Each day at Swarthmore offers students unique opportunities for learning, extracurriculars, movement, and more – today, I am offering you special insight into a random Tuesday in my life as a Swarthmore student!
I will be the first to admit that wake-up time fluctuates heavily throughout the week, but on this particular day, I woke up around 7:30 a.m. – leaving plenty of time for a bit of studying before my 9:55 a.m. class. Since I knew this day would be busy, I decided to get a workout at Ware Pool nice and early instead of my usual afternoon time.
I had a little extra time before class, so I stopped at Hobbs Coffee in the town of Swarthmore for a bit of caffeine and then at the dining hall for some calories. While the dining hall has plenty of coffee options, I find that I’m a little bit of a coffee snob. On this day, I chose to eat in the newly opened Dining and Community Commons, which is located in the former dining hall and connected to the new one.
The first class was Classics 036: Greek and Roman Mythology. For that day, we had read three different accounts of the story of Medea: Ovid’s, Seneca’s, and Euripedes’. The discussion that day was largely centered around the hero Jason, Medea’s unfaithful husband, and his famed quest with his argonauts.
After Classics, I picked up some sushi at the Science Center café and went downstairs to Cornell Library to get some work done before my afternoon classes. On recent Tuesdays, my preferred background noise has been The Bachelor, and I’ll admit that on that day it was less background noise than my main focus.
My next class was Anthropology 049B: Cultural Perspectives on the Body. On this day we discussed the nature of true agency, especially with respect to women’s agency in patriarchal societies. One of the readings for that class was written by Judith Butler, who is one of my personal favorite modern-day theorists.
Immediately following anthropology, I headed over to my last class of the day, Political Science 004: International Relations. This day was the last day of the class dedicated to focusing on theory, and more specifically, critical theories of feminism, race, and class.
After this, I headed to Parrish Hall to pick up a package from the mailroom. Then, I went to the dining center to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back up the hill to prepare for a presentation I was giving to a club, Swat Health Humanities, of which I am an officer. This club focuses on the social sciences and humanities as they relate to the medical field, so as somebody who intends to double major in Medical Anthropology and Political Science, this club is right up my alley. My presentation was on food deserts in rural America and how they affect public health and recreate cyclical inequalities.
Once I finished my presentation, I headed back to my dorm and did a little bit more work, mostly entailing making graphics for The Phoenix, which is Swarthmore’s college newspaper. I am the current layout editor for the paper, and although I generally do not write articles, I enjoy making games for it, such as sudokus.
I hope this random snapshot into my life as a Swattie taught you something new about Swarthmore!
