If you’ve ever been on Instagram, then you’ve probably heard of Throwback Thursday (more commonly referred to as #TBT). For those of you that don’t know, please climb out from under your rock and allow me to give you a quick overview.
Every Thursday instagrammers log on and post an “old” picture. This could range from anywhere 15 years ago to your diaper wearing days, or 15 days ago when snapped a picture of your veggie pizza. You can post something silly, something sappy, or something downright sloppy. There are not real guidelines for posting a throwback photo, although some users adhere to self-made do’s and don’ts.
There is no telling how or why Throwback Thursday began, but there is no denying its popularity. If you search hashtags in the Discovery panel on Instagram then you will see that there are more than 75 MILLION photos posted in honor of this unofficial, weekly holiday. TBT has grown so much that you can now find it’s influence across every social site, including Facebook and Twitter. This week we want to celebrate a little differently. Rather than sharing an old photo, we are posting an embarrassing eCampus.com video from our earlier years.
(NOTE: This video was the winning commercial from a college advertising contest and not a product of eCampus.com. To view other videos please visit our YouTube Page.)
How will you be celebrating this #TBT?
There are several universally accepted facts that apply to colleges all around the world. One that I recently experienced is the unfortunate truth that college dorms are huge breeding grounds for sicknesses. Whether it’s the dirty slob down the hall, or the fact that everyone is cramped into the same tiny space using the same showers, SOMETHING about college dorms spreads illnesses like wildfire.
…not that kind of sick. Last year, my dorm hall was a very old, tiny building meant only for freshmen. Normally, I have a pretty good immune system. However, last year, I was forced to recover from two sinus infections, one case of strep throat, and about seven colds. The problem that I encountered was that if one person on the floor came down with some form of sickness, everyone else was soon to follow. Over the course of the year, I learned a few things to help stave off the impending illnesses of college.
Eat Healthy.
Almost every single day, the dining hall will serve some form of greasy, meaty, occasionally delicious food. I soon learned that if I also made myself a salad, or ate a piece of fruit with each meal, I started feeling better as a whole. Your immune system is programmed to fight off bugs, but if you don’t supply it with the necessary vitamins than it will not function properly.
Good Habbits.
My university’s health services has medicines ready at all times to treat students with sinus infections, as they apparently are a very common occurrence here. The problem is that dorms, especially smaller ones, don’t have very good air circulation. So as the year goes on, dust accumulates in corners and crevices, and it tends to stay around. A great way to keep your sinuses clean and healthy is to start using saline spray. It’s cheap, you can get them anywhere, and they mostly only consist of salt and water. Using a saline spray once a day, or once every other day, cleans out sinuses and keeps them open.
Drink Water.
You’d be amazed by all the positive effects of drinking several cups of water daily. It helps keep you hydrated and it can also help flush out unwanted illnesses. Your body needs it to function, so don’t forget to stay hydrated.
Clean.
For the love of all that is holy, take out the trash.
Hopefully you’ll take some of this advice to heart, and do yourself a favor when the next semester starts up. School is hard enough without the added difficulty of fighting off a cold or the flu. Do you have any health tips I forgot?
As someone who spends as much time possible outside during the summer, I never gave much thought to skin cancer. Whether I was outside daily for softball, my lifeguarding job for two summers, or just tanning in my backyard, I used sunscreen once but that was it. As I’ve gotten older, and as the cases of skin cancer have increased, I knew I couldn’t ignore this issue anymore.
The first major change I made was that I stopped using indoor tanning beds. I heard just how greatly they increased your chance for skin cancer, and I knew I had to stop. I love the sunshine, and I would much rather be able to spend my days outside (using sunscreen!) than have to cover up during my favorite season. I’ve also limited the amount of days I tan outside. Rather than waking up and spending the day in my backyard tanning (which was my daily routine), I now try to limit myself to at least every other day.This infographic (below) does a great job of expressing just how wide-spread the issue of skin cancer has become.
I can’t say that I don’t love having a great tan, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. What are your thoughts? Is this something college students should start taking more seriously?
Click to Enlarge
Brought To You By NorthWestPharmacy.com
As the spring semester comes to a close, many college students are focused on that great summer break until late August or September. For some students, though, they are focused on those couple weeks they have off before classes resume again. Yes, there are really people out there crazy enough to take summer classes.
There is a negative connotation around taking summer classes because of what it meant in high school: you failed and this is the only solution to passing on. That is not the case in college. Taking some credits during summer semesters means you have less of a workload during regular semesters, or you could graduate early. The classes are typically smaller, so you have a chance to connect with your fellow classmates and get more one-on-one with a professor. Many students can be afraid of professors because of their busy schedules in the regular semesters. During summer semesters, they are there to focus on you and fewer students than in other semesters. Starting to sound pretty good, isn’t it?
Of course, there are some drawbacks, as with anything in life. Taking summer courses means your summer break is interrupted. Some days you will have class all day, meaning you can’t go swimming or the heat will be sweltering. Some days you will have a night course, which means all your socializing has to be done during the day. In addition, many summer semesters are very shortened versions of regular semesters. This means longer class times and shorter periods of time to complete assignments, not to mention more things you have to learn in a day. The drawbacks do certainly put a damper on things, but every con should be compared with a pro.
For many, summer school just seems like an absurd option. For some, it’s a great chance. What do you think? Leave your opinions below!
My entire life, I always thought that it would be really cool to be able to speak other languages, but I never really wanted to put in the work to learn how to speak them. However, in order to be accepted into my university, I had to take at least two years of a language. So, with this in mind, during high school, I took Latin. My experience with Latin was mostly a terrible one, so I thought I would never take another language. However, I decided to take my chances in enrolling in a foreign language this semester. I enrolled in French, with no experience at all involving the language, and I’d like to explain my experience in the order that all these emotions occurred.
Confusion. In a class where absolutely no one has any previous experience with the language, the teacher wanted to get our class used to hearing French. In order to do this, she spoke in French for about 90 percent of the first week. This is, I might remind you, a language I do not speak.
Pride. Unlike Latin, with a spoken language, you are actually able to apply your new knowledge to everyday life. In the first week, I learned how to say “I don’t know” and “My name is Steven” and I felt amazing. I could walk around telling people who I was, and everyone was impressed.
Fascination. For about a month, French classes rolled by, and I loved learning new things every day.
Anger. If you’re going to make rules for verbs, and nouns, and conjugating them, why would there be exceptions?!? Why would they do that to us?!?
Acceptance. No matter how hard I tried, I would never be a master of the French language. So I accepted that when our teacher would teach us one word, I’d have to learn two. I’m not so sure about how well I maintained that rule, but it worked decently for the duration of my semester.
Happiness. At the end of the semester, we had an oral exam with our teacher, in which she would ask us questions, and we would have to talk to her in French. My happiness came from the fact that I could, indeed, respond to her, and I understood what she was saying….mostly.
Overall, I recommend taking a foreign language. It involved a decent amount of work, and definitely isn’t required in all cases, but it was fun, and I now have the ability to explain how many family members I have in a different language. What were your steps of emotions in your language classes?
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