Humans of The Commons

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Sharonda Adams is a Law, History and Society & Human and Organizational Development double major from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Where do you find your happiness at Vanderbilt?

I love hanging out with my friends, going to concerts and attending campus events. There’s never a dull day on campus.

One of my favorite events this year was Commons Ball. It was amazing to see over 1000 people enjoying the Ball after all the hard work and planning that went into it.

I’d say that one of my biggest passions in life is music. I love all genres and can vibe to pretty much anything! My favorite concert of the year was a Delta Rae concert that I went to in September. It was special because it was the day between my birthday and my mom’s birthday. We were able to meet the band because my mom won a contest that Delta Rae has for teachers (see below).

What are you involved in on campus?

I’m involved in the Commons Leadership Council (CLC) as the Gillette House President.(See below for picture of Sharonda with VP Chip Dale) It has been a very fun and rewarding role. I’m also a producer for My Commons Life, the freshman blog that you’re reading. In addition to CLC and MLC, I am a big fan of the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) and Alternative Winter Break (AWB) programs. I’m excited to be on AWB board for the upcoming year because I love the service that alternative breaks do and how quickly you can bond with a small group of people in such a short amount of time. I’m also a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, so feel free to stop by and visit (we can talk about all of the bestsellers).

What do you love about yourself?

One thing that I love about myself is my ability to laugh at my own jokes. I’m pretty much a 40-year-old man stuck in a teenage girl’s body. I just love laughing and being able to find something to smile about.

What are your talents?

My only talent is appreciating other people’s talents. I hope that one day I’ll wake up and be a great singer or dancer but for now I’m just chilling. I like to live vicariously through the many talented people here on campus by attending showcases and performances.

 

What did you think of your freshman year?

I’m definitely sad that my freshman year is over and my favorite thing by far would be the new people that I met who come from so many different backgrounds.

What advice would you give to incoming freshmen?

One piece of advice that I’d give to freshmen who are coming to Vanderbilt is that the adjustment is hard, but make sure you don’t lose yourself when you’re trying to find your place on campus and make new friends. Stay genuine and eventually you’ll find where you’re supposed to be.

What are you looking forward to most for sophomore year?

I’m looking forward to living in McGill. I love their emphasis on acceptance and creativity and I’m excited about being able to meet new people on main campus.

This is Alex Luckerman.

(image from the hustler)

“I came into college thinking that my passion was education but upon further thought I realize I didn’t want to teach and I didn’t really know what else to do with that, so I’m kind of at a point where I just want to explore, and that’s all I really feel like is certain at this point.

So right now I’m taking Neuroscience, ugh, a computer science class, a class called mind and brain which is about cognitive neuroscience–I did not really know that getting into it, but I thought it was cool so I stayed– the intro seminar for Peabody scholars which is on creativity and an English class on representative american writers… and intro French, because I took it in high school and I forgot everything despite having been in it for 5 years…”

His Plentiful Interests

Honestly I would take classes in pretty much everything we have here with the exception of maybe like, really theoretical math classes and anything in business, (it just) isn’t that interesting to me. But otherwise, all of the sciences, like chemistry, biology and physics were just so interesting to me in high school…I also really, want to take classes in philosophy, I took intro to ethics last semester, and it was easily my favorite class, with my class on justice just behind it. And neither of those pertain to anything I’m going to show up with on my diploma when I leave here, but they were just so, cool.

I like thinking about how different social structures work, and what it means to be human, and all these really deep questions that I feel like a lot of students here don’t really feel like they have the time to pause and think about, because they’re too busy trying to go down a specific path toward a career, or they’ve managed to isolate one thing that they’re really passionate about, that they can just pursue.

His Recommendation?

I’m really fortunate that as a cognitive studies major with a good number of AP credits transferring in that I have just a bunch of freedom that I can just explore. I understand that not everyone is going to be able to do the same sort of random class taking that I am lucky enough to be able to do, especially if they’re pre-med, and want to do a double major in whatever crazy stuff people are up to around here.

 But, when they get the chance, I think it’s really mind-opening to just be able to take a class that you wouldn’t otherwise be studying and just give you a moment to take your mind away from the very specific path that you might have chosen… you’re, sort of forced to choose when you choose a major, and actually explore the broader intellectual world around you. There’s a unique opportunity to do that at college that you’re gonna struggle to find anywhere else, especially for the time to do.”

This is Gabrielle Blackburn.

Her response to hearing about the random events on campus most of us ignore?

“Oh that’s really cool, let me try that. Oh that really cool, let me do that. And so i have a

tendency to get veryinvolved very quickly...Tango club’s on my calendar. It doesn’t mean I go every week, because sometimes it’s not in the cards. But, because I wanted to learn how to dance tango, I do these things because it makes me happy.

The Google Calendar

“So you know how the background is white, and then the default things you add are blue? Its like 90% blue. Yea,  the only white is between 11pm and 9am. But, I’m okay with that… it changes week to week… I’ve been trying to keep it all in my head but there’s like no way…  so i actually started using (an agenda) and it changed my life.

I switched to google calendar so I can see everything… it’s all in my phone, so if someone like, when are you free?, I can say, Monday at 7… scheduling things, and being intentional about how you use your time. If being in all these things is what you want then you have to be willing to make sacrifices of things you consider less important.

Is it for you?

I don’t think you should try to cram yourself full or join 8 billion clubs just to join 8 billion clubs. I was talking about this with someone earlier and she said There’s no need to have a resume which can bench press the weight of all your hopes and dreams. There’s not reason to fill up your time if that’s not what you want you want to do and is going to make you satisfied.

I am not someone who watches Netflix, but some people like having an hour of just chill watching a show in their day. It has to do with what fulfills you; what you can reasonably do and still be a functioning human being, because that’s also really important

(Gabrielle then laughed) 

Because sometimes I forget that too.

There’s no point in being in every club if you’re not present, its not meaningful to you… It’s better even just from a resume standpoint. It’s better to have something that you’re invested in rather than something to check another box, take up another line.

How to Juggle a full google calendar, friendships and self

 

Taking a moment

So I’m trying to be very intentional about it (self care). Today I stopped doing my work, took a long shower, did a face mask. It was like, okay, I feel better.

I feel like that’s my biggest form of self care, when like, I mess up, when i forget somethings, when I let someone down. I try not to beat myself up over it; I’m like, okay this is what i have to do next time to be successful… I’d say improvement is growth.

Eating

Life hack: schedule meals with people. ‘Cuz then you get to see friends you wouldn’t see otherwise and someone holds you responsible for making sure you don’t forget to eat. You have to eat anyway, so you may as well make it friendship time.

One of my friends has all her social media in her phone in a folder, its called time wasters and i love that…. Its not a replacement for real interaction  with people. So if I’m gonna having fulfilling, full friendships its not going to be liking everyone’s Instagram post, its gonna be texting “hey when are you free for lunch this week”. So i have a running list of people in my phone of people I want to eat food with in the near future and I thought I was the only one… (she is not; I myself have one).

Friendships

If a friendship is important, you’ll make time for it. And this is a side note, but I’m not going to put effort into spending time with people who don’t want to put an effort into spending time with me…. It’s okay to let something go if that friendship isn’t meaningful and the other person isn’t willing to meet in the middle. I’d rather focus on..those really good people that  add things to my life. It’s the same thing as like having a resume that can… there’s no point in having a resume that is miles long but not deep. So I feel the same way about friendships as I do about that.

Sleep

Its easy to fool yourself, like yea I’m doing fine, or lie to yourself and be like yea, 5 hours of sleep is plenty of sleep for me. So if you have something objective telling you (she showed me an app she uses), like, no you only slept this much last night, that was dumb. THAT’S helpful.

I am a person who needs more than average amount of sleep to function, like some people are good on 6 hours a night; I am not one of those people, but I’ve also recognized that, so sometimes I have to say no i cant go out tonight, like, rain check, next time I’ll go out, but tonight I need to take care of myself.

Journaling

I try to journal because if I just go go go go go, I don’t have time to process all the things that are happening, and when its things that involve my relationships with other people, I want to work through everything in my head, and so physically writing it down forces me to  actually think about it, because if I just do it mentally, its like, okay THAT’S done, even if I didn’t actually work on myself… 

Efficiency

I found out in High school that if I wanted to keep doing all the things I was doing -(like not die of not sleeping)- if i wanted to keep that level of involvement, I had to maximize my efficiency. Its such a nerdy thing, it sounds so dumb, but choosing if I want to be able to be apart of this organization, if I want to work on this show, I need to not watch Netflix. I need to not be on my phone that dead time between classes; I need to be working on my stats homework instead of just sitting there on my phone until the professor shows up.

Growing

I’d like to think I’m pretty self aware… we’re in this time of transition, becoming real adults. (I’m) working on that process of being more responsible and taking care of myself.

I’m also optimistic to a fault, so sometimes I’m like yea, yea I can do 4 things in 1 evening, and I get to the first one, and I’m like I’m going to go home, and do my homework as soon as possible and go to sleep. This GBM for something isn’t… i can prioritize something else, I can prioritize my own health.

Her final message

“I believe in everybody. I believe in you you can do it.”