Posts Tagged ‘campus’

Chapter Two: Boundaries Exist and Distance is Necessary

Monday, June 24th, 2024

There is nothing worse than an unspoken boundary that is violated. I imagine many of us as kids, especially young girls, have grown up believing that we didn’t have the right to our own privacy and our own space. Living in a small two-bedroom apartment with four other family members for a great majority of my life, I know I didn’t. It was quite the chore not communicating boundaries that were always there but didn’t quite have the language or courage to uncover them when doing so was like the equivalent of committing a sin to my parents.

I had a level of freedom I couldn’t find for years living in a strong, seemingly impenetrable bubble of domesticity. I had these rumbling thoughts deep inside of me thinking—why did this have to mean home? Why couldn’t I get outside of the bubble and share with others who weren’t even my biological family? These thoughts raised a lot more questions than answers. My naturally curious self while raised to be incessantly obedient to my family was also stubborn to be challenged and released from this containment. There indeed always was and still is a life outside of the family and of the traditional home.

I had believed that my parents (and extended family) were entitled to all the private details of my life just because they were my blood. That blood erased the possibility of personal choice. Once I was aware that I would become a college student and an adult, and didn’t have to share everything with my family, I was relieved. My college campus was like a home away from home. I could create my own schedule, choose my own classes, choose my hangout spot, and do almost whatever I wanted without my parents’ or teachers’ input.

There were many people I met in college that seemed to use this freedom away from home as eagerly as I wanted to. Though, I would say in riskier ways than I was willing to. Plenty just wanted to drink, smoke, and have lots of careless sex. It isn’t downright awful to engage in any of these short-term pleasures, as long as they are measured and consensual. But freedom in college to me meant an entirely different thing. It meant getting closer to Mother Nature. Enjoying my own company. Reveling in my own aliveness. It was like a spiritual awakening to see just how much of this world there was for me to experience.

Going to college made me closer to nature, closer to myself, and closer to everyone I have learned major lessons from—even those I have run physically and emotionally away from. It made me see how many more similarities we carry to each other than we do differences. That we are all just wandering souls, even my own family would argue against that using the argument that biological ties are unbreakable. Essentially, that biology keeps at least some of us away from wandering too far. Even though chosen families exist, but that’s another conversation for another time.

Even if my college wasn’t too far from home, I found it a necessary part of my life. For some, college may have given them nothing; but for those such as myself, it saved me. College revealed to me how my perfectionism was hurting me. How staying neatly within the lines draw by home life was holding me back. I didn’t have to dedicate my entire life to my family. I didn’t even have to absolutely love spending time with them.

My college campus—repping City College of New York, of course—gave me a quiet thinking place away from the aggressive debates at home. It gave me beautiful buildings I could stare at without feeling like an awkward tourist. It was almost like a mini-city—not too huge that I didn’t feel like an ant and intimate enough to actually enjoy the nature around me and feel like a part of it too. Even riding the college shuttle bus almost every day to and from the train station made me feel like I owned the city for a couple of minutes. I was indeed a natural wanderer.

I admit that I have taken Mother Nature for granted plenty of times, and college put Her front and center so I wouldn’t ignore Her. After reading that academic greenspace provides many positives for college students such as more social interaction, sharper focus, improved moods, and improved cognitive performance, I thought about how academic greenspace made me feel more aligned with the world. I hadn’t felt more at ease and more myself than at my college campus. I thank Her for that.

Though small, my college campus will always be beautiful to me.

To conclude, I’d like to reference an Afro-Latinx Literature course I took in the Fall of 2022, which was taught by Bronx-born poet Mariposa at City College. What was so significant about this course was that my professor invited multiple writers and activists to speak to our class—many having been involved in the Nuyorican Movement and The Young Lords Party in the 60s and 70s in New York City. I remember in one of our earlier classes being taken to Remembrance Rock on our campus where there lay a plaque commemorating the Black and Puerto Rican students who protested for racial diversity and tuition-free college at City in 1969. Our class sat on the grass underneath the trees as we listened to our professor speak with peace. It was in this moment that I realized that learning should always be in nature and always reflect it.


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By Daeli Vargas

Daeli is a recent graduate from the City College of New York with a BA in English and a publishing certificate. She is from the Bronx and is very passionate about all things literary. She hopes one day to publish many books of her own and share her passions worldwide.


For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Arrival: Freakout, panic attack, wait are those the Olsen Twins?

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

 

      You’ve just graduated high school, leaving prom night behind, and that comment you wish you took back but didn’t really because you felt it was rightly deserved, and are now ready to begin your new life in the city. You’re giddy because you hope you’ll be caught in a photo beside an A-star celebrity eating a light salad and sipping sparkling water at your favorite hole-in-the wall restaurant you read about. On arrival, however, you noticed no celebrities, chic restaurants:  just random people either playing music for money or those playing music but  being paid because others have assumed they’re only there for money.

          Hopefully, dorm life is the same as shown on brochures, campus tours, and other miscellaneous google image searches you did beforehand. Hurrah! Dorms are fantastic with enough space and lighting that makes you feel it’s not jail-cell B. You’ve traveled far, maybe crossed the Atlantic, and now you’ve arrived in the Big Apple. Parents are helping you unload bags, boxes filled with snacks, and then treating you to a rewarding feast for graduating high school and marking the next big chapter of your life, college. They leave. Now what? There is one scenario that pops in your head: people will start drinking, gorging on jello shots, and parading in the dorms until 6 a.m the next day. 

         Real scenario: you’re laying on your bed thinking how many calories did I just inhale and what to do next?  Should call parents, pops in your mind, but that will make them think you severely miss them and are ready to leave college to become the next pop musical sensation or viral Youtube star. Should call friends is another option you ponder. That decision also has its setbacks, you think, because friends will see it as you trying to live in the past and being overly clingy. Who else to phone then?  Former partner?  They’ll think you’re absurd. Only person/non-human near you are either your dog or that chubby cat meowing ferociously outside for food even though it clearly needs to stop eating.

        Have no fear. The worst things most new New Yorkers accomplish is to over analyze simple decisions. Moving away from home, leaving where you grew up, knocked that kid off his bike and then lied about it, is difficult for anyone. Call your parents immediately (well, wait until they’re on the freeway) to tell them you’ll miss them and promise to either call, video chat, face-talk, Facebook message, Line, etc, that night to update them on your new day.

        Don’t fear phoning friends because they’re in similar shoes as yourself, or worse, they’re hyperventilating and looking at graduation photos yelling “Why me?!!” Instead of staying in your dorm waiting for orientation, explore the local neighborhood; if you find a store you like, you can later discuss and recommend it to your new friends, it will make you seem knowledgeable like a native New Yorker; you even find a surprising discount for new students on the Campus Clipper, the local booklet that helps you save those extra bucks, on textbooks. Now you have both a new street-smart mentality and you can rent out a Chemistry textbook for a bargain at Shakespeare & Co Textbooks which up to today was only a dead guy who wrote amazing plays; but now he also offers stupendous offers to students.If you left the comfort of your hometown, city, or neighborhood, surely you can take those extra steps to acclimate to New York City. After all, no one is really a true New Yorker. Most of us fake it ‘til we make it.

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Sergio Hernandez, Skidmore College. Tweet Sergio on Twitter

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Why Work Out? Utilize College Discounts While You Can!

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, college students should get at least one hour of physical activity per day.  But for many students, working out feels like an impossible task. Between classes, schoolwork, extracurricular activities, social life, love life, and sleep, it seems that there is simply not enough time in the day.

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However, making time to work out can benefit all students. Physical activity boosts productivity and clears the mind, gives positive energy and instills confidence to take on challenges. It also makes you feel good about yourself, boosting self-esteem, a serious concern for many college students.

A good workout is about balance, no matter your gender. Walking into a college gym, you usually find the women on the treadmills and elliptical machines, while the men lift weights. Oftentimes, men think that they need to lift weights and chug protein shakes in order to stay fit, while women tend to steer clear of the weight room because they fear looking like female bodybuilders. These beliefs are workout myths. Reaching a body type of a bodybuilder is unlikely without intense workouts, extreme dieting, and heavy supplementation. Weight-lifting can boost metabolism, improve posture, and build muscle, which helps burn fat faster; therefore, it can benefit both men and women. However, weight-lifting is not essential to staying fit. Alternative forms of exercise like biking and running benefit the heart and rest of the body in ways that weight-lifting does not.

But you don’t need to become a “gym rat” or a “fitness freak” to stay healthy and fit. There is a myriad of quick and easy ways to work out during your college years. Students can stay fit without even going to the gym through activities like bike rides, yoga, Zumba, swimming, team sports, parkour, or jogging outside with a friend. For those not sure where to start, Tao Yoga, Sacred Sounds Yoga, and Moksha Yoga in New York City are excellent for beginners and yoga masters alike.

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The hardest part is finding the motivation to go out and get moving. It is crucial to get into the habit of working out consistently while in college because once you have a full-time job and a family to support, the motivation is more likely to disappear.

Don’t get accustomed to a lethargic lifestyle, because it only gets harder to change. Go now, while you don’t need to pay for a gym membership. If a trip to the gym consumes too much time, complete a body weight workout in your dorm room or apartment. All it takes is 60 minutes a day to get on the right path.

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Joey Silver, University of Delaware. Check out my Twitter!

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Interested in more deals for students? Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter to get the latest in student discounts and promotions  and follow our Tumblrand Pinterest. For savings on-the-go, download our printable coupon e-book!

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