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WYLES: Take an unrequired course this spring

Breaking from rigid requirements and routines can help us find new excitements

There truly are a remarkable set of classes every semester that you’d never know of if you didn’t look for them.
There truly are a remarkable set of classes every semester that you’d never know of if you didn’t look for them.

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As another round of class enrollment hovers near, it can be easy to treat it as another task on a checklist. Classes are hard — even if we love them — and the prospect of a new batch of courses may not be all that enticing right now. However, we all owe it to ourselves to not let enrollment turn into a mundane task of minimal joy. Yes, it’s another set of tasks — scrolling through the Student Information System for classes and completing advising sessions. But it’s also a chance to give yourself something new next semester. There’s never been a better time to take the class you’ve always wanted to take or to scavenge through SIS for those hidden gems that you wouldn’t see otherwise.

As college students, we live in a mental health crisis unique to our own daily lives. Setting time aside each day to eat, exercise and rest is crucial to keeping our bodies and mind healthy, but the demand of college can make this hard. I can only speak for myself, but it often tends to be the small things adding up. You skip out on buying groceries this week because you had to reload your laundry tab. You don’t eat dinner because you have late classes. You lose sleep over studying and reading. You don’t give yourself the space to just breathe — to take an important step back and look at yourself and how you’re doing. College makes these things nearly impossible to avoid. The importance of routine is often stressed as a key combatant against depression and anxiety simply because it forces us to find the time to take care of ourselves.

While routines can be a wonderful thing for mental health, they also carry the potential for detriments. We can easily set ourselves on autopilot as soon as we settle into the groove of a routine. This is great for eating and sleeping but troublesome when it comes to how we learn. We live in a world of requirements. We must meet the official ones — major requirements, grade point average minimums and often-mandated class attendance. We must meet the unspoken ones — the internships we need to boost our resumes and the extracurriculars we often join to do the same, even if these certainly can be transformative experiences. And we must meet the things individual to many students’ situations — working a job to stay in school, afford rent and buy groceries. These requirements on top of necessities on top of even more requirements are daunting. They place us in a routine that can feel like it’s conquering us more than we’re conquering it.

In short, mental health is a balance act. Being a student is a balance act. I can’t surmise a singular answer to these problems. Services on Grounds are available, but I know it can be hard to find time even for those. With this article, I’m offering recognition of our often-unspoken problems, alongside something that personally helps me.

Course enrollment expands that list of official requirements. While many of us follow strict class paths that make taking courses outside our departments difficult, I encourage those of us that can to take an unrequired course this spring. The number of courses on SIS can be overwhelming, but there truly are a remarkable set of classes every semester that you’d never know of if you didn’t look for them.

For instance, most language departments on Grounds teach courses in translation. You can take Arabic, Russian and Japanese literature and media courses in English. These are an exciting way to explore other cultures in an accessible way. Elsewhere, the Media Studies department offers classes on animated film and television, Iranian cinema and hip-hop culture. Why not put a little Pixar into your schedule? Why not branch out and finally take that class in the psychology, astronomy or Slavic department you’ve been hearing about since getting to Grounds? Take this as a sign to finally do that. There are endless other courses I could’ve included here.

Taking a class on a more niche topic, one that focuses on another region of the world or simply one outside your normal studies is one way to break the pattern of strict routine. These classes may not count toward your major or minor, but they will offer you something fresh and new, something that diversifies your schedule and hopefully gives you a truly unique semester. Don’t be scared by classes located in the section of SIS you’ve never looked through. Give them a chance. More importantly, give yourself the benefit of breaking — or even just chipping — the rigid requirements we have to face every day.

Bryce Wyles is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the authors alone.

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