The Dartmouth Mirror 10/5/2016

MIR ROR 10.5.2016

WIEN: EXCLAMATION POINTS | 2

GUO: THE ACCORDION | 3

ESCAPE ROOM | 4-5

COOL RUNNINGS | 7 ALISON GUH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Exclamation Points

2// MIRROR

Editors’ Note

COLUMN

Everyone is trying to escape from something. For Lauren, it’s the boredom of her 9L, in which she finds mental respite in daydreams only to be horrified when she checks the clock and 20 minutes have passed with zero knowledge gained. Hayley responded by saying that she’s disappointed that she doesn’t have any more off-terms to use to escape her real-world problems. Apparently, you are not truly a member of this mythical Real World so long as you are enrolled at the College.

In this issue, we decided to explore how people escape at Dartmouth, from two intrepid writers literally escaping a locked room to distance runners to compulsive binge watchers. Read on to commiserate or discover new ways to avoid finishing that problem set.

follow @thedmirror

10.05.16 VOL. CLXXIII NO. 122 MIRROR EDITORS HAYLEY HOVERTER & LAUREN BUDD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF REBECCA ASOULIN PUBLISHER RACHEL DECHIARA

EXECUTIVE EDITORS GAYNE KALUSTIAN

By Elise Wien

It is 6:12 a.m. on the day of this article being due, and I am in Starbucks, starting up a new document.

Procrastination-as-escape would be a fitting theme right now.

A little Miranda Priestly voice goes off in my head. Procrastination? At Dartmouth?

Groundbreaking.

Quick escape from that line of thinking: I’m not proud to be in this Starbucks, what with Hanover supporting Dirt Cowboy, Umpleby’s and newly, The Skinny Pancake (quick escape from that line of thinking: Did you know Anaïs Mitchell played there last week? That’s kind of cool! (QEFTLoT: I am ambivalent about that exclamation point, I do feel “!” about this but I’m hesitant to put a “!” in a published column, so early on. I don’t want to be “!!!!!!” Girl, you know? (QEFTLoF: Nearly every time I use an exclamation point I think of a satirical list by Sandra Newman, published on McSweeney’s, the first entry of which says, “A woman is born with all the exclamation points she will use in her lifetime.” This is funny until I imagine myself trying to write an exclamation point at forty and my hand gnarling into a curve, and then what, all my excited sentences turn to questions? And I write in uptalk? (Question marks? At middle age? Groundbreaking???))))

“Now, Snively, did you just end that sentence in a period?”

“Why yes, Blively, I did.”

“I do say, that sentence inspires the height awe and does, verily, cover my flesh in goose-pimples and send a-shivers up my spine. Surely you would like to end it in a POINT OF EXCLAMATION!!!!!!!!”

But I digress.

Starbucks is the only place to get coffee in Hanover at 6 a.m. aside from Lou’s, but Lou’s isn’t exactly a laptop kind of place. I just get kind of a no-laptops vibe while I’m there and feel like every Upper Valley patron thinks of me as some dirty millennial, as in, why don’t you just go to Starbucks if you want to type on your newfangled machine designed with planned obsolescence and made in a place that likely doesn’t pay its workers fair wages and is just a piece of early e-waste and alienates writers from their means of knowledge-production?

So I’m in Starbucks. In line, two men talk about the weather: “I saw on the internet this morning that it’s supposed to snow this week.”

“Yes, it said snow in the Farmer’s Almanac.”

The Farmer’s Almanac? As in, a pocket guide to weather patterns and frost dates? I

’17 #1:“Happy Friday!” ’17 #2: “Good, how are you?”

am thrilled. Later, I google Farmer’s Almanac, turns out they do publish a yearly guide with long-term forecasting. They also have a website and a Twitter. Their latest tweet is “Current #MoonPhase: Waxing Crescent (8% of full),” with a photo of the Moon Phase Calendar.

I check myself for a second. Sometimes I get caught up in the quaintification of the Upper Valley, where I draw a mental brushstroke over all its people and group them together as folks who read the Almanac, tap maple trees and live off the land. Intellectualism exists here, as does rural poverty, as does work and play and a population that identifies as heterogeneous.

So, Starbucks, 7:05 a.m. I took a quick break to winnow down the tabs in my browser, one of which was open to a New York Times article entitled “Why Do Anything? A Meditation on Procrastination.”

Procrastination-as-escape, right. My friend Marina, an artist, once told me she is not upset that she devotes more time to her creative work than her academic work because this means once she graduates she’ll still have something that excites her. This outlook makes me feel better about putting my creative work at the forefront.

Sometimes, though, procrastination does not take the form of creative work and instead takes the form of pure foolishness.

I think back to last week, when, instead of doing homework, my roommates and I pushed two beds together to form a megabed, and we all piled on it to watch “Law and Order: SVU.” I do not like this show, I think the plots are forced and the detectives make some leaps in reasoning that the viewer is just supposed to go along with. In this episode, Stabler and Benson investigate a ritualistic murder. At the crime scene there are Santeria candles, so they visit the Center for the Study of Santeria and press its manager about candle sales and also demand a list of Center members, and overall demonize Santeria with an unhealthy dose of primitivism. Turns out the murder was done in a faux-ritual style, because the murderer had bought a child as a sex slave while his wife was away and, upon learning that his wife would return early, decided that killing the child in Central Park was the easiest way to cover this up. The episode also included an international child slave trafficking ring and a white woman who travels to West Africa to add to her gallery’s art collection. It was a lot. Corinne and I groaned through the problematic parts of the episode (groaning and continuing to watch is our way of critiquing the episode within the frame-

’18: “I never want to have kids because I don’t want to give up my personal time to sit and do nothing.”

’20 #1: “You’re big into math, right?” ’20 #2: “No, I’m not taking math at all.” ’20 #1: “Okay, see ya!”

work of critical indigenous and postcolonial epistemologies (QEFTLoT, a friend in my Comp. Lit. senior seminar has made it his mission to use the word “epistemology” in every class, and has been so far successful)).

I avoid watching this TV at home because my parents, one a lawyer and one a judge, watch crime shows the way some people watch hockey.

“Isn’t that out of your jurisdiction?” My dad, to the TV. “Don’t you need a subpoena for that?”

My mom, three scenes later.

Sometimes it gets even more shameful than “Law & Order: SVU,” as in two nights ago, when I sat by Kayuri, sick in bed, and we watched “Say Yes to the Dress” together on her laptop. One woman was bent on getting two wedding dresses, one to please herself, and one to please her groom. Kayuri and I watch, two intersectional feminist hockey fans.

“Get whatever dress you want, who cares what your husband thinks.” “$13,000 for two dresses, that’s ridiculous. But there is societal pressure to please all parties. Plus there might be a weird dynamic depending on who’s paying. I hope she doesn’t feel guilty…she should wear what she wants…though she is buying into this historically patriarchal and exchangebased practice, so who knows.”

QEFTLoT — a young woman just walked into Starbucks with what is clearly an omelet from Collis. I admire her boldness.

QEFTLoT — a meditation on escapist TV, from my iPhone notes: It came to pass that the only mode of satisfaction in this society was feeling better than the other people who falsely believed themselves to be satisfied by this society. To have the option of commodity fetishism, without engaging in it, to watch “Say Yes to the Dress” and feel pity for the unenlightened throwing down $5,000 for fluffy fabric supporting archaic institutions, and then to have, in turn, some self-serving part of ourselves feed off of this pity and feel good about ourselves in this option. And this is, still, a version of “choice is freedom.”

I go to the bathroom in Starbucks thinking about what it would be like to spend that kind of money on a dress, then thinking about how I haven’t applied for a single job yet. In the restroom, a sign: “STARBUCKS is Now Accepting Applications for Baristas!” The benefits include dental, and working there right away makes you “Immediately Eligible for free beverages during your shift.” Best of all, the poster has a total of four exclamation points. ’20 #1: “Oh, the WiFi just cut out.” ’20 #2: “Oh, I’m sure it’s a one time thing, colleges always have such good connections.”

’19: “If I were to write a book about evolution, ‘We are fancy ants’ is how I would begin it.”

The Accordian Player COLUMN

MIRROR //3

TRENDING

By Clara Guo

The year is 2069. I hover over the unsent email in my inbox, the beginnings of a response visible in the notification. “Dear Ms. Guo, Thank you for your manuscript submission. Unfortunately…” I summon the will to open it. “Unfortunately, we do not believe that our agency is best equipped to represent your work at this time.”

I close my laptop and walk downstairs to the kitchen. My husband of 47 years is standing in front of the stove, one hand lazily mixing the xianr for our dumplings, the other flipping through a self-printed cookbook my parents gifted us for our five year anniversary, complete with a card sporting the all-too-familiar question, “How can you love dumplings so much and not know how to make them??”

I walk over to my husband.

“Too soggy,” I chastise. I bring the stuffing over to the sink and squeeze the suan cai until the sauerkraut bleeds dry.

“Any news?” he asks.

“Another rejection.”

He nods; we had expected rejection. “The flour should be done soon.”

We spend the rest of the eve-

ning making dumplings: slapping nately…” I never understood the flour into cylinders, slicing why others at the literary manthe cylinders transversely, and agement agency trusted an inrolling the slices into imperfect tern to determine the quality of a manuscript, circles.

We why authors fill each circle “We eat in silence that who were with a chopmuch older stick-full of night, neither of us and much wisstuffing and wanting to tread the er than I occapinch the flour delicacy of rejection. sionally replied edges togethwith a, “Thank er until each ‘Write a novel’ had you for your dumpling re- been the only feedback; I’ll sembles a mistake it into shapen flower, consistent item on my consideration a closed Venus bucket list since in future edflytrap fat with college. ‘Publish a its.” prey.

I had apWe eat in novel’ remains an plied to the silence that inconsistent second.” agency on a night, neither whim, while of us wanting sitting in the to tread the back of the delicacy of relecture hall jection. “Write during our a novel” had weekly sumbeen the only mer organic consistent item on my bucket list since college. chemistry review sessions. We “Publish a novel” remains an in- had been examining syntheses, I think, or some retroactive consistent second.

After dinner, I open my email. pathway. I googled “publishing I remember writing the same internships” that day, eager to words 55 years earlier — “Thank escape my growing feelings of you for submitting…Unfortu- exhaustion at being pre-med.

I spent the winter in New York, living with two of my best friends in the Upper East Side on 61st, between 2nd and 3rd. We shared a studio maybe the size of my senior year two-room double in Hitchcock, alternating sleeping arrangements every three weeks so we each spent a few weeks alone in bed, rather than sleeping side by side on the futon.

Every morning, I took the F to work. Every morning, I walked past an accordion player who infused the hectic morning bustle with famous French melodies.

On the last day of my internship, I told myself, I would drop him a $20 bill to thank him for his consistency, to let him know that I removed my headphones every morning after stepping off the F because his music calmed me more so than anything I could play for myself.

But on my last Friday morning in New York, he was gone.

I walked through the tunnels, headphones back in my purse, one hand already reaching for my wallet when I saw the empty spot where he always stood.

Where was he?

I looked for him on my travels home, convincing myself that, perhaps, he had changed his routine. Before leaving work, I placed a $20 bill in my cellphone case, where I could easily remove it to drop it inside his case, likely already full of one and five dollar bills.

But, on my last Friday evening in New York, the subway boasted only of the swish of suits and dresses. I was disappointed, angry that he chose my last day of the internship to disappear.

He had become a steadiness in my daily routine, his music humming in my mind when I walked into the office building on 43rd.

He had been there on my first day, when I naively wore my new heels underneath my black tights and grey dress.

His music ran on repeat in my mind, the only dependable witness to my rapidly increasing hesitation toward my dedication to medicine. His music became my escape — the few moments every day when he allowed me to listen to his fingers dance up and down on the accordion rather than the crowd and the few moments of my day when I allowed myself to forget about my detour from the pre-med path.

My husband and I finish our second serving of dumplings, “La Vie en Rose” gently playing in the background.

“Did I ever tell you about the accordion player in NYC?”

@ Dartmouth

MULTIPLE MIDTERMS

“I have one on Tuesday and one on Thursday.”

“Yeah, well I have one on Wednesday morning AND two on Wednesday afternoon.”

AFFILIATED ’19s Line is still 5 though.

SURPRISINGLY LOW DBA Blame KAF. It’s not our fault that those banana-walnut-coconutchocolate-chip muffins are so good.

VEST WEATHER

Our torsos are so warm yet our arms are so free.

CORN MAZES

Such an a-maze-ing time! You can just have that Insta caption, you’re welcome.

FIRE

The real kind, not the mixtape kind.

4// MIRROR

Escape Room: A Not-So-Rea

Two intrepid writers attempt to defuse a bomb at the Granite State Escape Roo STORY

By Cristian Cano and Carolyn Zhou

CC: Less than a minute left on the clock. My fellow agent Carolyn and I scramble to input the final calculations into the calculator. If we’ve done things correctly, our final answer will be the passcode to unlock the door and escape before the bomb detonates.

CZ: Cristian has his phone in his hand, attempting to punch in the numbers into his calculator. I’m ready at the door, hand hovering at the key pad, waiting for him to relay the answer.

I type an incorrect integer. I must reset the calculator. The ticking clock fills the room.

I press the multiplication key instead of the subtraction key. I must reset the calculator again. The clock. The ticking.

On the third try, my trembling fingers don’t make any mistakes. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest. I carefully transfer our answer to the exit door’s keypad.

CC: We feel the tension dissipate from the air as she presses down on the unlock button.

Nothing happens. Our eyes dart from each other to the timer on the opposite end of the room, and everything blurs.

Thirteen seconds. Our last thoughts before everything disappears: We were 13 seconds too late.

Of course, instead of a literal explosion, our demise comes in the form of an employee walking into the room and telling us that we had just gone over the time limit. He feels some sympathy for us; we leave the building with “I escaped!” bumper stickers in hand. We leave with some shame, too.

This past weekend, my fellow Mirrorwriter Carolyn Zhou and I went to Granite State Escape in Manchester, New Hampshire. The typical escape room experience is as follows: a small group (from my past experiences, usually around six people) is taken to a room and debriefed on the mission — while the theme of the room varies, the primary objective is always to unlock the final door and escape. Afterwards, the timer begins counting down (usually from 60 minutes), and it’s up to the group to investigate every corner of the room to find clues that will bring them closer to victory.

Important to note: as a safety precaution, the entrance door is always left unlocked, so someone can always leave the room for any reason if needed.

CZ: Another thing to note: Usually, brain power is all you need to rely on — the way to escape almost never requires any sort of brute force. We were warned before we started to not break anything, to avoid trying to touch the ceiling, and to not ingest the substances in the room.

Apparently, these seemingly common sense rules had appeared ad-hoc over the years as various groups of individuals

came and went. The puzzles can include calculations, ciphers, riddles and pattern detecting. It’s usually helpful to have a little general knowledge, but it’s not necessary. For example, at one point, we had to convert from Celcius to Farenheit. Cristian and I struggled to remember seventh grade science class for a bit but luckily found a neat chart with the equation later on.

CC: With a few exceptions that are explicitly mentioned beforehand, it’s fair game to inspect everything in the room: furniture, books and even trash cans.

Sometimes one will find a key that unlocks a drawer which could contain another locked box. It’s possible that puzzles will include invisible ink that can only be seen with an ultraviolet flashlight, or maybe the light switch itself is concealed behind a locked encasement. Some clues are multi-part, and it’s the group’s responsibility to find all of the pieces before they can combine them and move forward.

Because of the multi-part nature of the clues, it’s often possible to be solving mul-

tipe riddles at once. And then, some escape rooms actually consist of multiple rooms; just when the door seems to open far too easily, a group may find that the challenge has only begun.

The theme of the escape room that Carolyn and I went to was “Defuse the Bomb.”

As the Granite State Escape’s website details, “There has been a recent theft at a local U.S. Army base, including two chemical bombs. As agents in the Department of Homeland Security, you have received a tip from a familiar source known only as The Chemist. Extensive research and valuable intel has led you to The Chemist’s laboratory. Upon entry, the door is sealed behind you and the entire room is wired to blow. Not only must you escape, but you must defuse the bomb first!

As we entered the room, we were both nervous — Carolyn had never done an escape room before, and while I had been to a couple this summer, each escape room has a unique set of challenges. The room itself only has a 25 percent success rate, and, to make matters worse, the room has

a recommended gr maximum size of si lyn and me — the world.

Thankfully, we w if needed. As Nico explained, we wou talkie that would a clues if we were eve be video monitored he sensed that we w track, he could give tion of the answer e cally request him to To our relief, would not penalize tion, and we could we needed (at other to, that was not alw So, determined odds, we adopted o agent personas and As a courtesy to and to avoid spoilin interested, I can’t g specific puzzles in t

MIRROR //5

al Life Detective Story

om, armed only with their wits and the help of a mysterious chemist

roup size of four and a ix. But it was just Caroe two of us against the

were able to ask for help o, an employee lifeline uld be given a walkieallow us to ask him for er stuck. We would also d while in the room, so if were almost on the right us a nudge in the direceven if we didn’t specifio. calling Nico for a clue e us with a time deducask him for as many as r escape rooms I’ve been ways the case). d to escape despite the our Homeland Security d walked in the room.

Granite Room Escape, ng the room for anyone go into detail about the the “Defuse the Bomb”

COURTESY OF CAROLYN ZHOU

room, but I can talk about my experience while inside.

The room was more difficult than we were expecting, and Carolyn and I spent a great deal of time in the beginning trying to determine where to start.

As a team, we complemented each other nicely — we often split up to search for clues, and then when a puzzle required us to count or perform some kind of calculation, we always checked each other’s work, a fact I reflect on, considering those final thirteen seconds after our metaphorical deaths. Was it a waste of time?

CZ: If there is no penalty, keep trying every possible combination you can think of. At one point, we had to enter a password into a computer. After trying to think of all the synonyms of a word, and failing, I was about to give up, but Cristian took over, and tried a different version of the word I was thinking of. Even if you split up the work, if you are stumped, have your partner look at it! He or she can often bring in a new perspective because he or she has noticed different things than you. I also

think that it’s always better to have more people on your team. I think six might be a bit excessive for the room that we tried, given that it was a pretty small space, and it was easy to keep track of each other’s movements, but I think a team of three or four would be ideal.

CC: Carolyn was much more eager to ask for clues; perhaps because of my own pride, I was always hesitant to request Nico’s help, even when we had been at a standstill for several minutes. But it’s scarily easy to lose track of time while in the escape room. While Carolyn and I divided the work to be more efficient, some of the more time consuming puzzles took much longer than we had hoped. Even more frustrating was knowing that we had almost figured out one of the challenges, but there was one element we were still missing. And, in true escape room fashion, we always ended up finding what we needed right under our noses. It’s hard to say exactly where we went wrong.

CZ: I think I felt more comfortable asking for help because I am a novice. Als obe-

cause we could ask for as many hints as we wanted, I felt like it was better if we asked for help when stumped. We only ended up asking for two hints, but those hints were valuable because we had missed something really obvious. Although we did a pretty good job, I’m not sure if either of us is cut out to be an agent with the task of saving the world. Then again, since when do you have exactly an hour to do that?!

CC: Carolyn and I ended up escaping the room 13 seconds past the hour. Nico gave us the benefit of the doubt: he had taken too long to give us clues, so he must have wasted those seconds himself. Alternatively, he might have just been protecting my pride.

If we were real Homeland Security agents, we would have been blown to smithereens and let the nefarious Chemist get away. But we’re not real Homeland Security agents, and though the situation felt real, I reconcile our deaths with the fact that we were doing a room with two of the recommended six people. Guess it’s not too popular, but even so, I highly recommend.

6// MIRROR

We’re Still Watching

Students discuss their binge watching habits on Netflix and other online streaming services.

STORY

By Julia O’Sullivan

What requires the stamina of varsity athletics without any of the physical exertion or risk? What phenomenon has swept the nation, from adolescents to elders: binge watching television. This activity, which some might even classify as an art, combines the joy of a child watching cartoons on Sunday mornings with the escape from stressful adult responsibilities.

Between Netflix, Hulu and On Demand, we can watch entire seasons at the single touch of a button. Not to mention, the “Next Episode” button can be a deadly trap, stealing hours from innocent lives. Students, both in high school and college, seem to be especially susceptible to the black hole of online streaming. For a sleep-deprived young adult, there is often nothing more enticing than the semi-engaging activity of staring at a screen, watching fictional characters or the Kardashians live their equally fictional lives.

Binge watching serves as therapy for exiting a less than optimal reality and entering another world entirely, free from the responsibilities of school, work and social obligations.

A restrained approach to what some might call a hobby and others might call a profession can be entirely healthy. When used in moderation, binge watching can destress and distract from the trials and tribulations of daily life.

Depending on the show and episode length, this form of procrastination might only consume a couple of hours, which may

be the necessary amount of break time between classes and homework. It seems reasonable to fit this viewing schedule into a productive, highly-achieving work plan.

Others succumb to an all-consuming relationship with online streaming. Second semester, senior year of high school seems to be the pinnacle of all bad habits. Senioritis causes even the best and the brightest to regress into the mental and physical state of an unhygienic potato. Between college and high school, many students reevaluate their conventions, reflecting on the value of watching television into the wee hours of the morning.

Selena Neptune-Bear ’20 knows this experience all too well, once sleeping through a chemistry class after staying up to watch “Orange is the New Black” until 4 a.m.

“My teacher literally let me sleep through class and then lunch,” she said. “It was so embarrassing I wanted to clean her whole house or bake her a cake to make up for being such a terrible person.”

The most puzzling component of unhealthy binge watching for many has to be why we do it. When confronted directly, many students were at a loss as to why they felt compelled to watch 10 episodes in one sitting or stay up until ungodly hours of the night. “[Binge watching] is definitely not a good use of time. I could have been studying, beating up my little brother or baking my chemistry teacher a cake, all of which would

have been more productive,” Neptune-Bear said. “Although, season three was by far the best.”

Some noted that while binge watching may not be the most productive, the feeling of reckless freedom one gets from it makes it worth it. Other viewers reserve marathon watching for vacations only, taking study breaks that might clear their minds more organically.

“I only watch a maximum of three or four shows at a time, and that’s only during the summer when I’m just relaxing and have nothing else to do. I’m not really a Netflix person,” Hana Nazir ‘19 said.

The allure of seven white block letters on a red background only exists for some.

The members of the population who don’t understand the heathens who stare unblinkingly at flickering screens, and they might just be better off. As Nazir said, “I can refresh my mind doing something else.”

Alternatives to binge-watching may require more physical or creative exertion, but can be more effective methods of mental repose. Dartmouth students specifically can take advantage of the out of doors. Students, with or without friends, can depart on a quick tour of campus, observing the changing colors of the leaves. More ambitious hikers might take on Mount Moosilauke or partake in Dartmouth Outing Club activities like fishing, kayaking and biking. In the winter, though urges to binge watch from the

warmth of a cozy dorm bed might become more challenging to battle, there is always the skiway.

This being said, some of the greatest work of the past few decades can and should be accessed through Netflix. For hopeless nostalgics and romantics, “Friday Night Lights” is a fan favorite. For a “throwback,” “Friends” is always a good option. For the real belly laughs, “The Office” is tried and true, as well as “Arrested Development” or “The League.” For those 16 and under in reality or at heart, “Gossip Girl” and “Glee” are necessary evils. And for those really late nights when things start to get a little weird, “Stalkers who Kill” or “Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills” will always prompt the viewer to ask the existential questions, namely, “Why does human life exist?”

Abby Livingston ’18 tends to watch only two or three episodes in a sitting. “[I] max out after that because I just get bored of watching the same show,” she said.

“I usually don’t go on to other shows because I’m just watching for a little while.”

Ultimately, either extreme, watching no TV or watching far too much, poses their own problems. Moderate TV watching — a few episodes here and there mixed in with other activities and productive work — can make for a happier life. Although, “Power Rangers Dino Supercharge” season one, part one premieres on Netflix on Oct. 15, so see how you feel.

MIRR OR //7

Cool Runnings

What Dartmouth students are really running from.

STORY

By Alison Hagen

There is something constant about running. Whether it is the recurring movement of your feet below you, the wind bracing your cheek or the blurred colors passing by, running becomes smooth and continuous.

Within the repetitive motion, runners often find that other thoughts or concerns fade away, and they are left solely with a clear mind.

Running, as evident by the numerous runners who cross the Green daily, is a popular activity for students. Many Dartmouth students claim that they find a comfort in the constant of running.

“If you’re really in the zone when you’re running, there’s not a lot of other things

you’re thinking about besides just taking the next step, so it’s a really good way to put behind all of the little stresses that add up,” said Rachel Van Gelder ’18, a member of the Dartmouth Endurance Running Team.

DERT members elect to run frequently and usually for long distances. Member Ethan Isaacson ’18 focuses on running for its competitive aspect, but he also thinks it can provide a calming break.

“I do enjoy the escape of not having to think about anything,” Isaacson said.

“Besides running, it’s really relaxing to be outside on a day when nothing hurts and everything’s really good, it’s kind of an amazing feeling that makes you forget

about other things that you might be worried about.”

Other than contributing to staying fit, running also has numerous mental health benefits. While the phenomenon of clearing your mind by running is not yet explained by science, there are proven connections between exercise and enhancing brain structure and function. Running or other aerobic exercises cause the creation of neurons in the hippocampus, the part of the brain affiliated with learning and memory. The hippocampus is highly active while people run, and perhaps this explains why students enjoy running as a study break.

“There’s definitely time where I’m re-

FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR DARTMOUTH STUDENT PROJECTS IN THE ARTS Complete Guidelines & Applications online: hop.dartmouth.edu hover over Student Opportunities

The Robert Dance ’77 Arts Initiative Fund

The Robert Dance ’77 Fund enables talented Dartmouth undergraduates to undertake special projects in the arts. Preference is given to performing or visual arts projects that are “site-specific works,” created for venues other than traditional galleries, theaters or auditoriums. Outdoor venues, residential spaces and dining halls are among the sites that might be appropriate. The fund makes a total of up to $4,300 available to sponsor major student projects in the performing and visual arts. Undergraduate students and organizations are eligible to apply.

The Peter D. Smith Initiative Fund

The Peter D. Smith Student Initiative Fund was established for the support of student enterprises in the arts. It was established by the former Friends of the Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art and continues today with the support of the Membership Programs of the Hop and the Hood. It is intended to enable talented Dartmouth undergraduates to complete special projects. The fund makes a total of up to $3,000 available to sponsor major original projects. Application is open to individuals or groups.

The Lazarus Family Musical Theater Fund

The Lazarus Family Musical Theater Fund supports student-initiated projects in musical theater, with a priority given to original work. Although projects need not be curricular to be considered, senior projects that bring together work in theater and music are particularly appropriate. In the absence of proposals featuring original music, lyrics and/or text by students, productions that are to be directed, choreographed and designed by students may also be considered. The fund provides a total of up to $1,900 to support student-initiated projects.

The Class of 1961 Arts Initiative Fund

Undergraduates are invited to apply for support of student enterprises in the arts. This award is funded by members of the Class of 1961 in order to enable talented Dartmouth undergraduates to undertake special projects in the arts. Particular interest will be given to those projects that “stand alone”—that is, projects that are not undertaken as senior fellowships or honors projects nor are affiliated with student organizations. The fund makes up to $1,500 available to sponsor student-initiated projects in the performing and visual arts. Application is open to single or group projects.

Applications & Guidelines

Applications and complete guidelines for each fund are available online (hop.dartmouth.edu) or check with the offices of the Directors of Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art, the Chairs of the Departments of Theater, Music, Studio Art, Film & Media Studies, and Art History, the Hop Ensembles Office and the Hop Student Workshops.

DEADLINE: Thursday, November 10, 2016 ALL APPLICATIONS and recommendations must be submitted to the Hopkins Center Director’s Office, 4 Currier Suite 303, by 12 pm, Thursday, November 10, 2016 or via email to patricia.moffitt@dartmouth.edu.

hOPkINS CeNTer fOr The ArTS

hop.dartmouth.edu • 603.646.2424 Dartmouth College • Hanover, NH

ally upset about something or just super stressed out and I’ll go on a run and I do feel like I’m running away from whatever stress I have,” said Ben Roberts ’20, a varsity track athlete. “It’s like you turn off your mind in a way and just let your body go free.”

Not all students feel that they are running away from something. Each student finds running as beneficial in different ways.

Van Gelder said that as opposed to running away from her problems, she “runs them out.”

“So I’m taking all that stress and just pounding it out. And at the end of a long day, that’s happened quite a few times. You just kind of sweat it out and release all the bad feelings, all the negative things that happened to you that day and get it out of your system.”

Running can be difficult and straining on the body, yet students often find running to be relaxing. Runners even use the term “runner’s high” to explain the euphoric feeling they acquire.

“My favorite part is the way that it feels on a really good day when you feel like you’re running fast, but not fast enough that it hurts, and it’s just completely relaxing,” Isaacson said. “Usually in the fall when the leaves are falling, the air smells good. That’s what I think about when I think of the best days of running.”

Especially at Dartmouth, the impressive landscape and the vibrant fall colors can be an appealing aspect of running outside.

Popular runs around campus include Occom Pond and Pine Park.

A benefit of running over swimming or other sorts of exercise is the scenery, said Sarah LeHan ’20, another member of DERT. Throughout high school, LeHan ran on her varsity track team and found running as a crucial way to balance work and relaxation. However, LeHan felt running could create unique “escape” beyond school.

“A lot of times girls worry they’re eating too much of this and that, but if you ran seven miles you get more leeway,” LeHan said. “So that actually is another aspect of escape that played a role in my high school experience: the escape from having to worry like, ‘Oh no I’m getting fat.’”

Both Van Gelder and Isaacson said they feel “antsy” after a long period without running; luckily, they can look forward to DERT sessions. DERT can help students create a commitment to running more frequently in a recreational environment.

“Running here is really fun,” Van Gelder said. “It’s a great way to socialize, which also takes your mind off all of the rest of things.”

Running may not directly help with acing a midterm or finishing your paper, but the evidence suggests it can certainly improve your attitude. With enough focus on a single action, such as taking the next step, all of the negative background noise tends to fade away. Students have various outlets for clearing their minds, but it seems runners can justifiably brag about the advantages of their medium.

8// MIRROR

Photo Essay: Everyday Escape

An exploration of places to escape to within our own backyard.

PHOTO ESSAYU

By Lauren Kim, Paula Kutschera and Seamore Zhu