CARA VAN METER
Assistant Editor
For all the Green Day fans in the crowd: Wake Up. September has, indeed, ended, and with October well on its way, many of you may be sliding down into that rut that so often rears its ugly head after the excitement of the new semester wears off. It is the mid-semester funk, luring students off their chosen paths of righteous academic purpose to a gloomy doom of useless and depressed wandering through time and space. It slips you up just when you least expect it. In fact, the funk is such an experienced and intangibly ubiquitous foe that you may not be able to avoid falling into its trap. However, there are a few simple steps that you can take, after having fallen in, to escape from it.
STEP ONE: Determine the Causes
This step can be very difficult because it requires you to fight off the tentacles of apathy wrapped around your mind long enough to muddle through your thoughts. It helps to talk it out, whether to your favorite pillow or with a friend.
The point is to think back to the last period of happiness and energy you can remember before the funk and to try to trace the changes that have occurred since then. Did a disappointing grade start your downward spiral? Did a fight with a family member do it? Most likely, it was a number of factors, in which case you will need to recognize them all and realize that one can build upon another, even if the two seem unrelated. Such is the nature of a funk: it rarely bases itself on one incident, because that would be far too simple to resolve.
STEP TWO: Address your issues
Once you have determined which factors in your life are responsible for your funk, address them each one by one. Consider how you feel about these happenings. Make a concrete statement (whether to yourself or to that friend/pillow who has been helping you thus far) about your feelings and reactions. Now, make a decision. Do not just continue to passively float around in all these factors. Take action to resolve those that you can and choose to let go of those that you cannot.
STEP THREE: Adjust your perspective
Having acknowledged the factors that are contributing to your funk and escaped your self-feeding cycle of introspection, look around you for a new perspective. If you were able to find a friend to listen to you back in step one, now would be a good time to return the favor. Ask what is going on in your friend’s life. Try to help your friend sort through his or her thoughts without offering any advice.
Instead, really listen to what your friend has to say without interrupting. Then, contribute only by rephrasing the confused thoughts they share to help add clarification.
STEP FOUR: Try something new
Now would be a good time to learn something new. Read a news story or look up the answer to a question that you have always wondered about but never been proactive enough to discover. If you have always wanted to see a particular movie, check it out from Blockbuster or the library and make time in your schedule to sit down and enjoy it. If you have always wanted to earn to knit, put aside your fear of needles and give it a shot.
Even if there is not a hobby or experience you have been wanting to try, or simply putting off, keep your eyes and ears open for a new opportunity. Perhaps there is a new club on campus. Let your curiosity take over and go check it out. If your roommate wants to try out a new recipe, offer to be the guinea pig.
Whatever it is, do something out of the ordinary. Even if you do not end up loving the experience and want to repeat it for the rest of your life, it may just be the little jolt you need to shake you awake.
STEP FIVE: Get away
If none of the above steps seem to be doing the trick, you may need an actual physical change of pace to escape your funk. Get out of the rut by taking off for an afternoon or the whole day. Visit a friend who lives a few towns over or take a trip to a museum, park, mall or campus that interests you.
While you are getting to your destination, spend some time processing your funk. Once you arrive, do not dwell on it. Leave it behind you, but do not expect it to be here waiting for you to come back. If you stay gone long enough, it, too, will wander away and you will be free to start fresh.
10-05-2006