up to finish that essay on Socrates – that’s what New York’s about, multitasking! – and about two pages in thought, I’ll just take a quick nap – an hour or two, tops. After all, you haven’t slept in two days, so it’s about time to give the body a little refresher. Now here you are, essay not finished, classes missed, your load of laundry having been removed from the washer and scattered aimlessly all over the laundry room floor by some jerk. And even after sleeping twelve hours, you still feel tired. Or not tired, more than tired – exhausted. Your resources have been depleted; nothing in you wants to get out of bed, go anywhere, do anything. The momentum is gone.

This is the October Schlump. Although skipping meals and missing sleep are major contributing factors, the Schlump is not a disease, at least not physically. It’s the mental state that settles in when you realize that you barely have any idea what you did in the past month. You were in constant motion, you went and saw and did a million amazing things, but you can barely remember any of them. Some of them you liked, some of them you didn’t, but which were which?

So, for about a week, you don’t go out. You stay inside, do homework, get lots of sleep, eat right, and figure out what to do next. In that time, you realize that New York City isn’t going anywhere. It won’t disappear under your feet one day; it will be there the next day when you wake up, and the day after that, and the day after that. You will have at least four years, at most the rest of your life, to explore. So after that week, when friends call you up and invite you to this or that, you can say no, not tonight, rain-check. You don’t even need to give a reason. You can (in fact, you must) spend a night in now and then. And you must do is reflect. You are swimming in a sea of new experiences, new stimuli, new ideas, and some are good for you and some are not. You can have all these experiences but if you never stop to reflect on what they mean, they are – literally – meaningless.

As anyone who’s lived in a dorm can attest, dorms can be a lot of fun, but they aren’t really the best places for quiet reflection. After my October Schlump, I began to seek out places I could go to be by myself, to think and ponder, to reflect and debate. I can’t give you the answers to the big questions of life that all college students confront during those four years – I don’t have them. But I can share with you come places I think will provide the stillness, the solitude, within the bustling metropolis that we call home, to find some of these answers. And I will call them Chambers of Solitude. More to come.

And in the meantime, if you need to a moment of calm and some advice on chill-axing, (sorry, I won’t use that word again,) go here.

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Getting to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

“Get to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward”

I said this to someone once without noticing, and she was thoughtful enough to remember it and even quote me later. That’s when it really made sense to me and stuck. I say it to myself all the time now before digging into something that makes me want to hide under a bed and hibernate for the season.

Here’s what it means to me: most things that are really, really worth getting are really, really hard to get. This goes for money, love, fame, fortune, success, diamonds, you name it. There’s a reason that a very small percentage of people attain what they truly want: it’s tough as a two dollar steak and the process is just about as appetizing.

There’s little point in pretending that asking someone special out, making that first sales call, or going to an interview for your dream job are going to be easy. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably going to sweat like you’re running a marathon and chug Pepto-Bismol like you’re life depends on it.

But here’s the good news. Once you cross that muddy river, there’s a beautiful shore on the other side. If you’re not willing to get dirty and make that trip, then you’re stuck on your little island. Clean and mopey. Yeah, you’ll be more comfortable avoiding your fears, but what’s the point of that comfort if it’s keeping you from getting what you really want? When you have more wrinkles than you can count and more to look back on than look forward to, will you think to yourself:

“Gee, it’s a good thing I didn’t take that risk 20 years ago.”

Or will you think:

“I wonder what would have happened if I…”

I bet you $5 that it’ll be the latter. (I’d bet a lot more, but my checking account wouldn’t like it).

The point is, we miss so many opportunities because going after them is just plain awkward. My philosophy is, face the awkward, get through it. It’ll be over quicker than you think, and the reward will be well worth it. And hey – even if you don’t get exactly what you want, I promise you’ll feel good about yourself for taking that risk. It’s addicting, and it gets easier and easier with practice.

So quit reading and go get to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward — whatever that means to you.

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The hardest part of a job is finding one

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

As I graduated college three weeks ago, I anxiously feared my most impossible task yet: finding a job. My stepfather had told me that the hardest part of a job is simply finding one and with the economy being what it is, I could tell I was going to have a heck of a time. I did not have a million internships or a degree in anything applicable to the jobs I was applying for; although being an English major does have some perks. To my surprise, a few days after sending out my resume, I had five interviews lined up, and, that Friday, I got a job. I think part of what happened was that I was lucky; the job I got needed to be filled quickly and I was available to start as soon as possible. But, the bigger part of it was that I was meticulous.

When I started my job, I realized that over 200 people had applied, and over twenty of them had landed interviews. So, what made me special? A few things…

1. I focused on my educational achievements. Since I did not have too much job experience, I tried to emphasize my education by putting my GPA on my resume, which is something that not everyone thinks of doing. If it is good, (I would say 3.5 or above) might as well slap that baby on there!

2. I was real. The guy who hired me at my job told me that, even though I did not have a lot of experience, he really liked my personality. After looking over all kinds of things to do and not do at an interview, I decided to just be myself. If an employer is looking at a bunch of people, being a robot is not going to make you stand out and land a job. On the other hand, if you are funny, or charming, or smart, or even a little silly, an employer will see you as a person and relate to you. And, if they don’t like what they see, then you probably would not be happy working there anyway.

3. I was careful. Looking over the resumes that were submitted after I landed my job, I saw a common theme: people were just being plain careless. Some people had submitted resumes with objectives that were irrelevant; obviously they had sent that same resume to a million jobs and were just changing a line and forgot to change their objective. Others had forwarded the same email to a bunch of different people. Still others made careless errors in their resumes themselves and obviously who would want to hire someone who cannot even look over their resume?

While I might have been an exception to the horrors of the job search, you can certainly be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition if you just pay attention to how you are presenting yourself. If you have something that makes you stand out, emphasize it. Maybe even try a few different resumes or cover letters to see which ones help you land more interviews. And, as always, be yourself–it really does pay off and there really is no point in getting a job you are just going to be miserable in.

-Emily S

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STD’s and Germ Freaks!

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

The other day I spent some time with a long time friend of mine. It was a long yet blissful day; we ran all over town, touching down in each borough for at least an hour, well all of the boroughs with the exception of Staten Island. By the time we returned to my apartment, we were exhausted, drained, and well filthy. We had been running the streets of New York, riding the trains, sitting in public places, and using public restrooms. We were both due for a hot shower and a long night of sleep.

My friend, being the germ freak that she is, immediately ran to the bathroom, not only to wash her hands, but to scrub her face with soap and hot water as well. She then sat down to eat her food. While she ate, I asked her if she would take a picture of me. I was so in love with my outfit that day, that I felt the need to take as many pictures as possible in my lovely get up. At first she didn’t want to do it. She complained of touching the camera and then touching her food. She didn’t want to spread germs to her food. “But what about when you have unprotected sex”, I asked? She stopped and looked at me. “I only have unprotected sex with one person,” was her reply. I stared at her in amazement. “How do you know that he’s not having sex with anyone else,” I questioned? Her response, “he’s not.”

This got me thinking, deep, real deep. How could someone be so afraid of getting germs, but not as afraid of putting their life on the line? I mean she had been with this guy for over three years, but still.

I remember being a student in undergraduate school, and doing a project for my Black Studies class about sexual health and how so many young people are misinformed about the dangers of having unprotected sex. Thankfully, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has an abundance of information about Sexual Transmitted Diseases, including, prevention, causes, and treatment. While some diseases have noticeable symptoms, there are other diseases that don’t show symptoms. Some diseases are silent, slowly ruining the health of its victim until the victim decides to go and get themselves checked out.

According to the CDC, each year, there are approximately 19 million new STD infections, and almost half of them are among youth aged 15 to 24. This shows that many young people don’t get checked out. Maybe they think that they are invincible, or are afraid, or they may simply be ignorant about the importance of knowledge of their sexual health status. Fortunately, there are places throughout the five boroughs, where male and female students can get tested for STD’s. So what will you do? Will you become a germ freak or a freak about the safety of your sexual health? I suggest that you choose the latter!

Free and Confidential Clinics in NYC

Shana H

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Facebook Friends Forever

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

So, I’m sure it’s obvious by now that I write about friendship, love – that kind of thing. And, with an old friend’s birthday being today, I’ve been thinking…

Okay, so, facebook? It’s there so we can keep in contact with old friends and new friends and blahblahblah. I’m sure most people have one, I know I do. For the longest time I didn’t want one, I saw no reason for it. Last year, though, a friend just went and made one for me and I haven’t looked back…well, I have, but not often. The thing about my facebook, though, is that I don’t talk to the people I’m “friends” with. Those I do, I also text them frequently. All of those people I thought to keep in contact with once we became facebook friends I don’t even bother with, because I realized why we weren’t friends in the first place (and not being close facebook friends with someone is in large part due to their status updates – if I have to read those lyrics to “Airplane” again, I’ll go crazy). What’s the point of having something to keep in contact with people who I already keep in contact with? Yet I still have mine, and probably will for a long time.

As I said earlier, my friend’s birthday is today. Of course, all of her facebook friends are aware and have been sending her well wishes. Now, I know for a fact that half of the people who said “Happy birthday!” are people she doesn’t like, and they probably know it, too, yet they say it all the same. Now, is this an olive branch, a chance at reconciliation? Or is it just something a person does when they see So-and-So’s birthday Today on the side of their page? Another friend of mine was mad that I didn’t wish her a facebook happy birthday, even though I said it through phone call and text. Are things not official if they aren’t facebook official?

I’ve noticed that a lot of people have 300+ friends, and I personally don’t know that many people, let alone am actual friends with that many. My graduating high school class was a little over 700 students, but I can only name 100 on a good day. If I didn’t know a person in high school, why would I connect with them now? One could argue that it’s important to make new friends, but now that I’m in a completely different state, it seems to make new friends with those I graduated with.

Am I thinking too much about this? I don’t even know what my point is, aside from the general confusion I get when some person I’ve never met before, who went to the same high school as me but graduated either earlier or later, tries to be my “friend.” I say no to them, but a lot of people don’t because they like looking at inflated numbers of friends, even if they really aren’t. With friendship, it’s quality, not quantity, right?

-Mary K

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How to save lives and find time to study for finals

Friday, May 21st, 2010

It was my junior year, and I was convinced that if I added anything more complex than “brush teeth” to my To Do list it would explode. I had finals, papers, lab research, two jobs, a jobless boyfriend, and a stack of bills that made my ceiling look low. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that even Einstein wouldn’t be able to squeeze free time into my schedule. And then I met Loki. Though, at the time, his name was Mary.

I was interviewing a veterinarian at his clinic for a project (get in, get out – very simple stuff). But despite my better judgment, I decided to see the animals in the kennel. That’s when I saw him: a tiny white kitten who had been left in a cardboard box outside the clinic. The vet named him Mary (weird sense of humor). I saw that terrified little face, picked up my phone, and called Jobless Boyfriend. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “How would you feel if we got a cat? He really needs a home.”
JB: “Oh my God. Can we afford it?”
Me: “No.”
JB: “Um…”
Me: “Let’s do it?”
JB: “Okay!”

The next day, we adopted another cat (Spliooshka) because we figured they could keep each other company. And here’s the bizarre thing that happened:

Free time appeared out of thin air. While I could have sworn to you that I didn’t even have time to do laundry, here I was, adopting animals and kitten-proofing my apartment.

This wonderful calm came over me because the task at hand was suddenly so simple, so single-minded. I didn’t have to wonder what I should do first or second. And at the end of the day, I had two soft and fuzzy creatures tackling one another playfully and purring on either side of me. I smiled, picked up my notebooks, and studied for my finals.

The funny thing that happened when I re-prioritized was that I felt less stress (so I wasted less time worrying and trying to figure out what to do next), I concentrated better, I eliminated all unnecessary tasks, and I found the time to get everything done. At work, I even asked for a raise (keeping the cats in mind) and got it.

Am I suggesting you go adopting animals to do better on your tests? Not necessarily. If you can’t commit to caring wholeheartedly for a pet, then don’t. If you can, please do. There are millions of little furry lives that need saving. But the bigger lesson here is that we get so caught up in our To Do lists and responsibilities that we lose sight of the big picture: that life is about enjoying yourself and doing great things. Sometimes remembering something more important than finals can help put everything else into perspective.

P.S. If you’re interested in adopting an animal and would like some advice on where to go and what to do, please drop me a line!

P.P.S. Loki and Spliooshka (cool cats Logan, and Lady, and our newly adopted dog, Scarlett) say hi.

– Tania Luna

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Recent Grad, New Job, or So I Thought

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

When I received my undergraduate degree from Baruch College in May 2006, I was ecstatic. I immediately began applying for jobs and couldn’t wait for my phone to start ringing non-stop. Little did I know that this was a far fetched idea; my phone did ring, but not as often as I had originally hoped for, so I decided to make some phone calls myself. I contacted the human resources departments of at least three companies to inquire about the status of my applications and was told more than once that I did not have enough experience. Experience I thought, how many new graduates have experience? I believed that one industry related internship and a few years of non-industry related work experience were enough for me to get an interview, but apparently it wasn’t. At that point, I realized both the power and importance of an internship, which may have been obvious to some, but to others, such as me, it was new and enlightening information that could have helped to speed up my career.
According to freedictionary.com, an internship is defined as “a student or recent graduate undergoing supervised practical training.” This means that as a student or a recent graduate, one will gain hands on experience in their field of choice. Most internship’s are unpaid, but do compensate students by offering credit for a specified course. For example, a student may work as an intern for the duration of the fall, spring, or summer semester. When the internship is completed, the student may then receive the number of credits for the course taken in conjunction with the internship.
There are various ways in which a student can find an internship. Below is a list of resources/tips that can help students with their search.

  • Contact your school career and internship center. These centers have trained staff members who are there to assist you with your career, job, and internship needs. Most of these centers offer career guidance, resume and cover letter workshops, and interview preparation assistance.
  • Utilize the career services that are offered by the public library. New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library all offer free career services. They also have many materials that may help you with your internship search.

New York Public Library Info for Job Seekers
Queens Library Job Resources
Brooklyn Public Library EJIC

-Shana H

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