Posts Tagged ‘chicago’

Crescendo: Finding my Muse

Monday, July 18th, 2022

“Who you surround yourself with is who you become.” This concept, also known as the law of attraction, goes back at least to Confucius in the 6th century BC. All these centuries later, its wisdom has stood the test of time and often comes to mind when I think about my friends in college, who have become a second family of sorts. In college my friends and I live, eat, study, and relax together, and through these shared experiences I have come to understand how many ways there are to live by one’s own values and give back. 

Growing up under my parents’ roof, my ideas of giving back were based solely on more traditional forms of community support – volunteering at a soup kitchen, taking care of my family members, and giving money to charity. However, as I settled into college life, I began to see just how many forms giving back can take on, and how personal the best forms of giving back can be. Because of the many obligations that make time precious in college, the framework of volunteering that I turned to growing up no longer fit in my life. Instead, I learned how impactful it is to integrate personal passions into activities that align with one’s own values. 

It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized how much my practices surrounding personal values were enforced by my parents. They instilled the value of hard work by encouraging me to practice violin every day, study hard in school, and diligently seek out volunteer opportunities and part-time jobs. Furthermore, I grew up in a Jewish household and spent lots of time going to Hebrew school, services, and the youth group at my synagogue, where I learned about the Jewish principles of repairing the world and helping those around you. 

In a college environment, friendship is more than an outlet for fun – my friends are my support system, and their values make a difference. According to the research of social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, the people you associate with determine 95% of your success or failure in life. My friends at college couldn’t care less whether I go to Friday night services or practice violin every day, but they do inspire me through their practices of spreading good in the community and beyond. 

One of my friends is very passionate about composting – just by listening to him talk about reducing personal waste, it is easy to see how deeply he cares about the environment. Over the course of this past school year, his gentle preaching has convinced all of his friends to start composting, including myself. I see the impact of his benevolence whenever I go over to our mutual friends’ houses and see the compost buckets that he personally distributed. He even gave one of our friends a hand-painted bucket covered in smiley faces and flowers. Although people too often forgo cutting down on personal waste because doing so can feel futile, my friend’s impact has been prolific due to his influence on others, and will continue to multiply as I pass on his wisdom by encouraging my own friends to compost.

Another friend of mine is passionate about social justice, and often speaks about her involvement with Students Organizing for Labor Rights, a club advocating for campus workers who are so often treated with negligence by the university. She promotes change by spreading awareness of overlooked local and international social issues on social media, as well as providing information about mutual aid funds. Her welcoming attitude in the face of difficult issues inspires me to get involved, and she often invites groups of friends to attend protests with her. I will never forget the first protest I attended with her, a march remonstrating police violence in Chicago. My friend became a leader of sorts, sharing her knowledge of what to bring and how to act in case of an emergency, as well as leading rally cries at the march. Her eagerness to discuss social issues has encouraged me to become more involved with local social justice issues.

A picture from a protest on police violence that I went to with my friend last year

Living in a time marked by a pandemic, political tumult, and rising levels of adolescent mental health issues, it is not always easy to find the motivation to uphold personal values. Whether I am picking up pieces of trash on the street or attending protests with my friend, upholding personal values comes easy when it also means spending time with friends and watching them thrive in their element. Seeing my friends take action around things that are important to them inspires me to pursue my own passions. My friends have played a key role in encouraging me to pursue my own musical passion, and their support motivates me to continue.  For me, becoming a DJ is not all about my love for music – my main goal as a DJ is to create a space on the dance floor that invites anyone and everyone to express themselves fully. I hope to  create something special for others to experience, and spread joy. And ultimately, by sticking true to my own taste and persona, I hope to encourage others to go after what is important to them too.


Get 15% off at my favorite acai bowl and smoothie spot in NYC

By Lu Poteshman

Lu is a rising senior at Northwestern University, where she studies English Literature with a minor in Art, Theory and Practice. She is passionate about all things music and art, and loves to paint, draw, design things, write creatively, cook and explore in her free time. She is currently working towards her dreams of being a book editor by day and DJ by night.


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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Overture: New Musical Beginnings

Wednesday, June 29th, 2022

The night before I was set to move out of the apartment I had been subletting for the fall  semester of my junior year, I found myself surrounded by boxes, bare walls and my two roommates. We were strangers upon moving in, but sharing a living space is a sure way to expedite friendship, and the three of us became very close almost instantly. In the corner of my empty closet, a violin case caught my roommate’s eye. “Lu, we’ve never heard you play violin before… will you play us something?” 

Her request made me hesitate. I hadn’t played violin in almost two years and couldn’t remember how to play anything off the top of my head. Suddenly, all the memories of dancing to our favorite songs in the kitchen came to mind, and I knew exactly what to do. 

“Here’s an idea – how about you pick your favorite songs and I’ll play them?”

“You can do that? Without looking up the sheet music or anything?”

“Sure thing,” I responded, thinking back to my years of sight reading, hundreds of hours of practice, and my carefully trained ear. I know my violin like an extension of my own body, and years of listening and playing have taught me how to instantaneously process a melody and bring it to life. 

Their dubious expressions turned dumbstruck as they started naming songs, and, one by one, watched me bring them to life by listening to a snippet of the song, bringing the violin to my neck, and using muscle memory to play it on the spot, adding harmonies and embellishments as I went.

“I can’t believe you were hiding a secret talent from us all this time!” they exclaimed. I wasn’t hiding it, exactly, but it’s true that my violin had been sitting at the back of my closet for almost two years.

An early snapshot of me playing violin.

I started playing violin at the age of five, driven to lessons and daily practice entirely by my mother’s volition. As a child, I dreaded the long hours and frustratingly slow progress, but with the help of my naturally musical ear I grew to embrace the hobby. As I entered high school, violin became one of the most central parts of my life. 

I loved the sense of community I found at music school, and cherished the feeling of playing in groups, the sense of being a part of something bigger than myself. And, of course, I loved the music itself. I was entranced by its sweeping declarations, its way of telling stories without words, conveying emotions that only music can. Living with parents who encouraged my musical pursuits, violin easily fell into my daily routine. Every day I came home from school and practiced for two hours a day, playing scales over and over again, picking apart notes and phrases, striving for perfection.

When I moved to Chicago for college, my violin came with me, and I kept up a daily practice routine. But without my parents looking over my shoulder, I began to question if I really wanted to continue spending time in the practice room, especially when I could be chipping away at an ever-growing mountain of homework or socializing with my new friends. I could feel my old routine of violin slipping out of my grasp, and it was scary. I wanted to hang onto this part of my life – hiding away in the practice room was my refuge from a sea of uncertainty that waited beyond the soundproof doors. But my time was too valuable, and I felt myself being pulled towards other things, new things. 

Just a couple of weeks into freshman year, I walked over to the club fair with a recent friend, recalling mishaps from our first few days on campus. The club fair was held in a huge room in the student center, and we followed a horde of fellow underclassmen up a wide staircase into a huge room of chaos. We were greeted by endless rows of tri-fold posters, folding tables, and streams of people walking up and down the aisles, each person talking a little louder than the person next to them. I lost my friend in the chaos and wandered down the aisles alone, totally lost, not sure how I would go about selecting between the five literary magazines and thirty volunteer groups. 

“There you are!” I was relieved to hear my friend’s voice, and even more relieved to hear that she was feeling similarly overwhelmed. Just as we were about to leave, we walked by a table in the corner with a notably more subdued vibe and a poster that said WNUR in huge letters. The seniors at the booth explained that the radio station was a great opportunity for music lovers to play music live on the air. I signed up, leaving with a sense of new beginnings. Although I didn’t know anything about working at a radio station, or rock music, I could envision myself being a part of the community. It was the first step I took outside of my comfort zone at college, and although I didn’t know it at the time, WNUR would become one of the most important parts of my life at Northwestern, a source of community and personal growth. 

It can be difficult to step away from something that has become such a large part of your life, especially when you aren’t exactly sure who you want to be or how to get there. By evaluating what aspects of my high school self fit into my life as I transitioned into college, I discovered that I needed to put my old hobbies aside to leave room to follow my instincts and see what I was drawn towards. In doing so, I chose to prioritize the person I wanted to become rather than preserving the person I already was. I didn’t know what lay ahead but I knew I was looking forward and envisioning the person I wanted to be. And that was all I needed to take that first step. 


Take this coupon and head over to one of my favorite bagel shops in NYC!! Save on bagels, sandwiches, coffee, and more.

By Lu Poteshman

Lu is a rising senior at Northwestern University, where she studies English Literature with a minor in Art, Theory and Practice. She is passionate about all things music and art, and loves to paint, draw, design things, write creatively, cook and explore in her free time. She is currently working towards her dreams of being a book editor by day and DJ by night.


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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