Adam

The following post is a list of cool stuff I experienced this year.

1. I learned how to read a map. Wait, what? By taking the recreational, single credit hour class “Basic Orienteering,” I was given the chance at reliving childhood dreams of being Lewis/Clark. Although I wasn’t mapping the unknown or making friends with Native Americans, I did learn how to use a map and compass to navigate around in the woods. Will I ever need this skill? Probably not. But after hiking something like 5 or 6 miles around MacBride Nature Recreation Area, I did realize more of what I’m capable of. My group used a map and compass to find 11 different markers attached to trees, and did so completely off-trail. Plus, I snapped some really cool pictures. I’d suggest taking this class if you want to re-experience a childhood running around outside, or to appreciate the beauty of Iowa nature. Whatever recreational 1-hour class you pick, just make sure you do one before you graduate.
2. Iowa City is one of the few cultural hubs in the state, which means we get a ton of cool shows. Aziz Ansari, Bo Burnham, Michael Ian Black, and Seth Meyers were a few of the speakers/performers I managed to see this year. There were countless others that graced the city with their talents and craft, not to mention a lot of musical talent that visited. I even managed to organize and participate in a comedy show at Public Space 1 (the stand-up’s getting there…). Before you dive into actual adulthood, be sure to do something artsy in Iowa City.
3. Finally, I type this last point with tears rolling on to my keyboard (*sniff). Not really, but the last big point I’m going to mention involves the general academic opportunities I’ve been afforded at the University of Iowa. I (finally) made the effort to make friends with a TA, and the knowledge and outlook I learned from them has helped me grow a lot over the last few months. When junior-year talks about college started way back in high school, a lot of my classmates were concerned about becoming lost in the numbers of a large university. Iowa is a pretty big place, but you can stand out if you make the effort. The many opportunities to get involved make it seem a lot smaller.

Did you know Iowa was capable of this? Do you see the face?

I’m pretty pumped for the next two years.

-Adam

Enjoy the uncomfortably lame play on words I put into the title of this post, because it’s going to be a serious one. As finals week approaches (which I just figured out to be a little over a week from today-the long winter break had me confused), study spaces around campus fill up with students learning (or, hopefully relearning) everything covered over the frigid semester. You’ll also see paper cups of coffee, cans of Redbull, lazy-mood sweatpants, Pinterest scrolling, and giant headphones. The rule of thumb is that the more you bring along to play with while studying, the less you’ll actually learn. My advice? Keep your study times shorter and more productive.

This isn’t a suggestion directed towards someone who can actually focus on studying for long hours at a time. If you can stay up all night focusing on organic chemistry and actually learn, you’re way ahead of the game. For the rest of us (like this semi-ADD stricken blogger), instead of having long periods of time switching between Facebook and mindlessly copied lecture notes, try limiting how long you study. Take what you could casually study in two hours and cram it into one. Then allow your brain to process the information for an hour while you do something you enjoy.

Now obviously, you may not want to study on and off between hours (unless that helps, everyone is different like snowflakes, or whatever we learned about in pre-K), but you can use more condensed study hours as an excuse to indulge in incentives. Go see a movie (there’s a lot of good stuff out right now). Go swimming at the rec. Take the time to go play with some dogs (keep your eyes peeled, they’ll be in the library during or right before finals week). And do all those things knowing that you’ve put in a solid 2-3 hours of uninterrupted and focused work.

This time of the semester is supposed to be stressful, but that doesn’t mean you have to pretend that you’re studying for 8 hours at the library. It means you can make an excuse to play with a doggy.

Keep strong. There’s only 2 weeks left.

-Adam

The game yesterday was rough. I mean, really, really rough. Like in shop class in high school, when you learn about the grades of sand paper? This is like grade 2 rough. After literally screaming my lungs out (I think I saw a chunk fly out during the second quarter), it was exhausting to walk back to the house my friends and I were headquartered at, and then sit there and listen to complaints from Hawkeye fans, and take in the silent grins of the present State fans.

What made it worse was that I had been up since 4:30 that morning to work event parking. So I was pretty beat. However, allow me to put some optimism into a seemingly bad situation. During my nine hour shift, I did a little social experiment to flex what I had learned in one of my classes the day before. We had studied how facial expressions can be both conscious and subconscious, and, more specifically, what people do when they lie.

(Side Note: When someone’s lying, the area between their eyebrows will furrow for a split second.)

Now, my job was to make sure that one of the lots was kept empty as people desperately tried to find a spot before the game. The method I was instructed to use involved me asking if they were going to the game, and if so, to direct them away from the lot (for the sake of the parking department, I’m not going to specify which area. Park where you’re supposed to!). If someone (most of the time with full Iowa swag on) said “No,” and that little furrow appeared, I prodded a little more.

I ended up turning a lot of cars away.

It was amazing how many people would attempt to snake their way in, even with plenty of time left to find other parking before the game. What was more amazing was how I used something I learned in school in the real world. One of my professors had said that one of HIS professors said (he said, she said) that real learning happens outside of the classroom. I half agree.