Last semester, I made the mistake of signing up for four 75 minute long classes. The joy of having no classes on Fridays was quickly replaced by the dread of sitting in lectures for an agonizingly long amount of time. Twice a week, from 3:30 p.m. until 6:15 p.m., I suffered through two 75 minute lectures, finally stumbling out of a windowless classroom in Van Leer feeling hungry, tired and, unable to remember anything I was just taught.

The mental battle of making it through a 75 minute lecture is so much more challenging than sitting through a 50 minute lecture, although only 25 minutes longer. I would much rather go to lecture three times a week for 50 minutes than only twice a week for 75 minutes. It might seem like it should make no difference, but I assure you, they are drastically different experiences. 

My biggest issue with 75 minute classes is that it packs so much material into two days of the week, typically with only one day in between (such as Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday), leaving us with little time to process what we learned in the previous lecture. This then leaves four days without any instruction. By the time the start of the week rolls around again, I feel disconnected from the course and don’t remember anything from the previous week. 

There have been so many times I have not understood something early on in a lecture or missed an important step, like where a formula comes from, and proceeded to spend the rest of the lengthy lecture confused and accepting the fact I’ll have to figure it out outside of class. Truthfully, sometimes I just give up in lecture, accepting the fact that my brain can’t concentrate for over an hour straight. 

Fifty minute classes, though, spread the material out over the entire week. I waste less time in lectures being confused, because we cover less material each day, and it’s spaced out, giving me time to process things slower and in smaller sections. 

Also, it provides a well-paced structure and forces me to do a little bit of work for the class throughout the entire week. It’s the perfect example of slow and steady wins the race. Most of the introductory courses students take their freshman year, like linear algebra and physics, are 50 minute lectures with additional labs and studios for extra practice. While I can only speak for my major, almost all of the major classes I’ve taken have been offered in 75 minute lectures twice a week, which forces me to understand increasingly difficult topics on the spot and build upon them almost immediately. 

It’s like learning how to add and subtract numbers in the first half of a lecture, and then suddenly being expected to use that new knowledge to solve the quadratic formula in the second half of lecture. That might not be the most accurate analogy, but the point remains: my brain has difficulty making such big leaps in one sitting. 

I would also like to make the distinction that I am specifically discussing lectures, not labs or recitations. Labs and recitations are typically more engaging, despite often being much longer than 75 minutes. It’s long lectures that bother me the most.

I can only speak from my experiences and I know there are plenty of reasons why professors and students prefer longer lectures. Meeting two times a week means you can stack classes back to back easier and keep more days of the week free. For people commuting to campus, this can save them time and even money. 

It also means professors can cover more material in one sitting, perhaps providing the entire picture and being able to work out examples that could help with understanding. Having to start and stop class takes up time, and doing that three times a week as opposed to twice eats up valuable time.

But I know I’m not alone in my dislike for such long lectures, and from talking to my peers and observing in classes, I know how easy it is to be distracted the longer a lecture goes on. As my concentration fades and I get more tired, the time I’m spending in class is no longer valuable. 

I know the administration isn’t going to change their 75 minute lectures anytime soon. There is probably a complex procedure to schedule courses. 

However, I do know there is flexibility in how courses are offered. For instance, ENGL 1101 this semester is offered both twice a week for 75 minutes on TR/MW, or for 50 minutes three times a week on MWF. This accommodates students who prefer knocking out lectures twice a week and those like me who prefer it spread out. I wish this flexibility extended beyond core classes into major-specific classes. 

Every college freshman is told things like “don’t take 8 a.m. classes” — but here’s my most important advice: don’t take 75 minute classes back to back. 

This semester, I don’t dread my days with 50 minute classes back to back, and don’t even mind having classes on Fridays. Sitting in lecture no longer feels brutal and I’m actually able to focus, knowing that in a little under an hour, I’ll be able to take a break, process what I learned, and come back in two days ready to learn again.

The Tech volleyball team won its ninth and tenth consecutive games on Nov. 5 and 7, improving to 21-3 overall, a record that puts the team tied for second in the ACC. The pair of wins came over divisional rivals Miami and Florida State, securing Tech’s tenth ACC win in a row, their longest conference winning streak since 2016.

Tech started off its senior night game against Miami blazing hot, racing to a 12-8 lead in an electric O’Keefe Gymnasium. The Hurricanes never got within striking distance, falling to Tech 25-18 after a kill by senior Mariana Brambilla to close the first set.

The next set started off just as well for Tech, taking a 10-7 lead before a comeback from Miami tied the game up at 21-21. The Jackets would seal the set in dramatic fashion, winning four of the final five points, the last on being on an ace by junior Paola Pimentel.

A quick to start the third set by Miami put the Jackets down 13-8, a deficit from which Tech came back, eventually tying the set 24-24. Tech came close to winning multiple times throughout the set, the Hurricanes were able to survive and end the set at 32-30.

The fourth set began with a quick start from Tech, who did not look back until a kill by Brambilla secured the 25-19 set win and a 3-1 win over a rival team contending for the conference championship. Included in the win was a remarkable stat by Brambilla, who became the fifth Tech volleyball player in school history to record 1000 career digs and 1000 career kills.

Tech would go on to start off their match against Florida State just as fast two days later. The Jackets turned an 11-3 lead into a 25-14 first set win. A few back and forth rallies to start off the second set put both teams at 12-12. From there on out, Tech never gave up the lead. A kill by Brambilla gave the Jackets a 25-22 win.

Like the match against Miami, Tech struggled in the third set relative to their previous dominance, giving up the third set in a 25-23 loss. Luckily for the Jackets the fourth set followed a similar route to the fourth set against Miami, with the Jackets dominating from start to finish. An ace by senior Matti McKissock gave the Jackets a 25-16 win, maintaining their streak of dominance.

As the regular season edges towards a close, Tech is set to play the only team that stands ahead of them in the ACC when the 14th-ranked Jackets take on top-ranked Louisville in what promises to be an exciting rematch for the Jackets, who were shut out 3-0 by the Cardinals when they met at the beginning of October. Tech will face Pittsburgh, the only team currently tied with them for second place, the following week. Both games are pivotal for the Jackets, who are in the midst of chasing their first ACC title since 2002. Since the ACC title is determined by regular season competition, the Jackets final games against their opponents will decide the final standings in the conference, where Tech is still in play for first.

Tech’s matchup against Louisville will be broadcast Friday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. on ACC Sports Extra while their game against Pittsburgh will be Friday, Nov. 19 in O’Keefe Gymnasium.

On Oct. 28, indie rock band Mamalarky took to the stage of 529 in the East Atlanta Village (EAV) for an energetic show. On the night of the show, concertgoers and EAV locals communed at a skinny bar for cheap drinks. Behind, a doorway opened to a large black room with a small stage and adjacent bar. After the openers — Atlanta Space Quartet, an aptly-named group sporting a viola and a vibraphone player; and Safari Williams, a bantering jazz-rock band — Mamalarky took the stage.

The band set the pace of the show with the rhythmic chugging of guitar and drum from their latest release, “Meadow.” Twinkling synth melodies cascaded along to the beat, and during halftime breaks, the audience swooned to moans of ecstasy from lead singer Livvy Bennet, who sported a shroud of glowing blonde hair and a winning smile. In one discordant break, she sang “The same things that we walk past every day find new things to say.”

“Meadow” is a call for the re-exploration of familiar places as much as it is a romantic ode to the euphoria of enjoying outdoor spaces. With the shock and constraints of the pandemic seeming to wear off, there is much wisdom to be drawn from both sentiments. The song is a reminder of the joys of appreciating nature and exploring beyond our usual haunts.

Throughout Mamalarky’s performance, Bennett’s peppy charm embellished the melancholy mood of her lyrics. Accompanied by the trance-inducing precision of keyboardist Michael Hunter, who seamlessly transitioned between energetic solos and starry choruses, Bennet’s twanging guitar licks yo-yo from off-beat tension to comforting refrain. With the backing pulse of the rhythm section, Noor Kahn (bassist) and Dylan Hill (drums), Mamalarky turns to a colorful orchestra of indie rock riffs and conversational instrumentation, diverging and coming back together with skillful control.

Although Mamalarky’s style is distinct, their sound is not consistent. This leaves some tracks on their discography noticeably stronger than others. Their debut self-titled album is packed with poetic verses and sticky choruses laid over dreamy instrumentation. Yet songs like “Big Trouble,” drowned in effects and competing instrumentation, seem to throw off the arc of a quirky indie rock album. The novel arrangement of each song instead gives the impression of misplaced puzzle pieces. While this makes for a charming mosaic, it lacks a cohesiveness that might otherwise grip listeners.

Alongside local acts such as Faye Webster and Lunar Vacation, Mamalarky is a forceful addition to Atlanta’s growing indie scene. In a city awash with commercial pseudo-cultural outfits, Mamalarky is a holdout for authenticity. Hole-in-the-wall bars like 529, among others, are the hotbed for this artistic discovery. The musical undercurrents of Atlanta are a foil for the South’s historical tradition and present an opportunity to redefine the city’s beat.

A vibrant arts community enriches this city and deserves to be engaged with. Celebrate the nooks and crannies of Atlanta and you might rediscover a city you thought you knew.

After two years of anticipation since announcing his stateside lineup of “Love on Tour” concerts, Harry Styles finally touched down in Atlanta to perform two nights at the State Farm Arena on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28. The tour, which was postponed a year due to COVID-19 concerns, is Styles’ second concert tour for his sophomore album “Fine Line.”

Like many touring artists this year, Styles’ team made the decision to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result in order to gain entry to the show. Once in the stadium, masks were required at all times unless actively eating or drinking.

A pre-recorded public service announcement came over the arena’s speakers ahead of the show, with Styles reminding fans to keep their mask on and thanking them for taking safety measures so he can continue to perform for millions of fans around the world. This announcement and the incredible compliance with the mask mandate highlighted the “you say jump, we say how high” mentality of Styles’ fans, with a majority of his fanbase dutifully following him since his 2010 One Direction days. Looking around the crowd and seeing custom made vaccine card holders and “Treat People with Kindness” masks, it seemed Harry Styles had run a more effective COVID-19 campaign than the United States government.

There is no doubt that coming out of one of the biggest boy bands of the century cemented Styles to have a massive dedicated fanbase once his solo career began, but the deep, idolic dedication is awe-inspiring. Fans hoping to get as close to Harry as possible in the pit started lining up the night before the concert, braving the cold of the night outside of State Farm Arena.

Once Harry graced the stage, accompanied by his back up band, it was clear the audience was in for an amazing night with the artist. Styles showed up on stage donned in high-waisted pants, suspenders and a color coordinated button up that has now become his signature uniform for the tour. The set opened with the wistful sounds of “Golden,” the first track off of the album.

The tour setlist continued on with a good mix of songs from “Fine Line” as well as his self-titled debut album “Harry Styles.” Styles also surprised fans with a solo cover of “What Makes You Beautiful,” which was arguably the song that got Harry to where he is today. While Styles has managed to make a tremendous name for himself during his solo career, outselling all of his boy band counterparts, it is nice to see him continue to acknowledge his roots. Perhaps the most iconic part of the show was when a fan from the crowd pulled out an old Harry Styles cardboard cut-out and he brought it on stage to pose with. Styles also clearly knew his crowd and took every chance he got to say “how ‘bout them Braves last night though?” referencing the Braves win against the Astros in Game 1 of the World Series and extracting massive cheers from the crowd who were excited to have Styles acknowledge their beloved home team.

Outside of the unexpected Braves shoutout, perhaps the most beautiful thing about Harry Styles is that he is undeniably a maestro of performance. Listening to his music is one thing, but watching him perform live in his element is another. No matter if you would call yourself a Styles fan or not, it is completely enthralling to watch how much fun he has on stage interacting with fans while bellowing out his alternative rock anthems. Even the boyfriends and dads, who were clearly dragged into the arena by their superfan loved ones, were dancing around and smiling by the end of the show and pulling out their phones to document the moment.

For those fans who spent their adolescence purchasing teeny-bopper magazines from the grocery store and ripping out its pages to plaster Harry Styles upon their bedroom walls, finally getting to see him nearly a decade later was a cathartic experience for most.

While his time in Atlanta was limited to a two night stand, Styles left it all out on the stage and left his Georgia fans thirsting for a new album, a new tour and the hopes of a return back to the city.

The sounds of pure indie rock and roll could be heard booming out of Central Park this past weekend as the annual Shaky Knees music festival made its return after being postponed due to COVID-19 precautions. The festival, which is traditionally held in May, hosted three jam packed days of music from Oct. 22–24.

Shaky Knees hosted notable headliners such as Run the Jewels, Mac DeMarco, Portugal. The Man, Alice Cooper and The Strokes. Also among the headliners were the Foo Fighters, who were tacked onto the lineup after Stevie Nicks withdrew from the festival — as well as all of her other scheduled appearances across the country — as a health precaution in the wake of the pandemic.

While Nicks’ presence was heavily missed, the first day of performances marched on with the Peachtree stage being dominated by Cults, Dominic Fike and Mac DeMarco. The Cults, an American indie band who formed in 2010 and have since had their music make the rounds on various smartphone company commercials, were a pleasant start to the weekend’s festivities for Tech students who had to wait until classes were done for the day to make the walk over to the park. The nostalgic sounds of their hit songs “Always Forever” and “Go Outside” were the perfect background music to the beginning of a beautiful weekend of live performances.

Mac DeMarco enthusiasts who attempted to get to the front of the crowd for his show had to first enjoy the surprisingly contagious stage presence of Dominic Fike, whose song “3 Nights” has projected him into popularity over the past year. Fike proved that he will be an artist to watch in the coming years as he continues to ride the waves off his freshman album “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?,” but the hundreds of young girls shoved against the barricades anxiously waiting for his performance could have already told you that.

Minutes after Fike’s feisty self finished up his set, Mac DeMarco came out to help set up his own stage. Bending down to plug in wires with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, DeMarco’s humble presence made the crowd go wild as he performed the mundane tasks that are usually reserved for a stage hand rather than the artist themselves. DeMarco’s fun-loving, down-to-earth vibe continued throughout his set which made everything in the world seem okay for an hour or so with selections from his discography ranging from his 2012 album “2” to his most recent 2019 release “Here Comes the Cowboy.”

The highlight of Saturday’s lineup was Run the Jewels, the rap duo consisting of El-P and Atlanta’s own Killer Mike. It was a special night of homecoming for Killer Mike as he gleamed to the crowd multiple times to express how grateful he was to be able to perform for his neighbors. The performance marked the first time an Atlanta crowd heard live selections from RTJ’s newest album “RTJ4.” The show ended as an elated Killer Mike invited everyone to the Blue Flame Lounge and Swinging Richards as the haunting sounds of “a few words for the firing squad (radiation)” escorted the pair off stage.

Sunday’s lineup was unmatched as The Backseat Lovers, Orville Peck, Modest Mouse, Phoebe Bridgers and The Strokes dominated three different stages across the park throughout the day. Orville Peck, the mysterious fringe masked gay cowboy, was an easy pick for an artist who should have been designated a headliner but was not. Peck’s performance of his low boiled country croons, while unconventional for the indie festival, were a welcome break from the headbanger bands surrounding his time slot. Unsuspecting festival goers who gathered around the main stage of the festival without having heard of this man walked away as superfans due to his breathtaking performance.

The festival ended on a sweet and sour note as The Strokes capped off the night with a clearly discontent lead singer. Julian Casablancas, the 43 year old frontman of the band, showed up to the stage 15 minutes late for their set and made it clear he did not really want to be on stage. The crowd laughed off his awkward comments regarding him stopping the entire band during their performance of “Ode to the Mets” which Casablancas dubbed “Ode to the Dodgers” after the Braves beat the Dodgers to advance to the World Series the night before. Casablancas skipped over the song as he admitted he could not remember the lyrics. After a series of concerning comments from Casablancas and him assuring the crowd that he was fine, he promptly dropped the microphone at 10 o’clock, signaling the end of an otherwise successful Shaky Knees weekend.

Comedian and former SNL writer John Mulaney spent a week in Atlanta, GA from Sept. 16 through Sept. 22 performing nine different sold out shows between the Coca-Cola Roxy and the Tabernacle venues. Mulaney’s “From Scratch” tour was presented on the coattails of what can only be described as quite the eventful year for the stand-up comedian.

The 39 year old — fresh out of a divorce from his seven year marriage, a visit to rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, and an announcement of a child with brand new lover Olivia Munn (“X-Men: Apocalypse”) — came on stage in his usual suit and tie attire. While Mulaney tried to play the stage as the old squeaky clean, put together version of himself we are used to seeing in his Netflix specials, a few minutes into the set made it very clear that the John Mulaney standing in front of the crowd was a changed man.

Sauntering onto the stage of the Roxy, Mulaney set the tone for the night by pleading with the audience to buy his merchandise out in the lobby, including a shirt with the phrase “I saw him right after he got outta rehab” emblazoned on the chest. This shirt design signaled what everyone was there for: to revel in the chaotic details of the past year of Mulaney’s life.

Mulaney officially opened the performance by addressing his most recent controversy, which was the announcement of his incoming child with Munn during an intimate interview on “Late Night with Seth Myers.” He poked fun at the media’s reactions to the accelerated timeline of his relationship with Munn, by saying “you know you’re problematic when you tell people you’re having a baby and the reactions are mixed” and mentioning that the kids like Bo Burnham better now because he is “less problematic.”

The rest of the set went on to describe the details of his star-studded hybrid intervention that took place in a friend’s apartment, with several of Mulaney’s west coast friends tuning in over Zoom. Dubbing it the “‘We Are the World’ of alternative comedians over 30” Mulaney explained how the event went down and his subsequent 60 day trip to a rehabilitation center in Pennsylvania.

While it was to be expected that Mulaney’s struggles with addiction would be addressed in the set, no one anticipated that it would dominate the theme of every joke of the night. The confident, spunky Mulaney that the world was used to seeing was no longer detectable under this new comedian who spent part of the set explaining to a thirteen year old in front of the crowd how he started drinking at the age of five due to his father’s “European” stance on drinking.

As the performance went on, it was clear that Mulaney was using the stage as his way of processing his past year. One of the most sobering moments was when Mulaney pulled the facade down and expressed how thankful he was that he was able to be on stage again with an audience.

To say Mulaney has some stuff to work through would be an understatement. His insecurities, stemming from his fall from grace as America’s poster boy of on demand comedic relief, are heavily apparent through the bombardment of self-deprecating jokes. Mulaney knows he is public enemy number one now, due to his suspected infidelity throughout the end of his marriage to his ex-wife and subsequent relationship with Munn (an incredibly problematic character of her own due to past fatphobic, homophobic and generally terrible statements).

At the end of the day, Mulaney profits off of something that only comedians can really profit off of, and that is his depiction of his rock bottom moments over the past year. Whether Mulaney’s situation speaks more to the morbid nature of good stand up comedy or the shamelessness of the audiences that enjoy laughing about the worse parts of someone’s life is up for debate. In any other profession, Mulaney would be ripped off of public appearances and shoved to the bottom of press lists everywhere in order to recuperate from such a slash to his image, but because he is able to craft jokes around his struggles, he has sold out shows across the country and is once again rising to the top as America’s favorite comedian.

I might be biased, but I like to consider myself a reasonably nice person.

At the same time, if I was ever told to hand my phone over because my text messages and emails were subpoenaed in court, I would probably have to change my name and adopt a new identity out of embarrassment and a high degree of shame.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, we’re probably on very different sides of Twitter.

Over the past week, my timeline has been full of journalists discoursing over the ethics of group chats, kidney transplants and being a “bad art friend.”

For a few days, I watched the memes and commentary unfold in utter confusion, and it wasn’t until decided to finally read the nearly 10,000-word New York Times (NYT) Magazine feature “Who Is the Bad Art Friend?” that I finally realized all three of these topics are related.

For those who still don’t know what I’m talking about, the gist is this: the main focus is a conflict between two “friends” that evolves over the course of six years, starting in 2015 when unpublished writer Dawn Dorland decided to non-directly donate her kidney (making it available to anyone on a transplant list).

Dorland created a private Facebook group to discuss her kidney transplant and post updates — some engaged with her posts and others, like published writer Sonya Larson, didn’t acknowledge or praise Dorland’s “altruism.”

At one point, Dorland even directly confronts Larson through email about whether she was aware that Dorland donated her kidney, to which Larson responds that she did.

The two “friends,” acquaintances in Larson’s eyes, share a few more brief exchanges where Dorland is mostly upset but restrained that she did not receive more recognition of her selfless act.

Later on, Dorland even attends a writing conference and then a second conference, but no one at either conference acknowledged her kidney donation.

“‘I left that conference with this question: Do writers not care about my kidney donation? Which kind of confused me, because I thought I was in a community of service-oriented people,’” Dorland says in the NYT piece.

At this point, I found myself highly scrutinizing Dorland — if you choose to donate one of your organs, I understand wanting to update people close to you on the status of your health.

However, just because you decided to give away one of your kidney, that does not mean that anyone else — especially someone who doesn’t consider you a friend (Larson admits that she never considered herself close to Dorland) — owes you their time, attention or any sort of validation, especially at a writing conference.

Eventually, Dorland learns that Larson was inspired by her kidney transplant journey and that seed grew into her next published story, “The Kindest,” gaining wide recognition and a feature in a Boston Book Festival program.

Larson’s story features a second-generation Asian American woman named Chuntao, a character that reappears in many of her stories, who receives a kidney transplant from a donor named Rose, who Larson purposely positioned as a white savior character who is seeking the same type of attention for her kidney donation that Dorland was in real life.

The rest of the NYT piece traces a constant back and forth between Larson and Dorland, dissecting accusations of plagiarism, harassment and ultimately a lawsuit that is still going on today.

Even after reading almost 10,000 words about the conflict between the two, there were so many nuances, gray areas, and varying pieces of evidence that were discovered that I still can’t take a definite stance on who is in right and wrong.

At one point, Larson and her friends’ group texts and emails were subpoenaed in court and exposed them talking about Dorland and her kidney transplant in a less than flattering light, forcing me to reflect on the things I have said about other people in the past and whether it was justified or came from a place of spite.

More than this, I still can’t comprehend that Dorland herself pitched this story to multiple outlets, wishing for the public to know about the mess her life had become for the past six years and that someone actually took the time to write out 10,000 words about the discourse.

Yet, here I am with the same discourse still dwelling on my mind while enjoying the endless memes about the two women flooding my Twitter timeline.

Outside of the memes, however, I have seen some insightful and thought-provoking commentary on Twitter from various journalists that have forced me to examine my own relationship dynamics.

One user, @daniellevalore, mentioned that despite the question of ethics at play, the true conflict is not about plagiarism but rather how to handle the dynamics of a situation where one person thinks a relationship is a friendship and the other doesn’t.

I’ve found myself on both sides of this situation before, but I highly doubt that I would ever let my situation with someone escalate to a point where I take legal action against them just because they don’t want to be my friend (if I do, please check in on me and remind me of this editorial).

Is “Bad Art Friend” truly about art ethics? Or is it about social media platforms?

Maybe it’s about friendship, or jealousy, or racial dynamics — honestly, who knows?

Even the author of the New York Times article steers clear of explicitly siding with either party, simply providing the reader with enough information to choose who they support.

Regardless of whatever lies at the core of this conflict, the biggest takeaway for me is this: no matter how you try to shape a narrative, you will always be an antagonist in someone else’s story in order to be a protagonist in your own.

If you have never caught yourself driving around town to stare at empty shelves at various Walgreens, Kroger and Five Below stores in search of incredibly soft stuffed animals, you can proudly say you’ve never succumbed to the cult that is the Squishmallow hunting community.

My own Squishmallow collection, like any great love affair, started off unexpectedly. During the summer after my first year at Tech, I moved into the North Avenue South apartments without any roommates for the semester. After I moved into my barren apartment, I naturally made my way to the Atlantic Station Target, where I made my first Squishmallow encounter.

I was wandering the aisles, looking for those cheap plastic Home Essential brand plates almost everyone has in their cabinet, when I stumbled upon a blue mass with two dots for eyes and a simple smile.

According to the tag attached to his back, this creature’s name was Benjamin and he was a self-proclaimed trivia nerd who would be the perfect partner for your next game night. Fifteen dollars was but a measly price to pay for my new companion who occupied the loveseat of my apartment over the course of the next year.

My love for Squishmallows reignited with the release of the Star Wars collection, which featured three different sizes of Grogu, better known as “Baby Yoda,” Squishmallows. Once pictures of this collection flooded my social media feeds, I knew the hunt was on. After many tanks of gas, numerous empty handed trips to stores across the state, hours scouring Squishmallow swap and trade Facebook groups, and two years later, I now have a bed, closet and bookshelf full of Squishmallows.

Squishmallows have rapidly become one of the most sought after toys in the United States, with moms, dads and college students alike in desperate search of them. There are three reasons I believe people like me have surrendered their hard earned money to these stuffed animals: lack of availability, the novelty of a constant stream of new releases and the personalities and backstories attached to the Squishmallows themselves.

The search for these oftentimes unattainable plush critters is coined as “Squishmallow hunting” for good reason. There is no central storefront or online website to purchase Squishmallows from which leads to a huge lack of stock availability. The main website for the brand only hosts a few select collections that are constantly sold out. Therefore, Squishmallow hunting was born out of necessity. Enthusiasts can find themselves searching the shelves of Cracker Barrel, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Learning Express, the occasional random gas station and other various brick and mortar stores to pursue their list of “DISO’s,” a term often used in Squishmallow hunter forums meaning “Desperately In Search Of.”

This lack of mass market availability plays into the Beanie Baby like infatuation of Squishmallows, sending fans of the brand on a mass hunt for the toys before they are all bought up by scalpers who resell known fan favorites and harder to find Squishes on buy-sell apps such as Mercari for triple the price. Thus, when a hunter finds a Squishmallow in an actual store, the intense impulse to buy takes over and the serotonin rush of the search reaches its climax until the feeling fades and the cycle starts all over again.

What propels this never ending search-find-buy cycle is the novelty of the product itself. Kelly Toys, the toy manufacturer behind the relatively inexpensive polyester fiber stuffies, has to be working their market interns to death with the constant stream of new collections being sent out into the void for hunters to stumble upon.

Their social media pages are a deadend for information, with most of their content being fan produced photographs of their own collections.

Every now and then, their PR team will throw us a crumb of information that hints at a new special collection, but for the most part, Squishmallows remain a highly unusual and unpredictable phenomenon, with collectors frequently collaborating over social media to figure out what new line of Squish characters there is to fawn over next.

At this point, you might be asking yourself why would anybody invest time and money into such a ridiculous and often fruitless hobby?

Well, the answer can be found upon examination of the product. There is no doubt that anybody who has had the chance to touch a Squishmallow would attest that it is truly one of the softest stuffed animal products on the market.

With the variety of sizes, one can use a massive Squishmallow as a body pillow — which is what I have adapted Benjamin into as he retired from his seat in the living room — or you can clip the smallest of sizes onto your backpack for some extra comfy motivation throughout the day.

What really attracts people to the Squishmallow cult is the small back stories and personalities that are attributed to the stuffed animals through the biography tags attached to them, which is again reminiscent of tactics used by Ty Warner to help Beanie Babies gain their following.

Whether it is Violet, the purple octopus that has a degree in Archeology who explores the sea for sunken treasure, or Archie the hot pink axolotl who started his own club to teach “Squishmallow Sign” to others in the community, the Squishmallow canon is as expansive as it is expensive.

It is the intricacies of the Squishmallow lore that suck collectors in and hold them tight with an iron fist as they find joy in reading the tags to find out that this unsuspecting green dragon named Miles with a heart on its belly aspires to one day be a computer engineer.

While Kelly Toys took a huge risk in already naming your soon to be favorite stuffed animals for you, a sacred pastime for anybody who has shared a bedside with their beloved childhood teddy bear, it paid off immensely and made the community surrounding Squishmallows even more fascinated with the product.

As you can tell through this piece, my passion for Squishmallow hunting runs deep.

What some may call an expensive coping mechanism to combat the stressors of Tech’s academic rigor, I call the thrill of a lifetime.

Steve Jobs once said, “the journey is the reward” and I believe that is the perfect metaphor for the Squishmallow hunting experience.

There’s nothing more exhilarating than being in search of a rare Squishmallow for weeks, sometimes months, to finally walk in and find what you have been looking for in a random Costco fifty miles away from your home on a Sunday afternoon.

The Midtown Free Fridge, a grassroots initiative led by the SGA Community Relations Committee, is now open to members of the Midtown Atlanta community. The fridge, which is located on the Grace House back porch on 182 5th St. NW, came to be through the efforts of Tech students seeking to address food insecurity in the community.

When coming into her role as the SGA Vice President of External Affairs, Grace Swift, third year EIA, wanted to shift the focus of her position more towards mutual aid projects in order to help students engage with the Atlanta community in a more meaningful way.

“Typically in the past the position has just been bringing people to Ponce and bringing people to Krog Street Market and those types of things are great, but when I took on this role I really wanted to make it more like a mutual aid organization and do more tangible work in a way with the Atlanta community that we don’t necessarily glorify all the time. So I thought that a food insecurity project would be a really great way to get involved with that” said Swift.

The Midtown Free Fridge project took a lot of inspiration and guidance from Free99 Fridge, another similar mutual aid project that serves multiple areas of Atlanta including West End, East Atlanta Village and Clarkston. “We talked to Free99 Fridge and they were saying that Tech Parkway and North Ave were good locations because there is a lot of need around there. So we started locations because there is a lot of need around there. So we started looking at what restaurants were around there, because typically hosts in the past have been local restaurants, coffee shops, breweries and places like that” said Swift.

Swift, with the help of Rupkatha Banerjee, fourth year MATH & ECON major and SGA Community Relations Committee Chair, reached out to over thirty potential host sites with varying levels of success. “Some were worried about bringing homelessness to their restaurant. That was kind of discouraging because we’re just trying to feed people. This project was founded in this belief that everybody deserves access to free and fresh food, so it’s sad to see some restaurants that have tons of food waste after every day not wanting to embrace that” said Swift.

The project eventually turned its sights towards the Grace House back porch as the host of the first Midtown Free Fridge. Grace House had already housed a casual food pantry at their location that stocked non-perishables and menstrual products for the Tech community, so the partnership between the two was a clear match.

The goal of the fridge is for community members to freely take and give food from the shelves and in turn remove some of the stigma associated with accessing resources when you need them. “We talked to STAR services and Campus Kitchen and they were both really excited about it. Steve Fazenbaker [Director of Tech’s STAR program] was saying that a lot of Georgia Tech students are food insecure, but don’t go through STAR and places like that because of stigma around it,” said Swift.

“With those organizations you have to fill out a bunch of forms and prove that your need is there. The whole point of the fridge is you don’t need to be below the poverty line to access free food. Like maybe you don’t have a chance to get to the grocery store that week and you want fresh fruit or something and then can get it from the fridge. It’s for everybody, that’s the whole deal. You give when you have extra and then take when you need it.”

Banerjee, who works on prooting information about the Midtown Free Fridge on Instagram, hopes to see buy-in from the Tech community to keep the fridge stocked and in good shape for those that need it. “Initiatives like that are entirely driven by the community for the community, so it takes a heavy involvement to ensure that it’s being stocked” said Banerjee.

“There is a need and also a desire to engage meaningfully with the community and we’re providing a platform to do it. It’s very sobering and humbling when you see a problem like this actually in front of you and it’s very easy at Tech especially to stay trapped in the bubble and not really be exposed to these issues of Atlanta at all. But when you’re able to actually visualize these things in your near vicinity, it provides a much clearer perspective of the kinds of problems that we’re dealing with.”

The main motivation behind the project revolves around addressing food insecurity in Midtown Atlanta in a meaningful way. “Tackling poverty and homelessness and these major economic problems in Atlanta can seem very daunting, but we can play a very pivotal role by just letting our community members know that we have resources and we’re willing to connect with them in that way. Access to free fresh food is such a fundamental human right and it’s not being fulfilled” said Banerjee.

Banerjee also noted how the need for food resources is in Atlanta and highlighted her own experiences with the Free99 fridges. “I saw the Free99 fridges and I connected in person with how heavy the need is. When you go to stock those fridges, people literally shop out of your hands because there’s so many people that are in need of meals in that area. Atlanta heavily criminalizes homelessness and wants to ensure that people who need housing and food resources are robbed of access to them.”

The Midtown Free Fridge team has plans to establish more fridges in the Midtown network within the next few months, as well as ideas to expand their outreach with community packaging events. Swift hopes that students will feel comfortable to take freely from the fridge and help maintain the project for years to come.

“My message to the Tech community is that I want this to be a space where everybody feels welcome. I want it to be a space where everybody feels like they can go freely and not feel embarrassed about it. I just want it to be another resource on campus for students.”

The fridge is open to everyone, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Those interested in learning more about the Midtown Free Fridge can follow the project on Instagram (@midtownfreefridge) or email midtownfreefridge@gmail.com for more information on how to get involved.