School kind of stinks, it’s mostly stress. Stress from sitting in a class that you may or may not have done the readings for, or being forced into awkward situations. It’s nice to get away but you can’t always leave campus whenever you want, because the buses take years and you probably have another class. Here is a list of six ways you can run away from school without actually leaving campus.
1. Take a nap in the Coe Library Reading Room.
This one is pretty simple. Just grab a book or your laptop and put it in front of your face. Then close your eyes and grab a quick snooze. I’m pretty sure when they created the Reading Room, they meant to call it the Napping Room because it’s awful hard to spend a lot of time in there without falling asleep. It’s out of the way in the library but still pretty centrally located, so it’s an ideal location to plop your feet up and fall asleep.
2. Grab some coffee and chill out.
Go to one of the many coffee shops around campus, it’s like the university knows college kids or something. There are five that I have counted, potentially more underground ones. Depending on which side of campus you are on, you can go to Encore Café in the BCPA or Elements Café in the Classroom Building. Either way, grab yourself a good ol’ cup of joe, maybe grab yourself a friend too and just chill out. Talk about things that don’t matter because the things that do are stressful and that would defeat the purpose of getting coffee and chilling out.
3. Pop in your headphones and stroll around campus.
This one is probably the tactic I use most often. It’s a great way to decompress because you have the opportunity to listen to whatever you want and just enjoy the beauty of campus. All you need is a pair of headphones, a playlist with some killer tunes and nowhere to be. You also don’t need to feel pressured to talk to anyone, because oh no, you’re headphones are in and you can’t hear anything. You could take them out, but your hands are in your pockets and those suckers are not about to move. You can just switch to autopilot mode, stick to nonverbal communication for the people you recognize and go for a nice casual stroll.
4. Sit in the Union and people watch.
You can find some pretty interesting things by just sitting in the Union and observing the people around you. Plus, people are really interesting when you sit and watch them. You could find someone who has more stress than you and realize how good you have it or you could watch people do their homework and feel bad for not doing your own. Regardless, you are bound to find some interesting characters out there; I mean the student population is almost 13,000, I’m sure there are some weirdos here. You just have to watch for them.
5. Go to the gym?
This one is more of a suggestion, not a recommendation. If I’m being honest, I have not been to the gym in a minute. But it’s still a good option! People go there and seem to like it, so why can’t you? You could try running on the track or lifting a weight or pressing your legs or climbing the rock wall, whatever stuff people do at the gym nowadays. The gym is your playground. Your fees go toward keeping it open, so you might as well take advantage while it lasts.
6. Play with the sand thing in the Geology Museum.
Have you been inside the Geology Museum? If not, boy, are you in for a treat. There is a cool 3-D sand thing that has a map projected on it. What’s so cool about this? Well, you can move the sand, and when you move the sand the map being projected modifies and allows for you to see how geographic changes can affect water and whatnot. I’m obviously no expert in geology or geography, but this thing is pretty cool. I would recommend putting your toes in it so you can feel like you’re at a beach, but that might be a little strange and will probably get you kicked out. This is a great way to kill a few spare minutes. Plus, the museum has dinosaur bones and stuff in it, so it’s an all-around good spot to check out.
This is a great list of things to do in order to get away from the things that stress you out. Be sure to give these a shot the next time you’re looking for something to do and have a lack of things to do. Maybe you don’t even need a lack of things to do, you could definitely do this instead of reading for your next class or writing that discussion response that you were supposed to finish last night but you decided to prioritize sleep. Not that I’m encouraging you to fail your classes, more encouraging you to focus on yourself sometimes rather than the thousand other things you have to.
