MIRROR 3.4.2016
A look at physical well-being at Dartmouth CHRONIC ILLNESS & DISABILITY | 4-5
NUTRITIONIST PROFILE | 6
ATHLETES STAYING AFLOAT | 7
TTLG: FITNESS & NUTRITION| 8 SHUOQI CHEN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
2// MIRROR
Editors’ Note
Happy Friday, Mirror readers! We can’t believe it’s already the last Mirror of the term, or that it’s March or that the winter just passed us by without really being, well, a winter. This week, Hayley and Caroline didn’t have much time to venture into the bustling metropolis that is downtown Hanover, so they settled for eating together at good old Foco. They sat eating their Saturday brunch, Caroline downing six cups of coffee as Hayley periodically nodded off and almost fell off her chair. Instead of exchanging gossip and entertaining stories as they usually do, the two editors traded Emergen-C and ibuprofen as they debated who had slept less in the past week (Caroline won this time). Sadly, the two Mirror editors are not the only Dartmouth students suffering from impaired health this week. If you don’t believe us, look around the library — everyone huddled down with their textbooks and laptops looks tired, their expressions mildly pained and even slightly ill. Even the most spunky, peppy and energetic people are walking with less of a spring in their step. Most notably, coffee is being depleted from DDS establishments at a record rate. Thus, the two editors thought it was fitting to center the term’s final issue of the Mirror around physical health. (It should be added that Caroline and Hayley presented this storyboard to their writers over pizza and garlic knots. The irony was not lost on them, as Caroline halfheartedly commented she was going to a yoga class the next day.) And per usual, despite their unhealthy and sleep-deprived editors, their writers delivered. Read everything from a TTLG on fitness and nutrition to a piece exploring how athletes manage to stay healthy and sane. Thanks for your loyalty these past few months, Mirror readers, and more importantly, thanks for tolerating these editor’s notes. Rest up over spring break and try not to miss us too much. We’ll be back before you know it.
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MIRROR EDITORS HAYLEY HOVERTER & CAROLINE BERENS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF REBECCA ASOULIN PUBLISHER RACHEL DECHIARA EXECUTIVE EDITORS MAYA PODDAR ANNIE MA
OVERHEARDS
Joe Kind: A Guy
COLUMN
By Joe Kind
This past weekend was the men’s swimming and diving Ivy League Championships meet, or “Ivies,” as we call it. I was lucky enough to watch my teammates swim their final races of the season at Brown University. I concluded my swim season, and ultimately my collegiate swimming career, a little over five weeks ago. The team at that time was just beginning to weather the bulk of its competition schedule. Now that the entire team is done, I have the pleasure of watching my teammates, particularly my fellow seniors, begin the struggle that is permanent NARPdom. The lifestyle is a transition — no more 6 a.m. practices, no more morning and afternoon workouts and no more excuses to eat multiple Foco desserts at dinner. That is, no more predetermined schedule around which everything seems to operate. Five weeks later and my body and mind are still struggling to put the pieces together. Over the years I discovered I could operate reasonably well with six hours of sleep a night, with a 90 minute nap during the day. A typically good day used to begin as early as 5:25 a.m., and end no later than 11:15 p.m. Now, for three days a week I can sleep in as late as 11:30 a.m., grab a quick lunch, go to class, work out if I want to, eat an early dinner (honestly one of the few habits that hasn’t changed), do homework, eat a late-night meal, do some more homework and go to bed at 2:30 a.m. All of this with more sleep than I ever had in a single school night during the swimming season. To say that these five weeks have changed me as a person is an understatement. I have lost weight since I stopped swim-
’18 Guy: “Allen will win but East Wheelock will catch the snitch.”
’16 to KAF cashier: “Howdy! Oh, why did I say that...”
ming, by some miracle. Seven pounds, to be exact. Mostly muscle. Mostly muscle that took months of sweat and burnt energy to build and more months to strengthen. Since the physical changes have been gradual, I haven’t seen them, but I imagine I could find them if I really looked for them. I have lost the inescapable waft of chlorine that seemed to follow me wherever I went — including my sheets. I am now confronted with a strange and unfamiliar odor. It also latches on me, like a barnacle to a whale. I have had to invest in my own shampoos and conditioners rather than rely on the team bottles we would share after practices. I have also had to invest more money and time into doing laundry, almost as frequently as a sanitary person. I have probably done as much laundry these past five weeks as I ever did in a single term on campus. I have lost the dry, peeling outer layer of skin on my forearms and legs. I have very nearly lost the blisters at the tops of my palms, from lifting weights less frequently. No loose skin to play with, just nails to bite. But I have found I even bite my nails less during my days. My fingers feel completely different against my hair, which has lost its trademark unruliness. My face no longer itches at unseemly times of the day. It is easy to shave again, and yet it’s unfortunately just as easy to cut myself. In spite of this, and besides the big deposits made into my sleep account, I have gained a lot since my swim career has ended, I have found a new sport. Or, at least, sort of. I started to attend yoga classes two to three times a week, and my body and mind initially responded with something
’16: “I got super drunk and made toast. Then I put the toast in my pockets.” ’19 #1: “Correlation doesn’t imply causation.” ’19 #2: “Well, ain’t you smart?” ’19 #1: “Can you spell p-a-r-a-d-o-x.” ’19 #2: “Shut up and drink your damn beer.”
quite less than enthusiasm and slightly more mild than disdain. Now, I find new forms of flexibility I had never noticed before. I find a kind of sensory patience during the practices that I so struggled to harness in swim practices. And I am reminded of how much I can sweat during physical exercise. It turns out I really sweat a lot. It’s unfortunate. I could talk about my new sense of autonomy I have over my schedule, or how free time now seems to fall into my lap at 3 p.m. each day. But I’d rather not. What the adjustment really comes down to is the idea of purpose. With the closing of the swim season, and watching my fellow “retired” seniors embrace a lifestyle they have never known, I am reminded of the importance of intention. Varsity sports are all-consuming, in a way I never could have expected before coming here. I cannot say the experience has always been a “healthy” one, so to speak. But college in general is all-consuming, too. We leave our homes, near and far, for this college experience billed as a time of academic and personal growth, but primarily as the former. At Dartmouth especially, we keep ourselves extremely busy. Just as I did my best as an athlete to fully submit myself to my new sport, students here tend to immerse themselves in their own crazy endeavors. We find the activities and people that inspire us and challenge us, that frustrate us and that love us. Swimming was a choice, and one of the best choices I have ever made. To swim was an opportunity not to be taken for granted, in spite of all the ways that it changed me. It is scary how much easier it becomes to observe those changes only after it is all over.
’16: “I want to hold the Murphy’s owner at gunpoint until they bring back the falafel.”
’18 Girl: “Studies have shown that smart people tend to have more sex, drink more and do more illegal drugs. And I’m just like, by that criteria, I’m a dumbass.”
MIRROR //3
Sam’s Little Larks
TRENDING @ Dartmouth
Week 9
Can I sleep? My mind is tellin’ me nooo, but my body is tellin’ me yesssss. COLUMN
By Sam Van Wetter
SAM SOON and ASAP SAM are procrastinating in 8 Ball Hall. SAM SOON: I can’t wait to have time to read. ASAP SAM: What do you mean? SOON: Like in my life, when I’m less busy. I wanna read books that I want to. ASAP: And you can’t right now? SOON: Are you kidding? ASAP: ...no? SOON: Sam, really? That is insane. You do realize how totally jam-packed my life is right now, don’t you? ASAP: I guess I’m having trouble believing it’s too completely jam-packed to read, just for a little while. SOON: I mean, obviously I have time to read. But it’s all readings, you know, textbooks and case studies and encyclopedia entries — ASAP: You read the encyclopedia? SOON: Did I say encyclopedia? I meant Wikipedia. But the point is that other people are telling me what to read. I don’t have choice over the material. ASAP: And you only have time for readings that your professors assign? SOON: And sometimes I don’t even have time for those! ASAP: Seriously? You don’t finish your readings? SOON: I mean, I try to. Obviously. But you have to be realistic about it. A wise man once told me that if a job seems inordinately difficult, you’re probably doing it wrong. ASAP: That man must not have ever assembled IKEA furniture. SOON: Yeah, he was more of a DIY guy. ASAP: And this somehow gives you permission not to finish you readings? SOON: I mean, a professor
can’t reasonably expect us to finish an entire book between classes. Even two hundred pages is pushing it, probably, unless you’re some sort of speed read fiend. So when you’re given hundreds of pages between several classes, I think it’s pretty safe to assume the assignment is more concerned with triage and summary than the entirety of the content. ASAP: How do you accomplish that? SOON: You know. Intro, conclusion, a few chapters that look interesting. And lots of Wikipedia. ASAP: And this takes up all your time? SOON: A good bit of it, yeah. ASAP: So much that you can’t find a spare moment to read something else for fun? SOON: Hardly ever, yeah. I fantasize about having an evening, just one night in bed when I don’t have to think about schoolwork and doing those graduation forms and that package at Hinman I keep forgetting to pick up. I just want one free Thursday night to curl up and read a book for fun. ASAP: But we go to BarHop on Thursdays. SOON: Exactly. ASAP: Exactly! SOON: Exactly what? ASAP: You do have time to read. You just choose not to. SOON: That’s not true! ASAP: Sam, you go out, like, four nights a week. That’s four nights you could be doing this reading that you think you want to do. SOON: But I want to have fun with my friends! ASAP: And in the future you won’t? SOON: Probably not. I’m planning on losing a whole lot of friends post-graduation. Or they’ll just be more planned out so all my spare moments
can be spent doing what I love. Like reading. ASAP: And one day in the future you’ll suddenly be granted a whole chunk of spare moments? SOON: That’s the assumption, yeah. ASAP: Quite the assumption. SOON: What’s that supposed to mean? ASAP: I mean, I’m no scientist but I don’t think you are granted more daily hours upon graduating. SOON: Of course not, but I won’t be spending time in class or at rehearsals. ASAP: You’ll have work. Real life work. SOON: Yeah, and then I’ll leave work at five and do whatever I want. ASAP: Like read? SOON: Exactly. ASAP: I’m skeptical. SOON: About what? ASAP: I think hobbies are a habit. SOON: And? ASAP: And if you haven’t made the time and brainspace for these things as an undergraduate it won’t be automatic for you to do them in the rest of your life. SOON: Really? ASAP: Maybe not entirely but yeah, I think you’re most keenly becoming who you are in these years. You’re figuring out how you do everything. And that’s hard to change. SOON: Wait, really? ASAP: What? SOON: Oh, crap. Really? Oh no. Why didn’t anyone tell me about — how do I — (He begins to panic.) ASAP: Whoa whoa whoa, Sam. Don’t freak out about it. I’m just saying that being a student can’t be all that different from living, you know, out there. Going to classes is like having a job. Things are made easier,
obviously. We’re fed and housed, obviously, but we still gotta take care of a lot of banality, a lot of day-to-day logistics. I’m just saying, if you’re used to drinking and dancing on a Thursday night it’s unlikely that, a year from now, you’ll be down to get in bed with a book. SOON: We’ll see. ASAP: You bet we will. SOON: I’ll practice over break. I’ll form some habits. ASAP: Yeah? SOON: Two weeks, Sam. Two weeks. Spring break. Nothing but my bed and my dog and this stack of books I’ve been meaning to get to. ASAP: Do you have a job? SOON: Come on, Mom. ASAP: Do you? SOON: No, I’ll be working on that too. Don’t be rude. ASAP: And friends? SOON: What about them? ASAP:You’re gonna go home and just, like, not see your friends? SOON: I don’t know, Sam. I’ll figure it out. I’m just... ASAP: Just what? SOON: It’s — I don’t know. It’s hard, I guess, being here but also wishing things were different. Wishing I had time to read and fulfill myself. Wishing I had a boyfriend. Wishing I exercised more and took better care of myself. As you said, things are pretty easy for us here. We have it all handed to us. And it’s always about now, week nine, when I start thinking about things I could do differently, how I want to change, how I want to get better. So I gotta get intentional. I need to work on it. ASAP: We still have time. SOON: Not much, man. ASAP: Then I guess, yeah. Maybe it never ends. Let’s get to work.
FORMAL
It’s week nine and you’re trying to lose your formal date in ten minutes.
SUPER TUESDAY BLUES You understand Chris Christie’s pained expression during Donald Trump’s speech.
Meal Swipes Ya got ‘em.
DBA
Ya don’t got it.
4// MIRROR
Living with chronic illness and disability at Dartmo STORY
By Lucy Li
I love you, Dartmouth, but I blame you for my current illness. As I have been sick for pretty much all but the first week of winter term. As a Southern Californian with a weak immune system due to a history of being affected by some rather harsh illnesses, my health has not fared so well during the last nine weeks of a very temperamental New England winter. Paired with freezing temperatures and the emotional toll of winter term, my body has been unhappy with the fact that my life can’t help but spiral into bouts of emotional and physical stress. My body expresses this unhappiness with constant illness. It’s hard to be at anything less than your optimal physical health at Dartmouth. The academics are no joke, and trying to balance good grades with a fulfilling social life, involvement in extracurriculars and athletics and a decent sleep schedule while also maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise regime is like trying to play God. While on the surface it seems like a majority of Dartmouth students live lives that resemble something like that, it’s almost guaranteed that very few, if any, can accomplish that balance all of the time. However, I’ve found that Dartmouth students have a knack for being adaptable and capable of overcoming challenges and stressors, including physical stressors like long-term illnesses and disabilities. No Dartmouth experience is the same, but some students have had radically different experiences due to the impact of impaired physical health. So how do long-term illnesses, recurring injuries or lifelong disabilities affect a Dartmouth student’s daily life? What’s it like to navigate Dartmouth when you’re not quite at your optimal physical health? From talking to several Dartmouth students who opened up about their illnesses, injuries and disabilities, I’ve learned that the impact of physical impairments is not necessarily negative; while they certainly don’t make life easier, they also seem to build character in those who have learned to not only adapt, but flourish. As most of us know, mononucleosis is a fairly common viral disease that ends up having some very long-term effects. Sam Kocen ’19, who had mono during the second half of last fall, does not remember his illness fondly. “I took all my finals for fall term with a 101-degree fever, and I was barely able to leave McLaughlin to get food and other things,” Kocen said. “It basically made life a lot harder.” Spencer Jorgensen ’17, who had mono during his sophomore summer, also recounts his illness as a time during which normal day-to-day activities weren’t so easy. “You’re just so tired during the day, and you’re often going to classes not feeling well at all. There were some days where I wouldn’t even get out of bed,” Jorgensen said. “Mono is something that if it’s not addressed or you’re not resting adequately, it can really affect you.” Prolonged illnesses like mono have the power to characterize entire terms at Dartmouth. The difficulty with dealing with this illness is that not only is recovery so lengthy, but that it’s hard to even find the time to recover without completely falling behind. The world doesn’t stop spinning for anyone. However, Dartmouth students seem to understand this and realize that the ability to succeed depends on their adaptability. While the world may not stop spinning to accommodate us, we can learn to accommodate to our situation. Jorgensen agrees that the best he could do was learn to adapt. “I just had to sleep a lot more, choose my battles and be productive during the hours that I could be
productive,” he said. For Kocen, his illness provided him with a valuable lesson to apply to future terms. “I think now it’s been better for my academics because I know not to push my self too hard in terms of partying,” he said. Some students, though, have illnesses or other physical impairments that have affected them for many years or even their entire lives. For these students, the physical impairments that they face are a part of their every day lives no matter where they are. Bryan Bollinger ’19 has a condition that has influenced his life drastically in the last few years; it has forced him to move to Hawaii, changed his diet and allowed him to develop a unique Dartmouth experience. Since I’m not quite sure how to articulate his illness in my own words, I asked him to explain it himself. “So I have some immune system dysregulation, and basically the way that manifests is if I eat just about any food, it will trigger me and I will be extremely sick for the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said. “So also because of that, in order to suppress my immune system, I’ve been put on corticosteroids, and I’ve been on them for so long that now my adrenal glands don’t work. So I now have what’s called adrenal insufficiency.” This illness has influenced many facets of his daily life at Dartmouth, one of the most apparent facets being his eating habits. With rice and eggs as the only two foods that don’t trigger him, Bollinger has developed a very customized eating schedule to accommodate his illness. “So I don’t go out for breakfast or lunch because I have to make my own food in my dorm with these elemental nutrition formulas,” he said. “For dinner, when I go to Foco, I have them custom-make my food.” On top of that, his adrenal insufficiency also prevents him from handling a lot of physical stress, meaning that alcohol and late nights are not an option. Basically, the Dartmouth frat scene doesn’t really provide a social scene that is conducive for his health. By far the greatest challenge, Bollinger says, has been finding a social scene that caters to the limitations of his illness. “[Dartmouth is] obviously a pretty alcohol-centered culture, which overall, it’s not been ideal, but at the same time I’ve still found friends who don’t really rely on that,” he said. “The other thing is staying up late. You know with parties in frat basements opening up around eleven, ideally I’d like to have been asleep for half an hour by then.” Bollinger understands and has come to terms with the effect of his illness on his life, and he hopes that his peers can respect him for his accomplishments. “I try not to let it define me and even though it has certainly had a large impact on what I can and can’t do and has been the driving force of many of my decisions in the past few years of my life, I try to have a character outside of that. So hopefully that comes through,” he said. Staci Mannella ’18, who is legally blind, explained that because she’s been legally blind her entire life, it’s not something that she consciously thinks about all the time, but she says she has definitely had to work extra hard to adapt. “It’s definitely a struggle to keep up, but I’ve been trained to work it out and figure out ways to allow me to succeed a little bit more at Dartmouth,” she said. While she believes that she can accomplish her goals, Mannella also admits that her time at Dartmouth has tested her. “My experiences at Dartmouth have kind of made me realize that the world isn’t really built for someone who can’t see,” she said. “So keeping that in mind, I had to figure it out and it’s important not to get fixated on it because I shouldn’t feel sorry for myself.”
In the end, the impact of physical impairments on a Dartmouth student’s life can be significant. Mannella believes, though, it’s only one of the many factors that influences our Dartmouth experience if one can be flexible and learn to adapt. “Everyone’s life at Dartmouth is a little different,” she said. “No one’s experience is the same, and yeah, the fact that I can’t see plays a little bit of a part in my experience at Dartmouth, but it’s something that I’ve always had to overcome.”
MIRROR //5
outh
SHUOQI CHEN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
6// MIRROR
Nutrition at Dartmouth: A profile of KC Wright Dick’s House nutritionist KC Wright discusses students, food and how to establish healthy habits. STORY
By Carolyn Zhou
It’s finals week. You haven’t slept in 20 hours, and you’ve been at the library for almost the whole day. Your stomach growls, reminding you of the fact that you skipped breakfast and lunch. Where will you go to get food? The logical place to go to is Novack or KAF; right after you eat a pastry and get some coffee, you can get back to studying. But last night, you think, you ate mac-andcheese bites at Late Night Collis, and the night before that you and your roommate ate Ben and Jerry’s ice cream from CVS. Suddenly, you can’t remember the last time you had a proper meal or ate a vegetable. If your KAF pastry is raspberry-flavored, does that count as a fruit? Put simply, college students it’s easy for us to forget to nourish ourselves properly. Fortunately, there are a number of resources at our fingertips. Dick’s House provides counseling for those who need guidance in eating a balanced diet. KC Wright, the College’s nutritionist, gave me insight into how to eat healthy on campus. Wright has worked at Dartmouth for three years. Previously, she worked at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s cardiology clinic. When I asked why she came to work at the College, she responded that she enjoys helping students adjust to the new independence they face when they come to college, especially in regard to their diets. “College students are transitioning. It’s the first time for many to actually put some thought into what they eat,” Wright said. “This gives me an opportunity to affect their overall health and give them a good foundation to have a great Dartmouth career and beyond.” Wright also added that she enjoys the opportunity to have discussions with students about nutrition and food reform on a broader scale. “Campuses are great incubators for social action and social issues. One of my passions is thinking about and reforming our broken food system,” Wright said. “I like working with students to try to increase awareness about [the defects of] our food system.” One way Wright increases awareness is through her involvement with Food Day, a national event on Oct. 24 that aims to change the way we think about nutrition, sustainability and food worker rights. She described it as kind of an Earth Day for food. She helped bring Food Day to campus by planning a documentary screening and organizing speakers to come to campus. Wright said her passion for education relating to food came partly from her experiences working as a cardiologist at DHMC. She said that here, she enjoys working with adolescents whose food habits haven’t yet become totally unchangeable. “At DHMC, I worked with people in their 50s and 60s, people whose food habits had become engrained, and I would see the same [problem] over and over again. We’re coming in the back door. We’ve focused more on fixing instead of preventing,” she said. Another strong influence on her interest in food and healthy eating, Wright said, was her experiences cooking when she was growing up. “When I was a child, my mother had a
garden, and she did most of the cooking. She would cook with wholesome ingredients. When I became a young teenager, my mother was diagnosed with a debilitating chronic disease and suddenly the garden went untended and the kitchen became empty,” Wright said. “With my father busy with his high pressure job, I took on the responsibility to cook. When cooking, I had to keep in mind the needs of the other members of my family.” She explained that in addition to her mother battling an illness, she had a growing 6-year-old sister and a father who had high blood pressure. Figuring out how to keep her family eating healthily influenced her greatly in deciding on a career path. As Dartmouth’s primary nutritionist, she spends most of her day meeting with students. Some students come to her regularly, but others come only once or on occasion. When she’s not advising students, she tries to keep up with the research in her field. “Nutrition is a relatively young science. We’re continually learning,” she explained. “I try to read up on research, so I can give people advice based on the most recent data available.” Wright works closely with the Dartmouth Dining Services nutritionist, who decides what is served in the dining halls. Furthermore, she often partakes in outreach events — you can occasionally catch her at an information table in the Class of 1953 Commons. Wright said that her job does involve challenges. One main challenge, she said, is the cooperativeness (or lack thereof) of her clients. “Young people sometimes think they’re invincible,” she commented. Due to this, Wright remarked that she sometimes she has trouble getting students to understand the long-term consequences of their actions, such as excessive alcohol consumption. Despite these challenges Wright said that she greatly enjoys working with the student population. “I like working with college students. I like seeing them try to make a difference in their health habits. [I prefer working with younger people] as opposed to 60-year-olds, who are essentially trying to put bandages on things,” Wright said. “I like influencing young adults as they are transitioning into adulthood.” She said she especially likes it when students take the information she’s conveyed with them beyond Dartmouth. “When I talk to upperclassmen, it’s nice to learn that they’re taking some of these pearls of knowledge onto the next stages of their lives,” Wright said. Wright said works with a diverse array of students, including undergraduates, graduate students and international students. “We all have to eat,” she reasoned. However, as students, we face the challenge of eating healthily on campus. According to Wright, eating healthily sometimes takes more time, effort and money. Sometimes the options right at our fingertips are not ideal for our health — but since they’re convenient, we fall back on them. Another problem she cited is how society has changed; food, especially unhealthy food, is often so easily accessible, a far cry from our
hunter-gather ancestors. Moreover, most jobs nowadays involve a lot of sitting down. Wright said people might also eat insensibly due to a pressure to be thin here at Dartmouth. “There are psychological roadblocks. We have a culture at Dartmouth where [there’s pressure for] everyone [to] look alike, everyone should be a certain size, females should be small, males should have six packs,” Wright said. “Many students are athletes, and there’s a certain body image tied to that.” I asked Wright what she tells students who struggle with body image at Dartmouth. “Recognize that it’s okay to find pleasure in food. It appeals to so many things: our sense of taste, smell and sight,” she said. “Food is a basic human need.” Olivia Samson ’16 , a member of the swimming and diving team, echoed similar views. Even though she’s an athlete, she said there’s no explicit pressure from her coaches to eat or diet in a certain way. Instead, she said, athletes simply eat in way to fuel themselves. That being said, Samson remarked that eating in college involves a lot of selfcontrol. “In Foco, the first thing you walk by is all of the junk food. So eating here does take self control,” she said. “Take Foco cookies, for example. I’m sure the College uses them as a selling point.” However, Wright said, it’s perfectly okay to treat yourself occasionally. “One meal doesn’t define your health,” Wright explained. “It’s the variety [of your diet] over time, [your eating] patterns, that dictate whether you’re healthy or not.” She mentioned that it’s normal to eat a little more when you’re stressed — it’s an adaptive human trait. Thus, it’s okay if there are some days we eat a little more than normal (especially around midterms and finals) and if there other days when we eat less. “Normal eating is not perfect eating,” she said. “It’s okay to occasionally eat that big slice of cake if you’re feeling stressed about that chemistry exam. However, constantly relying on food to soothe anxiety on a regular basis is dangerous.” Above all, Wright said, having a healthy mindset is important. She said we need to allow ourselves to be okay with occasionally indulging. “Reject the diet mentality. Reject the idea of the food police,” Wright said. “Reject the ‘fat talk,’ such as saying ‘I’m so fat, I shouldn’t have eaten that.’ Sometimes we do eat for reasons other than hunger, and that’s okay.” She said that we need to not judge ourselves so much. She added that we also shouldn’t judge others, as everyone has different genes. Wright believes in eating wholesome, organic food. She is a proponent of a plantbased diet, but not necessarily a completely vegetarian diet. Although humans are designed as carnivores, she believes that it’s best to avoid high meat diets — not only are they not good for our health, as they are associated with increased risk of heart disease and cancer, and mass-scale meat production negatively impacts the environment.
Wright also urged students to take action. She believes that we should all plant something, share a garden plot or visit a farmer’s market, and that in doing so we will come to appreciate our food more. It’s important to learn about where our food comes from, she added. Wright also spoke about the benefits of cooking. She suggested Googling a simple five ingredient dish or trying to make a family recipe. She had a couple of suggestions for Dartmouth students specifically. She believes that there are enough healthy options for food on campus, but that it takes time and effort to treat yourself correctly. She said, though, that it’s worth the effort to nourish your body properly. AnnClaire MacArt ’18 , Samson’s teammate, expressed a similar sentiment about eating at Dartmouth. “If you take the time to get creative with your options, it is really quite easy to eat healthily here,” MacArt said. “I believe there is a misconception with what it means to have a healthy diet — that it is too challenging or too limiting.” MacArt said she strives for balance in eating, and that she finds that manageable here. “My goal every day is to strive for balance with food intake while still enjoying what I eat, and I find that for the most part, it is something I can achieve on campus,” MacArt said. When asked if she thought if DDS had enough variety, she answered affirmatively. “Whether it be the vegetarian/vegan section of Foco, or the countless vegan baked good options at Collis, there definitely is always something out there for everyone,” she said. “You just have to look for it.” MacArt has visited Wright, but she personally did not find the visit to be too informative, as she said she is already well-versed in topics regarding nutrition. “I actually have seen the nutritionist once, surprisingly, I already knew most of the things she told me,” MacArt said. “In the past months I instead have done a lot of research on nutrition on my own that has been more informative for me. It was worth the time to go speak with her, but it is not something I think I would regularly do.” MacArt said, though, that such a visit would be helpful for students with less prior knowledge about healthy eating. “I already have a great interest in ways to live a healthy lifestyle, so I could see how meeting with the nutritionist would be beneficial for someone who is not as involved or aware of their own nutrition,” she added. Although not all students will seek her help, Wright still holds an important role within the college; she is available to those who might need some direction in their eating habits. This is something that, at least from my perspective, everyone could benefit from. The last piece of advice Wright gave me was for us to voice our opinions about what we like and don’t like to DDS. “Vote with your fork. You’re the customer. Let DDS know if you want local or sustainable food,” she said. “Change takes time, but it can be done.”
Athletes Staying Afloat
MIRROR
//7
How do they juggle social life, sleep, academics and a varsity sport? STORY
By Nelly Mendoza-Mendoza
If you’re a college student who has been on the internet at all in the past few years, chances are that you’ve seen the famous diagram of a triangle, with “good grades,” “social life” and “enough sleep” written at each of the vertices. Written besides the triangle is some iteration of the claim that in college you can only have your pick of two of these. A quick stroll through Baker-Berry Library, where you will undoubtedly see students falling asleep over their textbooks, their friends nowhere to be seen, would confirm this notion. As a non-athlete, I can attest that it’s hard enough balancing these three elements of my life in my daily schedule, but I can’t imagine adding another factor into the equation: athletics. So I set out to answer the age-old Dartmouth question — how do our athletes juggle all of this, in addition to Greek life, research opportunities and other extracurriculars, at such a rigorous school? I was initially curious about whether athletes miss out on other social and college experiences, due to the demands of their sports. Although, at times it is inevitable to miss out on certain special events hosted by a variety of groups on campus because of inevitable schedule conflicts, for the most part, athletes find ways to fit events into their schedules. Soccer player Eric Jayne ’15 said that he sometimes ends up missing events that happen during practice. Andrea Norman ’18, who plays basketball, also noted that they sometimes miss out on big weekends such as Winter Carnival. According to tennis player Allison Chuang ’19, the hardest part about being an athlete is, “The fear of missing out on the full college experience. I mean there are amazing things that I get out of tennis, but then you see other students joining this and that club or just getting to do a lot of things or loading [up] on a lot of hard classes. Sometimes you feel very constrained. Beyond that tennis has been a very valuable experience.” What about academics? Among the students I spoke with, missing classes for sports related activities happens often, so being proactive and letting professors know about conflicts before a term starts is important. “The process is talking with your teachers, having good relationships with your teachers, informing them when you are going to miss class,” golf player Jessica Kittelberger ’18 said. She said that at times the golf team goes away for long trips, leaving Friday and not coming back until Monday morning. In that time frame, I imagined that she could probably have some time to do homework until she told me that at times she can be out in the field for 12 hours, depending on how many holes or rounds she is doing. Similar answers came from the other athletes, they said that at times it is almost impossible to do homework while away. Connor Boehm ’16, a forward on the men’s basketball team, also commented on how sometimes you have many commitments, but you can’t just say, “‘Listen, I’ve got this midterm, I’ve got this paper and I just haven’t slept. I just can’t do it,’” he said.
“You gotta come in and put in your three hours of work, you gotta go hard. And it’s tough,” Boehm said. Boehm said that being involved in a sport is not supposed to affect your schedule or performance but that it often does. “As much as you try to stay disciplined. The time commitment, you are getting up early, you are on road trips, missing class, and those things seep in, and you do your best to stay on top of your work. If you stay on top of your things you can minimize the impact,” he said. However, squash player Zainab Molani ’18 said that sports can help relieve stress in the midst of academics at a college this rigorous. Being an athlete actually helps some athletes improve their efficiency. “I like to think that I am actually more efficient with my homework and stuff because I do a varsity sport. But, I am actually not sure if I would go to bed earlier than [I do now] without playing a sport. But some nights, sure, if I have a ton of work, it would be nice to skip practice and work during that time,” Andrew Field ’17, who plays squash, said. Participating in sports can help some students blow off steam. “I think it’s great that having a sport is definitely an outlet and I could focus on something that wasn’t school for two hours or so,” Molani said. But aren’t they worried about getting enough sleep? How many hours could possibly be enough to counteract the effects of physical and mental exhaustion? “Before anything, I am a student, but that same dedication that I bring to classroom, I want to bring to my sport, because it is a form of pride when I carry the Dartmouth bag,” Kittelberger said. “Either at a golf tour-
nament or at a practice round or just back at home. So juggling those two hats, putting the student hat on or the athlete hat on, sometimes simultaneously you have to know when to be worried and when not to.” Zachary Plante ’18, who is on the track and field team, noted that after a long morning or afternoon workout your body naturally wants to go into hibernation mode. “It’s really easy to just want to nap for like three hours after those workouts, because you are so tired and your body is forcing you to nap to recover. But, sometimes you got to study,” he said. On the other side of the spectrum, Boehm said that he isn’t the biggest fan of napping during the day, but understands the importance of sleep. For the most part, all of the athletes I talked to noted the importance of sleep. Molani said that she doesn’t understand why some people sleep so little — even though they could sleep more if they really wanted to. Chuang said that the most important part of staying healthy for her is sleep. “I think that the biggest part is sleep. I know that if I get less than seven hours I will not be functional, with having to go to class and practice,” she said. As you can probably guess, not all athletes sleep eight hours a night, Norman, for example, sleeps on average five or six hours a night. Some prioritize school over sleep. “I usually prioritize my work over sleep. I can’t say I get eight hours a night. Sometimes I get four or nine,” Plante said. Athletes don’t really have the option of being night owls, because whether they like or not some mornings start very, very early. I was alarmed to find out that, on a given night, as I am entering my first stage of REM sleep, football player John Kilcommons ’19 is
waking up for morning practice. “With football, we have to wake up at 5:30 every morning. So I think that the hardest part is the sleep schedule because I am used to going to bed later, at least past 12:30. So that gives me five hours of sleep. So I have to allocate at least two hours of nap time for after lift. I go to lift, I go to breakfast and I nap for two hours,” Kilcommons said. Given how demanding these sports are, if athletes were to start college over again, would they re-join their teams? Jayne said that if he were a freshman again, he would still join. “I really like competing, especially at the soccer games. We get some awesome crowds. And, getting to play for your school is just awesome,” Jayne said. Boehm echoed this sentiment. “Yes, I would but you know as you are going into freshman year you are just thrown into the fire in the first year,” Boehm said. “You don’t know what to expect and you are like, ‘Whoa.’ As you get older, you learn how to manage your time and how to do things more effectively.” Athletes noted that they value the relationships that they form with their teammates. Norman noted that the best parts of her experience on the basketball team are “the relationships that [she has] built, not only with the other athletes but with the people in the athletic department.” Madeline Damore ’17, who plays softball, said that although it might be tough at times, your teammates are always there for you. “Having that group of people that understands, we are all going through stuff together,” she said. “Sometimes it’s awesome and we can celebrate together and sometimes it’s really not. We can kind of help each other through that.”
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Connor Boehm ’16, a forward on the Dartmouth Men’s Basketball team takes a 3-point shot during a game.
8// MIRROR
TTLG: It begins with mental health.
A sophomore reflects on her journey with fitness and nutrition at the College. COLUMN
By Amanda Corrigan
Walking onto Dartmouth’s campus in late summer, you can immediately spot a First-Year Trips group getting ready to embark on its journey through the mountains. Runners jog through the streets and across the Green. Athletes go to and from practice, laden with duffel bags and equipment. Regarding fitness, we have an incredibly diverse group of people here at Dartmouth. Some just love to go to the gym; others are varsity athletes, club athletes or intramural athletes. Then there are the so-called NARPs (“non-athletic regular people”). Students participate in a variety of dietary habits. We have vegetarians, vegans and omnivores as well as people STORY who are gluten-free or lactose-intolerant. We have beautiful paths to run on and a general athletic facility with a pool, basketball court and fully equipped gym. The Green can be utilized for a variety of activities. Regardless of whether you are a varsity athlete or a recreational gym goer, your fitness and nutrition journey must start somewhere. Over the course of almost two years now at Dartmouth, I have thought a lot about my views on how to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle. After talking to many others, a common thread I always
around at the gym, you can see people found was that people need to workout from various age groups working on a because they “need to lose weight,” variety of goals as you hear the loud music “get in shape for summer,” or “burn off blaring and the periodic sound of weights those Foco cookies or late night EBAs.” hitting the floor. I always felt happy at Others without a doubt participate in the gym; the only obstacle I had to face exercise solely because they enjoy it, was pushing through some long cardio to they feel good and it is something they feel that well-deserved truly enjoy. Whatever endorphin rush in the purpose, fitness and “Whatever the the end. I had a good nutrition do not start routine, often beginning with the first workout or purpose, fitness and my days with exercise the first healthy meal. nutrition do not start to set the ball rolling The beginning of your with the first healthy for everything I had to physical health journey tackle throughout a day starts with your mental meal. The beginning at Dartmouth. health. Without acof your physical health But a seemingly good cepting where you are routine of long hours currently both physijourney starts with at the gym, combined cally and mentally and your mental health.” with inadequate college practicing self-compaseating and the stress of sion, you run the risk of my transition to a rigoraltering your fitness and ous college amounted nutrition for the wrong to a reevaluation of my reasons. I, personally, health in many aspects. learned this the more What I came to realdifficult way. ize is that I lost that sense of happiness in The gym was always a place of solace the gym and started adding my workout for me – the place to go to de-stress from routine to the long list of things I had to all my work, get away from my friends do. It was no longer something I enjoyed, and responsibilities and just put on my just something seemingly healthy that did headphones to focus on me. Looking
Amanda Corrigan ’18, posing here with Ryder Stone ’18, is a member of the Dartmouth cheer team.
COURTESY OF AMANDA CORRIGAN
not involve more academic work. On top of already having my club team’s practices and games, it amounted to a lot of physical strain. Lacking the knowledge on how to maintain adequate nutrition, I started feeling extremely drained and fatigued. It took me awhile before I came to realize how much I needed to alter my exercise and nutrition in order to become the healthier college student I knew I could be. But, before I could even go about making any changes, what I had to do was accept myself and be compassionate about what I was going through. Not acknowledging my mental health and thinking of this process as completely physical was my mistake. Self-compassion was always the part of any class at which I stopped listening, thinking that it was silly and that of course I was fine with who I was. Little did I know listening to the lessons on how to build on gratitude for yourself, accepting your own body and its capabilities and being gentle with yourself could have helped me in the long run. Come my sophomore year, I had definitely learned a lot about myself and built strong relationships that helped me rebuild my mental and physical health. Those strong relationships helped me find acceptance and compassion for myself, which helped me learn new ways to go about working out and eating well. I came into the gym with a completely new mentality, working on building my strength and appreciating what my body can do, rather than mindlessly doing hours of cardio. I was motivated to learn more about nutrition and how to properly adjust my eating habits and expand my palate beyond Foco. I had to step out of my comfort zone and commit to eating and exercising in ways I never had before. It is very easy to get caught up comparing yourself to others, which can create these ideas of what you think you should be doing with your body. Instead, your road to health is a very personalized journey tailored to your specific needs and goals. This is something especially important for us to remember as students in a very rigorous and challenging environment. We are constantly being pushed forward — academically and socially — and, when we push ourselves that extra step, it can definitely take its toll physically and mentally. Our goal as college students is to ensure that we are getting the most out of our experience, which can be challenging when we are not grateful for all that we have accomplished up to this point. Although that may not relate directly to fitness and nutrition, gratitude plays a role in realizing that before you can make changes to your exercise or nutrition routines, you have to appreciate yourself. Health is subjective and means something different to every person. Your ideal workout and meal most likely differs greatly from the person sitting next to you, and that is okay. My motivation to step back into the gym with a fresh mind was to see how strong I could become and really appreciate all the steps I had taken to get there. Lifting weights was foreign to me, but I was willing to try new things as I loved to learn and grow. Trying something new brought back the joy I once had for fitness. What’s more, at Dartmouth I can learn from and alongside my more experienced friends. Overall, what I have learned throughout my time here, especially with regards to nutrition and fitness, is that in order to promote optimal health you have to start with acceptance and compassion for yourself. My fitness and nutrition journey has been rocky, but I would not change a thing because it has helped me work towards overall health and happiness.