Feeling Stressed? Let's Talk About Theme Days

So the semester is starting to wind down. As frightening as that sounds, it really is true. The paper that was assigned at the beginning of the year that you swore you'd start researching in September is suddenly a much more immediate priority and you haven't even thought of a topic. Finals are coming up for a class that you seem to always forget to attend. Or you continue to have no idea what physics really is, let alone how you would do it. It's starting to get a little stressful; we can all feel it in the air. Sure the holidays are coming up, but who can really enjoy them when thoughts of Descartes keep popping up in the back of your mind? People are starting to shake a little and smiles are becoming more and more forced. The pressure is rising, and pretty soon a mild-mannered Trinity freshman is going to snap and attempt to kill everyone from the top of the Trinity chapel (committing both murder and sacrilege.) The problem is that there's really not anyone to blame but us. Well, us and that damn IM that monopolizes way too much time. We've just procrastinated too much. In fact if there were a class in procrastination most Trinity students would do incredibly well (along with a late night pizza eating course and a binge-drinking seminar). I can't fix the problem for you. You're going to have to actually do your work, but I have a solution that the school can initiate that may make everyone feel a lot better while getting three hours of sleep a night. We should have theme days. Yes, you heard me.

Perhaps from my previous articles you may be thinking that in many ways I'm much like a 10-year-old trapped in an eighteen-year-old's body. I love the Muppets, I have an abnormal holiday fixation, and I bite. You are entirely correct. I do not, however, have posters of kittens or a bed full of stuffed animals, because even a 10 year old wouldn't be that lame. While my younger attributes may get me strange looks at times, they are also helpful by allowing me to always have a more positive way to look at things.

Stressed out? Spin in your chair for a few minutes. You'll feel so light headed you can't really think about anything.

Having this mind-set has allowed me to find exactly what the sometimes-stuffy Trinity student really needs ‹ theme days. Who wouldn't be excited to go to class dressed as a Smurf, or Gem? That's exactly what would happen if we had an early-80's cartoon day. How about meat day? Everyone dresses up as their favorite piece of meat, whether it be a flank steak or a Vienna sausage or Fabio. Vegetarians, such as myself, unfortunately get the option of being tofu, which is basically our only choice in the cafeteria anyway.

Students and faculty for that matter (why should the students get all the fun or have to suffer the torture alone, depending on how you look at it) can make their own suggestions. If the administration is worried about how other academic institutions will view this, we can always dress much more highbrow. There could be an ancient Greek philosopher day or come as your favorite 19th century Russian novelist day. The possibilities are endless. I promise you; Harvard will jump on the bandwagon almost immediately. Every day would be exciting to look forward to because, well, you get to dress up! No more sweats to class for me. I'm wearing a toga.

We would also have theme food to correspond with the theme days, thanks to the marvelous Sodexho-Marriott catering. On Ghostbusters day we could have only globs of marshmallow or on Irish potato famine day we would most definitely NOT be eating potatoes. While this may keep our spirits up during the week, what may help the downtrodden souls on the weekends? Some Trinity students often get tired of the keg parties, but who could get tired of keg parties with themes? Tropical just isn't enough. We're in need of theme parties to end all theme parties. We need a Starsky and Hutch/ Dukes of Hazard party complete with really souped up, cheesy Camaros available to drive around Trinity with stunt drivers. Plus, for the ladies, who doesn't think daisy dukes are man's greatest invention? I don't, but I'm sure I'm part of a small minority. Evan Dobelle wouldn't mind us having a "pretend you're the headmaster" day and then having a rowdy party on his property. It's all in the name of fun and theme parties; how can you go wrong with that?

I'm just looking towards the faculty to consider the idea. I would rather see a conservative freshman running around in a pink bunny suit than that same conservative freshman stressed out and shooting people from atop a high building. Of course even that wouldn't be quite as disturbing as the freshman shooting people with the bunny suit on.