There is a single thing keeping students sane while they drown in a tsunami of midterms, final projects, papers and assignments: summer break. Summer break is a college student’s salvation. It is the light at the end of the semester-long tunnel. The road to rest, relaxation, vacations and freedom.

Yet, summer comes with multiple stipulations that people tend to brush under the rug. Summer is not truly a time for enjoyment and relaxation, because as college students we bear other responsibilities unrelated to our coursework. These same responsibilities often leave students feeling burned out and unsatisfied with their break. They never even got the chance to take a rest! Summer break is not the free, high-flying and comfortable vacation it is advertised to be. It is a three-month long lie that we have been trained to accept.

The most notable con with summer break is internships. With a school as competitive as our own, there are heavy expectations and pressure to get a good internship, even among friends. This forces them into a place where they begin to obsess over finding some manner of employment or resume boosting, which is not a healthy mindset to have. Internships are a source of high stress and worry, especially for students who require that experience along with their transcript when applying for colleges post-graduation.

Summer classes do not feel the same as employment, but render the summer sad, dry and lacking in fun or excitement. Those same semesterly obligations, assignments and exams continue into the summer; this is not much better than the stresses we experience during the school year. Though we usually take less classes, the difference is easily made up via speed. Summer courses move at a quicker, more painful speed than their fall and spring counterparts. Students coming in with existing credits and classes have an advantage and disadvantage. While they do not have to take summer classes to catch up or move forward a little extra with their degree, they are thrust into the deep end of their degree, having to worry about internships and work experience earlier than their peers.

It may seem like there is an easy solution: Just take the summer off! But it is not so simple. Imposter syndrome runs through our student populace like rats through the on-campus apartment buildings. Not spending the summer productively feels like a waste of time. It is valuable time down the drain! We could not possibly let that time escape us when it could be used to better our futures and shape our careers. We are expected to maximize our available time before entering the workforce or the graduate school application field. Students do not have the luxury of time off, especially when their classmates are optimizing every second to improve their candidacy. LinkedIn stalking only serves to worsen this state of mind. Seeing peers add to their lists of accolades and work hard all year forces a sense of guilt onto the average student. Why am I not being wise with my time and opportunities when they are?

We live in an endless cycle of crawling on our hands and knees, fighting to get towards the end of the semester. Yet, the moment we reach our destination, we are again faced with work, pressure and stressors. In high school, I used to look at my sister’s summertime and pine for those three months. The two months we received paled insignificantly in comparison.

The harsh truth is that there is no break. After college, we look for work, then we work and then we die. There is no end in this capitalist reality, and summer is certainly not any real reprieve, despite what we all may hope for it to be.

Spring break is a cruel flirt. The ultimate playboy. The break that gives students the smallest, most delectable taste of freedom, then immediately rips it away. 

Most people think of spring break with fondness and eagerness.

Being the only real and substantial holiday of spring semester, students could not live without it. For instance, in the 2020-2021 school year, Tech did not give students a week of spring break. Instead, students were given one Tuesday and one Wednesday on two different weeks, with events and free food to encourage the tired student body. This resulted in people continuing to do work during the two holidays, as well as excessive burnout and diminished mental health among students. 

The necessity of spring break is indisputable, as it contributes to mental rest and allows students to relax, spend time with family, and travel. However, what cost do students have to pay in order to enjoy this school-free week of calm?

Some students do not even truly get to enjoy their breaks. Often, people use this break to catch up on work or get ahead. Those struggling with the content in their classes sometimes have no choice but to dedicate their breaks to tutoring or thorough review of lectures. Of course, this does not make for a restful, relaxing spring break. These students are not allowed the same break as some of their peers.

Other students are unable to go home for the break. Whether that be due to monetary, familial, or other reasons, these students are confined to their apartments, suites, and dormitories for the expanse of spring break. 

With most students going home for the holidays, the buildings and dining halls closed, and with the bus system down, being on campus is not only a hassle, but lonely. While some individuals may enjoy this solitude, others have no choice but to brave the break on their own. 

The student populace places immense value on spring break. 

It must provide a means for catching up on sleep, traveling, vacationing, studying, relaxing, a break from school, family time, and sometimes more. This is a lot of pressure for a five-day vacation. 

Worse, some professors also place assessments, exams, and other miscellaneous assignments due on the weeks before and after the break. 

Not only do they give extra work, they cram content into the weeks prior and following the break. All of the calmness, relaxation, and de-stressing is counteracted in the week after, when classes hit the ground running, sometimes at even quicker speeds than before. 

After all, with only a few weeks left before finals, professors obviously have no choice but to drown us in work. What other choice do they have? 

Of course, the moments we do have to relax our minds during break are all the more valuable. So much so, that students deserve more. Students deserve more than one short-lived, high stakes break to get them through the remainder of the semester. We deserve one or two three-day weekends and perhaps even a five day weekend. 

Tech students should not have to cry and pray for March to come faster, crawling towards the salvation that is spring break. We are forced to savor those five days as if they are the last cookie in the jar or the last chip in the bag. 

Those moments of break-induced serenity and sanity are short-lived regardless. Soon after our return to school, we are dropped headfirst into the ice-cold reality; we are only mid-semester. School is not nearly at an end. 

We have five whole weeks left. It is only going to get worse before it gets better.

If there is one thing women at a STEM-focused school like Tech experience, it is sexism. This is not your run of the mill, “women don’t deserve rights!” type of sexism, but the most dangerous type: internalized sexism.

Internalized sexism is when the misogynist structure of society is so ingrained in the minds of individuals, it seeps into their actions and mindsets without them even realizing it. This phenomenon runs rampant on our campus, even among individuals who might identify as more progressive in their beliefs.

The testosterone-fueled desire to put down women for comedic effect is dated and overused, yet exceedingly common.

This is the most frequent demonstration of this issue in everyday life.

Whether it be jokes about how women are “all the same,” or how women are shallow for preferring a certain height, many men try to find ways to paint women in a negative light.

Through using dehumanizing terms like “females,” or reducing women to their parts or appearances, women often find themselves as the butt of these jokes.

These comments are part of a harmful rhetoric, found in most households and most friend groups, but rarely condemned.

The phrases “they don’t really mean it” or “they are just joking around” build a safety net around these damaging statements.

Allowing this type of commentary to continue perpetuates stereotypes about women and allows for “locker room talk” to prevail; women are still valuable and human even if they are not present in the room.

If an individual did not have these beliefs, even subconsciously, they would not make such comments at all.

Of course, at a school like Tech, the issues of academic, workplace and classroom sexism are extremely prevalent on our campus.

Even from childhood, women are almost trained to see themselves as weaker, branded early with the phrase, “Can you have some boys come to help me carry these chairs into the other room?”

Susan, the chairs are barely five pounds; any of us could carry them into the room.

Yet, these micro-level separations and the creation of gender roles at such a formative age have effects to this day.

Women have begun to internalize these ideas and allow themselves to be talked over or put down for fear of being branded in a negative manner. Speaking up, being opinionated or being strong-minded are not qualities associated with femininity, which is usually coupled with daintiness, frailty and timidity. In fact, studies show that while 66% of women receive feedback for “being abrasive” in the workplace, only about 1% of men receive that same feedback. In classes, women often cite struggles in groups with all men, stating that they are repeatedly talked over and interrupted or assigned “feminine” tasks like creative writing or post-making. Aside from the obvious invalidity of branding academic tasks as feminine or masculine, there is no reason for women to be treated differently in academic settings. We all go to the same school, take the same classes and get the same grades, so what is so different about women that they are only deemed worthy of certain assignments? These expectations are not only limited to school- work, but to hobbies as well.

My friend and I have shared that we enjoy going to the gym, and received a shocked baritone, “women go to the gym?” in return more than once.

Surprise! Hobbies are not gender-specific! These stereotypes have widespread effects and often settle into expectations.

Women are just as capable and intelligent as men and should be treated as such; false social expectations and enforced gender roles should not force us into a box.

This all stems from that same internalized misogyny. While people do not always explicitly think of women as inferior, this ideology has been branded into our minds constantly, through media, music, literature and innate societal structure.

It is not enough to see women as equal; it is important to stand up against any sort of negative rhetoric towards women as a whole.

The only way to dismantle this oppressive structure is to speak out against the normalization of internalized misogyny and push our peers to see the true implications of their words and actions.

Of course, this does not even begin to peel into the intricacies of women’s oppression, or the roles that toxic masculinity, transphobia, homophobia, race and other numerous factors play on the issues at hand. However, I can’t help but hope that one day, women will truly be equal in the eyes of all. Though, in recent times, it feels more like we’re regressing into “The Handmaid’s Tale,” American edition.

If there is one thing Tech students love to talk about, it is their workload. 

Whether it be touting the difficulty of their classes around for people to see or complaining about which interview offer they should reject; if you go to Tech, you cannot escape it. 

There is no denying the rigor of classes here at the Institute, and the majority of students are involved in numerous extracurricular activities, internships, research, etc. 

Yet there exists widespread issues with lack of sleep, lack of free time and terrible coping mechanisms. 

Is it unavoidable at a school with high-level academics and difficult courses, or does Tech perpetuate this issue on a systemic level?

One big change that I have experienced in my two years at Tech is a skewing of my sleep schedule. 

There is such a focus on hyper-productivity that every waking moment seems like an opportunity to get ahead on assignments and studying. 

Thus, why not stay up a little later to maximize viable work time? 

With this ideology running through my mind, the time I go to sleep has slowly been pushed further and further back from 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. 

I am not alone in having experienced this phenomenon. The pressure to succeed is intense, especially at a school where all of your peers are extremely intelligent and accomplished. 

It is hard to focus on much else when everyone around you is always “on the grind.” 

At Tech, every student is forced to have tunnel vision when it comes to academics, and especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have found their mental health deteriorating. 

The transition from online classes to in-person classes has been brutal for many with course formats changing and more exams switching back to closed-note and in-person. 

Armed with this knowledge, Tech and its administration has done very little to combat these issues. 

For example, in Spring 2021, instead of having a full week of Spring Break, students were given two non-consecutive “holidays” in the middle of two separate weeks (and no, Sting Break did not cure my exhaustion). 

These were not even three-day weekends, and the majority of students spent that time catching up on work or completing projects for classes since it was mid-week anyhow. 

Unsurprisingly, this resulted in many peers feeling extremely burned out and overwhelmed, as we were not given any breaks for the entire semester. 

Notably, a similar issue arose with Ph.D. and other graduate-level students. 

After over a year of limited lab access, when they could return fully, Ph.D. students were expected to deliver their normal content as well as compensate immensely for lost time. 

This resulted in extreme work hours, at least 14–16 hours days for many, and abysmal mental health. 

Following the suicides of three Ph.D. students across the country, Tech took “action” by ordering Ph.D. students to take a one-week break. 

However, the expectations and requirements were still the same. 

There were no additional mental health resources or means of getting in contact with students to see how they could be helped from an administrative level. 

This only shows how Tech has little regard for the mental health of its students, and this only has one result: terrible coping mechanisms.

Whether it be drinking your sorrows away Thursday through Saturday night (Rick Sanchez style) or holing up and self-isolating while watching television, Tech students have awful coping mechanisms. 

Of course, there is nothing wrong with letting loose, but many students use this as a way to maintain their sanity and get through the week. 

This dependency is not healthy. If you walk through the library past 1 a.m., it is not especially dissimilar to 1 p.m., and that is scary. 

There is a minimal effort towards improving mental health at this school, and the effects of this can be seen in the student body. 

Going to a school like Tech can be described as a lot of things: tiring, difficult, exciting, intimidating and some other less PG terms. 

However, the academic rigor of our school contributes to far more than a few late nights and UberEats deliveries at the library. 

The emotions associated with exam scores and course grades are stronger than ever, especially with classes transitioning back to fully in-person formats. 

People are more stressed than ever about getting good grades and doing the best they can in an academic environment. 

Some even may experience a correlation between their mental health and grades, with lower scores having adverse effects on general wellbeing. 

However, feeling attached to academic achievement is not a newly developing phenomenon. 

In the American public education system, students are continually awarded for high performance from a young age.

Large numbers of Tech students can recall their enrollment in gifted programs starting in elementary school. The schools would identify and isolate students that appeared to be performing higher than their peers. They would then be tested on their creativity, intelligence and academic performance and placed in separate classes.

Being in these programs was considered prestigious, and many parents would push their children to perform well in order to gain admittance early. 

Friends who were not in the program would often voice their concerns to me, telling me how the separation made them feel inferior to the students in the program. 

This terrible rift aside, pushing children to achieve high accomplishments at such an impressionable age, especially in a manner that rewards high performance, can result in students equating their self-worth to their academic achievement–many years in the future. 

This also stems from varying parenting styles. Children who never received praise for anything besides academic proficiency may find that it is the only thing that validates them later in their lives. 

Of course, positive reinforcement alone cannot be the reason people our age have such an unhealthy obsession with high grades. Part of it is the standard society holds for success. 

To be successful is to go to college, get a job, make money, and move up the ladder: a capitalistic success. 

Yet, we all live with these standards in the back of our minds. In the country we live in, in the economy we live in, can we truly follow our dreams? In reality, we are reduced to a single sheet of paper, and the vast majority of that paper is our academic accomplishments. 

There exists the cultural aspect of academic achievement as well. Parents often push their children to do bigger and better things than themselves, and this pressure can contribute to a decline in mental wellbeing as well. There is a constant feeling of, after all, if I can’t even achieve this, what value do I truly have? As a child of immigrants, I feel pressure to please and impress my parents after everything they have sacrificed to give me a good life. It feels like the least I could do is get good grades. Yet, this mindset is harmful, as it leads to these achievements holding far too much weight in the way we see ourselves. 

At this point, you must be wondering, what could we possibly do to fix this? How can we, as students living in this reality, change this system? Frankly, I don’t think we can. At least, I don’t think our generation can escape this equation of academic prowess and self-worth. 

The issue is too deeply ingrained into the minds of our parents, our grandparents, and even ourselves. 

Additionally, it isn’t like we could boycott “the system;” we have people to take care of, bills to pay, and necessities to purchase. We can’t force people to unlearn generations of familial and societal expectations in the blink of an eye. This all leaves us with only one solution: drop out and open a bookstore.

White silence has always played a pivotal role in the perpetuation of systematic racism here in the United States. 

The sentiment of “it doesn’t affect me, so why should I care?” plagues privileged households. 

Using their white privilege as a means to blind themselves from the struggles people of color face is just as damaging as the embarrassingly conservative uncle and his outwardly racist tirades at family dinners. 

Anne McCarty Braden was a journalist and organizer who worked with Rosa Parks and is mentioned in Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

John Brown was an abolitionist who assisted in the Underground Railroad. 

Possibly most popularly and recently, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is another individual who was actively involved during the early parts of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. These are all important examples of white figures who were pivotal in the anti-racism movement

While we may be critical of white people for their lack of participation or interest in standing up for people of color, especially Black Americans, there is another group who deserves censure for their behavior: Asian Americans. 

The “model minority myth” paints Asian Americans in a very specific light.

It describes Asians to be hard-working, intelligent, humble and dedicated. 

It illuminates us as the pinnacle of the American Dream, people coming from nothing and achieving monetary success. 

After all in our cruel capitalist society, that is the only metric for achievement. 

However, there are many issues with these stereotypes, many of which play into the divisive racial tensions that have plagued America for decades. Most notably, the concept of the “model minority” does not only create a glorified stereotype of a certain group.

It also creates a “problem minority,” in which government bodies blame and target one group as  more problematic more often: Black Americans. 

The “model minority” myth was part of a government propaganda campaign following WWII, creating a racial hierarchy and further oppressing Black people in America. 

The worst part is we, as Asian Americans, perpetuate this practice. Centuries of colorist ideologies, stemming from our ancestral countries of India, China, Korea and more, result in a disturbing sense of pride for perpetuating these stereotypes. 

Many Asians, especially in the generation before us, believe people with darker skin to be lesser, even within their own ethnic groups. When people don’t necessarily disagree with its claims, myths continue
to live on. 

When some Asians themselves have those internalized racist ideologies, they are disinterested in standing up for Black Americans because they buy into this
government-sanctioned hierarch. 

They enjoy seeing themselves on top. Others, who may be less conservative and “traditional,” are simply disinterested in standing up for Black Americans because the issues do not affect
them personally. 

While my parents are sympathetic towards the Black Lives Matter Movement and were deeply concerned in 2012 when George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin and in 2020 when Derek Chauvin mercilessly killed George Floyd, they are still hesitant to stand up and speak out against these issues publicly. 

They witness these brutalities and the dangerous reality of being Black in America, and though they are dismayed by what they see, to them, this is not “their” issue. 

Some of my Asian friends have admitted to me that their parents struggle to even comprehend the point of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

While their parents understand that problems like systemic racism exist, they are unable to understand why people don’t just “work hard” to escape poverty or “move neighborhoods” to escape a dangerous lifestyle. 

This is the real result of the “model minority” myth. It has created a deep separation between minorities in America. In moments when various minorities should band together and fight systematic oppression as a team, opposition wins by pitting these groups against each other. 

Further, the “model minority” myth actually hurts Asian populations as well. 

For example, many Asian students are assumed to not need help when struggling academically.

This stereotype creates an academic standard that is difficult to live up to and actually can result in even worse performance. It also pushes the idea that being Asian is a monolith. 

In reality, the term “Asian” refers to so many ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds, and cannot even begin to encompass their vast differences. 

I, as a South Indian woman, am not even close to culturally synonymous with my Bengali roommate, let alone a Japanese or Hmong peer. This all brings us back to the real issue at hand.

Asian Americans need to destroy the “model minority” myth. In divisive times like the current, it is imperative that all minorities work together to overcome systematic oppression and discrimination. 

It is even more important that we use our voice as the “model minority” to speak out against the systematic dehumanization, mass incarceration, police brutality, discrimination and all other modern-day subjugation against Black Americans. 

Protesting against anti-Asian violence alone is insufficient.

If we allow this myth to continue, can we truly say we are any better than the silent white populace?

With the semester picking up and life kicking our collective student body in the butt, one thought has repeatedly come to mind in the moments where I despair at being born: Dr. Connors was onto something. 

For those of you thinking “I have no idea who that is”, Dr. Connors is a fictional character appearing in Marvel Comics. He becomes a large lizard humanoid who tries to turn the human population into similar creatures. And recently, I can’t help but wonder if he was as much of a villain as we make him out to be. 

Of course, the forcible element of transforming people into lizards was awful, but was his logic behind the whole ordeal so flawed? I did some thinking and I’m not so sure anymore.

One of the biggest issues humans are facing right now is the COVID-19 pandemic. It has transformed our lives and wreaked havoc across the world. Yet, there have been no reported COVID-19 cases in lizard populations.

If we were all lizards, we would not be living in these pandemic conditions, worrying about virulence and mask usage, because we would be unable to get the disease in the first place! Humans are weak and susceptible to miles of pages of illnesses; as lizards, we would no longer have this issue.

On the note of medical improvements, lizards have the ability to regrow limbs. Most of us have accidentally stepped on or run over the tail of a lizard. However, we were usually not too concerned, especially armed with the knowledge that the tail would grow back. If we as humanoid lizards had this ability, we would be extremely powerful.  

In contemporary society, we celebrate hard work and achievement in the workplace and academic environments. However, this contributes to overworking and burnout, especially at a school as rigorous as Georgia Tech. 

Becoming lizards would solve this problem due to their temperature regulation issues. If lizards are too hot or too cold, they simply cannot function. 

This phenomenon would force us to prioritize rest and spend time on self-care, since in these scenarios we would be unable to work.

Malthusianism states that since the human population grows exponentially, but food and resources grow linearly, we will eventually run out of necessities and die on a massive scale. In a lizard state, we would hardly have food scarcity due to the abundance of insects and other bugs. 

In fact, with climate change and the rise of global temperatures, many insect populations have experienced increases in population. If humans were to be lizards, we could control those populations while simultaneously having sufficient feed. 

Additionally, since lizards don’t have nearly as developed emotional capacities, we would experience less pain and irritation from friendships, family, and relationships. We most certainly would not have to deal with the complexities of hookup culture.

All of these ideas in mind, we can’t deny there are pros to being a lizard person. Who wouldn’t want the ability to regrow their limbs? Reptilian scales, instead of winter air-induced ones, would be a refreshing change to everyday life. Being a lizard would solve so many large-scale issues that humanity faces. 

Considering all the tax money the government puts towards research and development, it’s a wonder this technology has not been further explored. 

In this case, maybe Peter Parker shouldn’t have won.

It’s February, and love is in the air! At least, that is what the Edible Arrangements television advertisements and the Shane company Fine Jewelry radio promotions claim. Valentine’s Day is the annual celebration of romance and love. Personally, I think the aggressive monetization of the holiday nullifies its sanctity and value; if you love someone, show them you love them all year! However, this all begs a very important question: what are the true implications of being in love?

If you ask a biology major what love is, they might explain some brain chemical nonsense that will only confirm that the love potion episode of Rick and Morty (Rick Potion #9) is a possibility. If you ask an author, they might feed you a philosophical explanation ending with, “if you know, you know.” If you ask my cousin, he would most certainly offer a different sort of explanation, as his one true love is physics (this one, I cannot relate to). The cynic in me wants to exclaim, “love is fake! It’s all fake!” but I would be lying if I said I don’t buy into the “true love” and “soulmate” tropes
that society propagates. 

One of my best friends told me her sociology professor suggested that love was the opposite of power. More specifically, the contention was that to be in love was to be powerless, even in its purest form. This realization floored me, the idea that an alternative to power is love. The sacrifices that people make for love, the adjustments that people make for loved ones are inherently compromises of their power. 

An example in popular media is Jack and Rose in Titanic. Could Jack have stayed with Rose on the door and tried
to survive? Did Jack have the power to shove Rose off the door and use it to survive the shipwreck himself? Though that would make for a very different film, he did have that power and chose not to exercise it in the name of love. He gave up and compromised that power for the woman he loved. A more modern example could be made in the context of gender roles and domesticity. In numerous heterosexual partnerships, mothers make the choice to stay home and/or put their careers on hold in order to care for children. 

While these decisions are usually guided by gender roles and societal expectations, they are often defended in the name of love. 

These mothers love their children and are thus willing to sacrifice for those children, but is this not a compromise on power? Whether one finds it worthwhile or not, to do so is a loss in career advancement and monetary standing, which are a means to power in contemporary society.

If one is in love, are they inherently powerless? Are they powerless over their actions or powerless over their words? 

More than questioning logic and power, I think the real contention at hand is whether love is truly something to covet. If love makes one act without reason, is it really something to desire? If love means a loss of individuality, is it something worth seeking? 

Society pushes us to seek validation in other people, whether that be through romantic relationships, platonic relationships, or familial relationships. However, at what point is wanting for love synonymous with being incapable of loving oneself? 

If an individual is looking for love, perhaps it is due to a lack of self-love; they are all but forced to seek it from an outside source. 

Although, all of that aside, I still want to find the Darcy to my Elizabeth.