I can't get an LPAP. #IGTR

Twice a year, a frenzy hits Rice campus, flaring up in 15 minute intervals of panic, frustration, and occasionally, triumph.  While some Rice students have a calm registration experience ("I registered for next semester in 30 seconds.  Gee, that was easy."), others are not so fortunate.

The tension begins to slowly build as you wait for registration time to arrive, checking Schedule Planner every few minutes to see how many spots are left in your desired classes until:

Now what?  You check on your "back-up" classes.  Also full.  Great.  You open up the course catalog and stare blankly at the drop-down menus.  If you're an academ, you immediately rule out any subject that requires a lab, knowledge of computer coding, or upper level math.  If you're an S/E, you immediately rule out any subject that may force you to read something other than a textbook, write a paper longer than 3 pages, or anything with a class size small enough for the professor to notice when you skip it every other week.  So that leaves you with... hmm... uhh... well....  You'll just come  back to this later.  Right now, your registration time is about to be up and you've got to register for an LPAP within the first 5 seconds to have any hope at all!

You sit tensed at your desk, right hand poised on your click pad to hit register as soon as the time on your phone (most accurate clock you could find) flips over to the new minute. And YES, it's your turn!, it's your time!, nothing can stop you from getting this LPAP!!!

But wait!  There's a wait-list!  Surely seniors who are registered for more than one LPAP will eventually drop one and you'll be able to get in.  Yeah!  Problem solved! Except:

 

Okay, so admittedly you're over-reacting.  It's just an LPAP.  You'll get it next year.  ... Probably.

I love my body. #IGTR

Consent is Sexy.  Beer Bike is good.  Love Your Body.

There are many weeks or months at Rice that are focused on celebrating or educating people about a particular topic.  During Consent is Sexy week (conveniently, the week before NOD), students learn "what is consent?" and why consent is so important.  During Willy Week, we all come together and revel in how awesome it is to be students at Rice, and how people at lesser universities are grudgingly making their way through the week while we're blasting music, filling water balloons, and enjoying the antics of our RAs and Masters in the Beer Debates.

However, one particular cause gets not just a week, but a whole month.  All February, the Wellness Center schedules Love Your Body Month events that encourage students to develop positive body images and feel healthy and rejuvenated.  There's the Revitalize Day study break (free massages!), Yoga on the Lawn, Body Walks, the Love Your Body Monalogues, and more.  Plus, they give out those awesome sweatbands.

This is me hugging myself.  Because I love my body.  Like it says on my sweatband.

I recently talked to some Rice students about their conceptions of negative and positive body image, as well as Cristina, the Wellness Center Nutrition and Body Image Intern for 2011.  Take a listen:


Body Image at Rice University

[[If planning for Love Your Body Month is something you'd like to be involved with this year, contact Cristina at cbb2@rice.edu for an application to be a Coordinator or a General Committee Member.]]