Looking around this college, it is easy to see that Dartmouth is the land of opportunity. We can do anything we want to here -- from studying Chinese to ballroom dancing, from learning to play squash to starring in a play. But it seems as though there is one thing that very few Dartmouth students do -- take care of our health.
You may just laugh this off, but if you take a close look at your fellow classmates and probably even yourself, you'll see that there is some truth in what I've said. Take, for example, the food we eat. To many of us, a balanced meal consists of the Hop's fries, soda and a brownie. I know that the dining areas on campus offer fresh fruit and vegetables, and that some students do opt for these, but the majority of us do not.
I think that the most prominent health abuse among Dartmouth students, and perhaps all college students in general, is sleep depravation. Each morning students complain about how late they were up the night before and how awful they now feel because of it. Surviving off little sleep has almost become a contest among some of us, with the winner being that student who has gone through the day without so much as blinking the night before.
Poor diets and a severe lack of sleep combined with the piles of work placed upon our shoulders make for a pretty unhealthy student body. I've only been here a little over a month, and I've been sick twice. But as I amble to Food Court for dinner tonight, what will be the probability that I'll eat a salad and grilled chicken? Close to zero. And as I sit studying or chatting with my roommates later tonight, how likely will I be to turn in early and get a good night's sleep? Even less.
But why do so many of us repeatedly abuse our health? We're supposed to be among the most intelligent people in the world. We can learn multi-variable calculus and organic chemistry, so why can't we learn to just take care of ourselves?
Perhaps a good bit of that answer lies in the fact that most of us fall between the ages of 18 and 21. Thus, we consider ourselves to be invincible. Everyone knows that people our age can do anything and not get sick, we rationalize. Well, the hacking cough and runny nose that have been plaguing me for days serve as proof that this is not true.
As for our diet, who wouldn't be tempted to pick those delicious Hop fries over some carrot sticks? To take the tasty option once in a while would be completely harmless. But we all learned about the four basic food groups in elementary school, and we all know that fries, soda and a mouth-watering bakery delight just don't cut it.
Finally, the most common of the health abuses on campus -- sleep depravation. Why don't we just go to bed? The most obvious answer to this would be to say that we're all studying until the wee hours of the morning. I'm not saying that this statement is untrue, but it is certainly not always the case. First of all, even if we do blame our loads of homework for keeping us awake, the fact is we could finish that work much more quickly if we didn't take study breaks every 15 minutes to play Snood. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly guilty of this as well, but that doesn't make it right. Secondly, there are some nights when we have all our homework finished by 9:00 or 10:00, yet somehow do not manage to get to sleep until 2:00 or 3:00 because we've been chatting with our roommates or blitzing everyone on we know.
Many people tell me that living off of fatty foods and two to three hours of sleep per night is all part of the collegiate experience. To me, that is like saying child abuse is part of growing up. The fact is, we do not have to abuse our bodies the way we do. We can eat healthier foods and get normal amounts of sleep. As in achieving any goals, all we have to do is put our minds to it.
