Being Grounded in College
by Sean Simons | Virginia Tech
Sean Simons
There are few things I look forward to every day, apart from breakfast and yoga. Over the past year my home has become both my kitchen and my yoga mat, both of them inspiring me to do new things and keep an open mind. No one wants a boring kitchen, and yoga is seldom the same.
It’s not that I want to sound like a broken record of the tune “Stuff White People Like”; I genuinely enjoy cooking and yoga. Perhaps it’s obvious that individuals – especially college students – should find something that brings them relaxation and a sense of fulfillment aside from their college courses and aspirations. Of course, studies should generally follow a passion as well, but when stress overcomes passion there should be a route for stress ventilation.
I’ve always been comfortable in the kitchen, more than likely because of my relationship with food. That is, I love to eat, and I love to eat. Why not learn to love to cook? It seems natural, feels natural, and it keeps me grounded.
Recently, in the past year or so, I’ve become equally invested in yoga. I am, as one would say, not the most physically active. I’ve spent most of my life looking at my accelerated metabolism as a sign to let go of physical activity and leech onto my more creative pursuits – it helps in the kitchen as well, I’m a big fan of pastries and equally unhealthy snacks.
Having made the decision to be a little more physical, I moved towards yoga in hopes of finding something I would enjoy. Honestly, I don’t know why I’m drawn to write about it, but the time I spend in yoga is indeed one of the few things I look forward to. As a daily affair, it’s invigorating and oddly relaxing – though the repetition of stretches and adventurous poses would suggest otherwise.
I have found myself enjoying every aspect of yoga, my personal advances and changes in form a result of my own practice and pursuit. I think that this is what draws me most to it, the openness and vastness of potential. How a single class can contain individuals from every corner of the yoga-spectrum, as it were. The individual focus of it astounds me, in that I am not concerned or troubled with or by the presence of others, that such a community oriented activity (as any small class-like atmosphere is) could allow for such poignant personal reflection.
While my anchor seems to be a mix of yoga and cooking, for others it may be something more involved or even less specific. The importance, though, is in finding a passion to root oneself during turbulent times – whether in relation to academic pursuits or personal explorations. Passions are amplified by hobbies that in turn may become passions; I find myself passionate about cooking more and more after every new exploration, similarly with yoga after every session.
The well-rounded individuals most college students were groomed to be during high school seem to disappear during the years at college, and altogether vanish afterwards. How individuals go through life without multiple passions baffles me, as I find and see that it relaxes and brings life to every person that pursues more than one interest.
Sean Simons is a NGJ Voices Contributor, majoring in both Creative and Professional Writing at Virginia Tech. He writes for the Collegiate Times and is the graphic designer of Silhouette Literary & Arts Magazine.
