Humans of The Commons

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.”

 

 

 

 

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This is Charlie Fabricant.

Turning Point

“Going into freshmen year of highs school that summer, I went with a teen tour backpacking in northern California. It’s the kinda thing where you have no phones for three weeks, you got 3 showers in 3 weeks which is fun because everyone smelled bad (Charlie giggles), but I saw some absolute beautiful things, like we woke up at 4am to summit a mountain at sunrise, and we went hiking for miles along this hidden beach untouched by people, and I grew up like on the east coast less than a mile from the beach so I spent a lot of time at the beach, but there was something totally different about this natural beach, with sea lions lying about, this beautiful forest above the cliff, and something clicked at that moment, like, wow, nature’s beautiful. There have been some gorgeous pieces of human art too, but there’s something amazing about the natural world and how magnificent it can be even though it just like kinda formed and nobody really designed it, (its) just how it is.”

Practice what you Preach

“Some people are absolutely amazing with it, like they do every single thing they can… I’m still like a normal person-that’s the wrong way to say it… the average consumer who tries to take all the little steps. I try to take quick showers and not use too much hot water.. Or if I see bottle pick it up and put it in the recycling bin, research…. To make sure the factory is sustainable.”

Companies and the Enviroment

“This little company I found based out of Philadelphia thats really cool, the company called united by blue, and their whole…mission is for every product they sell, they take a pound out of a waterway.”

“Google and amazon are moving to make all their factories completely solar; they’re trying to cover all their factories and storage houses in solar… so the amount of energy they use now, produces a lot of carbon dioxide, so the fact that they are moving to use solar even tho its only one company, actually makes a big difference.”

 

Based on an interview with Valerie Kraft.

“Okay, everything revolves around food. Like everything. You think about every college event; How do they get you to come? There’s gonna be food. It’s a very big part of american culture, because we’re Americans, it’s what we do.”

What is Celiac disease?

“So Celiac, (is not) an allergy but it’s … an autoimmune disorder, and if I eat the things (gluten), I don’t have an allergic reaction; I have an autoimmune reaction which means my body just, like, kills itself. And because gluten is what I can’t eat a lot of times people just think ~ “trendy”~ but it’s not. You know on one hand i’m really grateful to those people because that’s why i can go to munchie mart and get gluten free chicken nuggets from the freezer.. and it’s like thank y’all for making a market for this…  but it’s really annoying when you have to tell people that no, this is really serious and you have to take precautions and they’re like “yeah okay”…….. Like no, please.

Another thing is when you get diagnosed, they go, don’t eat gluten! And then they don’t tell you what that means! They don’t tell you what level… they don’t tell you any of that… I’m very lucky that I was able to connect with a (specialized) doctor… the doctor who diagnosed me was like, Bye. You’re done. Copay.”

Eyes Opened.

“You can say that my whole disease is a hoax, like people come and try to tell me their conspiracy theories… I’m grateful that that’s all it takes; it doesn’t take medicine or shots, you know what I mean?

You don’t realize how terrible the world is for people without allergies until you are one.”

You don’t realize how terrible labeling laws are, or how everything is food related, and how everything has gluten in it .. people think bread, but that also means no licorice, no licking envelopes, you have to be careful with your shampoo, and your makeup, and lotion and pickle juice, and drinks, and lemonade, and coffee… it’s literally everything.

There was a kid at my school who had this big peanut allergy and when he came to my school we had to get rid of our peanut butter and get sun butter and everyone was pissed… and it’s a bunch of 6 year olds, and we wanted our peanut butter… And they could have killed the kid, it’s not worth it!”

 

____The Industry_____, It’s a Trap!

“Halloween candy in general, the shapes don’t make any sense… Reese’s cups for example. The cups are gluten free but not any of the seasonal shapes; for example no hearts no pumpkins, trees, the wrapped minis are gluten free but not the unwrapped minis…

These are just rules you have to know on your own or you have to go on the updated-once-a-year glutenaway.com halloween candy list. Cuz you just have to know and like certain candies are only gluten free in certain countries like starburst are only gluten free in north america if you eat starburst in australia you’re in baaaad luck my friend.

There is no labeling consistency in america… Wheat is a top 8 allergen, gluten is not, there’s a lot more to gluten than just wheat. Something could not have that contain wheat, or have that contain wheat, and still it’s not gluten free. Like you can’t ever go by labeling, you can only go by labeling if you’re in the top 8 and even then that’s still pretty iffy.

There are a lot of products that are labeled gluten free in the american marketplace that are not labeled gluten free in other places because they recognize that they are not actually safe.”

 

Effect Beyond the Food.

“Till this day it try to, like, tape some candy to their (a friend’s) door or say have a nice day because people have gone out of their way to do nice things for me like that in life. You don’t really know all the details behind a person’s life… you just don’t know! And so i figured out that when someone’s “vagueing” about something going on in life, it’s usually a lot worse than they let on, and so I always try to just do something nice for people… because how many times has someone done something really little for you and still think about it to this day… the thing with the whole dietary restriction is you always have to be thinking about these sort of things… when you get good at picking on who else has dietary restrictions… you get good at picking up on a lot of things.

…Celiac and food allergies are a lot more common than you think. We’re more than that, we’re not just a food allergy… like you think of your friend, you think of doing social things and oh can they do that? …and a lot of times you’re hesitant to invite us to things, cuz we can’t eat… but we’re your friend before we’re — the allergy kid– so just invite us, and we’ll do what’s best for us… if we come and we get water, or the one allergy safe option of lettuce.

A lot of the time it’s easy for people to get into the *gasp you can’t eat thisss?!?!. We have allergies but we’re, like, y’all.”

 

Valerie Kraft (class 2021) is a leader for teen Celiac activists throughout country. She is also a self-proclaimed adrenaline junky, caretaker for friends, and advocate.