All posts in anti-slump

The Anti-Slump: The Slump…it’s here!

By: / December 3, 2015 / No Comments /
Slump

Get to the life rafts!

I don’t have much time. We don’t have much time. We sophomores have been working hard this semester to keep the Slump at bay. At times it seemed like we had even gained the upper hand. But alas, all of our progress might be for naught. The storm is coming. In fact, I fear it is already upon us.

Hurricane

Hurricane Finals, circa RIGHT NOW.

There is still time to escape, to save yourself before the tempest strikes. You can drop a class anytime before finals. I strongly urge anyone reading this to drop all of their classes IMMEDIATELY, and then walk in a quiet and orderly fashion to the nearest fallout shelter. There should be enough Spam in there to last you until junior year, when it will be safe to come out again.

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The Anti-Slump: Look how far we’ve come

By: / November 19, 2015 / No Comments /
Slump

Yeah no things are great, super great. I wish I could be a sophomore forever.

Uh oh. It’s almost time to go home for Thanksgiving break. That means I’m gonna have to convince my family and friends that sophomore year is somehow better than freshman year.

But it is better, right? I mean, I won’t have to lie about having made tons of new friends this year. Because I do have tons of new friends, right?

Oh dear.

Of course, my family will be more concerned about academics, which is good for me, cause I’m a much better student now. Last year I rarely went to my professors’ office hours, but as a sophomore, I make a point of going all the time… well, really more like sometimes. Except for that one professor, who I’ve never even talked to, but I’ll definitely stop by their office hours before the semester ends.

As a sophomore, I am simply more confident about my academic plan. This year, I can proudly announce to my friends and family that I will almost certainly be concentrating in History, or Portuguese, or American Studies, or Africana Studies, or maybe Urban Studies cause I took this really cool class that talked about cities and stuff, but I could also do like an independent concentration in something cool, plus I like books so Comp Lit is still on the table. I’ve come a long way since freshman year. Continue Reading


The Anti-Slump: Unpacking those buzzwords

By: / September 22, 2015 / No Comments /

Slump

I have a long and troubled history with epistemology. I have no beef with the branch of philosophy that it refers to, but the word itself caused me a good deal of grief last year.

Like, I presume, most first years, I arrived at Brown with little knowledge of academic buzzwords. One of the most intimidating things about being in class as a first year is the volume of specialized vocabulary that you seemingly must learn in order to receive a passing grade and/or carry on a coherent conversation. (Let me add here that during freshman fall I took a couple of Anthro classes, which are essentially glorified buzzword orgies.)

Some of the most common academic catchphrases are easy enough to understand. To “unpack” is to dissect the complex meaning of a phrase, action, or thought; a “dichotomy” happens when there are two things; and “problematizing” is the process of realizing that something you like actually sucks.

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The Anti-Slump: Concentration fair today

By: / October 30, 2013 / No Comments /

sophomoreSlump2

Are you a sophomore? Do you lack direction in your academic goals? Are you slumping hardcore? Good thing there’s a concentration fair tomorrow to further make you feel like shit. Well, not in all cases. If you have questions about concentrations or just want to explore your overwhelming options, head to Sayles tonight from 7 to 8:30 p.m. There will be concentration advisors, concentrators involved in DUGs, and other general advisors waiting to help you out. Yeah, you might go and realize you have less of a clue about what you’re doing than you thought. Or you might miraculously find the concentration for you and see the skies part while angelic voices sing from the heavens. Either way, it’s well worth your time to start thinking in the long term (if you haven’t already) and check out your options.


The Anti-Slump: The Social Network Detox

By: / March 13, 2013 / No Comments /

anti-slumpThis semester, I told myself I would go out of my way to make new friends and find a housing group get to know the community better. Sure, my Facebook indicates I have over 100 friends that attend Brown, but how many do I actually hang out with on even a semi-regular basis? As a self-proclaimed social networking guru, I would spend endless hours gazing at photos of all the people I knew at Brown and tell myself that I should really consider hanging out with them more. The problem was that I wasn’t sure how to.

Enter Lent: a time of giving up something for six weeks until the day before Easter. The purpose of Lent is to prepare for the Easter season, but I decided to expand upon that and make it a starting point for establishing a more personal, more active social life. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the best deadline idea, but regardless, I figured I’d at least have made an effort to get to know more people by then. On February 13, I went against my procrastinating lifestyle and decided to cut myself off from Facebook and Twitter.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not total social suicide to leave the social networking world. I mean, I’m still allowing myself to stay on Tumblr and Instagram. But I told myself it would be more rewarding to see people in person rather than on my computer. As of now, I’ve been off of Twitter and Facebook for a month, and I feel as though I’ve definitely made an improvement! Thus, I’ve made a list of benefits of doing the Facebook/Twitter detox with personal anecdotes to help motivate you to do the same. Check it out after the jump.

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