Life

EDITORS ANECDOTE | Oops, I Exposed My Feelings

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So recently I found myself in a tragic, embarrassing situation that may as well be straight from a viral college tweet. I mean, take the infamous “I am worried” email sent to a professor and multiply the awkwardness by twenty to get something near the level of cringe of my situation. Let me explain: Picture a neurotic student at the onset of mid-semester depression with enough angst and loathing to fill every non-ergonomic slidey chair of MVR G71. This was me. It was quiz day in Biochem, which is otherwise known as that day every week when we study 80 slides worth of stupidly specific knowledge only to be tested on five of those things in a timed, true/false format.

Life

HEALTHNUT | Rise of Heart Attacks in Young Women

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Felicite Tomlinson, sister of former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson, died suddenly on March 13th at only 18 years old from a suspected heart attack – a reality being “increasingly recognized in young women”, according to Professor Simon Redwood, a consultant cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital. And Felicite isn’t the only one. Former Miss Teen Universe Lotte van der Zee also recently passed at age 19 from a heart attack. CNN reports a rise in heart attacks among young women based on a recently published study from the Journal Circulation. The study analyzes heart attack-related admissions of young patients into US hospitals, finding the largest increase to be in young women, rising from 21% to 31%, over the course of five years.

Life

SKATCH | Happy Now?

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About a week ago, I watched this video:

And my goodness, did it make me think of Cornell. Anna Akana is a Youtuber, life guru, and mental health advocate who creates videos about relatable and relevant topics, as well as longer narrative films. In this particular video, she discusses how impossible it feels to be happy when it seems as if your whole world is on fire — a sentiment that many Cornellians share on a weekly basis. Here at Cornell, sometimes it feels as though there is only one viewpoint: negative. “Look at our government; what kind of world do we live in? Look at everyone getting internships and having their lives together; do I even belong?

Life

INOCCIDUOUS THOUGHTS | I Feel Bad…

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There’s a time and a place for guilt. Most times it’s within reason—after doing something immoral, unethical, or unkind, it’s a necessary part of self-regulation that, without intention, keeps our emotions in check and subsequently provides a feedback mechanism for changing or continuing a behavior. Psychology Today assembled a short list of five types of guilt and how to cope with them. Interestingly, they preface with Freud’s psychodynamic theory of guilt and anxiety due to the repression of unconscious desires. With Freud in mind, the five types of guilt were listed as being: guilt for something you did, such as hurting someone physically or emotionally; guilt for something you didn’t do, but want to, such as having the desire to cheat on your partner; guilt for something you think you did, but didn’t, such as causing someone else’s misfortune by wishing it; guilt that you didn’t do enough to help others, including “compassion fatigue” which puts your own mental vitality at risk; and lastly, guilt that you’re doing better than someone else. These feelings of guilt are fairly common, but they’re rudimentary.

Guest Blogs

GUEST BLOG | A Letter to My Freshman Self

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Dear Freshman Brittany,

Welcome to Cornell! You’re going to change so much over the next three years, and I’m legitimately so excited for you.  A lot of your personal growth will pivot around your mental well-being. It will not be an easy or linear trajectory, but it will bring necessary and worthwhile progress. Part of me wishes I could tell you exactly what to do, what not to do, and what I wish I had done.

Culture

SOUND OFF | Music on the Mind

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People generally agree that music has an impact on mental health and our moods, whether through numerous studies that show correlations between music, relaxation and improved mental health, or through countless Twitter memes about sad Drake songs. Some people even program music around their lives, listening to certain music in the morning to pump themselves up for the day, or calming music at night to sleep. One of the most intriguing explorations of music’s cognitive impact has been the incorporation of music into mental health treatment. Music therapy, as it’s called, is not meant to cure mental health issues on its own, but can help alleviate some of the pain involved with certain symptoms, as well as augment actual cures such as medication. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, there are four major components to music therapy: lyric analysis, improv music playing, active music listening and songwriting.

Life

ARRAY | Over the Dreamwall

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Usually I try to write something with facts, figures and opinions, but this time around I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to talk about my personal experience with mental health. Take from it what you will. You can choose to extrapolate from my voice and the voices of people I met along the way, or you can view us as exceptions. But before I begin, I want to put out a bit of information.

Politics

KRAVITZ’S KORNER | We Need to Rethink First-Year Diversity Programs

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Cornell University recently decided to replace Tapestry of Possibilities — the diversity event that has been presented to incoming first-year students for the past 11 years — with the Identity and Belonging Project. This change was due to a host of complaints leveled against the old program, particularly the failure of the old program to encompass enough topics. The University’s decision to modify this decade-long program brings into question the efficacy of diversity programs, and whether they are really needed.  

Diversity programs instill in students the belief that anything that can be remotely perceived as offensive (i.e. microaggressions) is indeed offensive and should therefore be prohibited. On today’s college campuses, speech that is innocuous in mainstream society is often misconstrued as offensive.

Entertainment

MARY’S MUSINGS | Be You, Be Happy

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Being happy isn’t something that others can do for you; it’s something that you need to find for yourself.  Sometimes, or maybe too often, happiness is a battle.  People have always described me as a bubbly and positive person.  I excel at helping others and trying to put a smile on their faces to brighten their days.  I’m that person that smiles at strangers on the street.