A Unicycle a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

For every Penn Stater, especially us freshman, these first few weeks have undoubtedly been stressful. We've been given assignments on top of assignments and many of us have gotten insufficient sleep. Let me ask you this: have you remembered to be happy? Have you remembered to enjoy the little things in this haze of stress? For me at least, it's been hard to focus on anything but school and ROTC. For this reason, I want to talk about a situation which made me happy and reminded to enjoy the little things.

I observed this occurrence this past Monday when I was walking (actually frantically fast-walking) to my chemistry lecture. I had lazor-like focus on the Osmond Laboratory and nothing was going to stop me from being on time. This focus was broken, however, when I noticed something you don't see every day: a man on a unicycle. Immediately, I slowed my pace and watched this man. He was happily peddling around in the street and most people around him stopped to look or take a picture. The smile on his face made it obvious how much fun he was having. I watched him for a few minutes  and, truthfully, I was entertained. Like all good things, though, the fun had to come to an end as I watched him ride his unicycle away.

Photo Credit: C-Smitty

This might not have been a dramatic occurrence, but it shifted my focus from work for a brief moment. It was also nice to see everyone else smiling on a Monday (we all know how people feel on a Monday). In fact, something as small as a smile can change your whole mood. Any smile, genuine or not, can actually relieve stress! The man on the unicycle may never know how his simple action had a positive impact on everyone around him.

So, what can we learn from the man on the unicycle? Well, for one, I think we should learn how too ride a unicycle! On a more serious note, I think we can learn that we should take time each day to do something we love. We don't have to do something drastic to improve our mood; it can be as uncomplicated as riding a unicycle. What's more, the actions that make us happy can make others happy, too. It's science, people!

As a final point, I urge everyone to smile more. It's my belief that life should not be take too seriously. I feel that the cycler exemplified not taking life too seriously. He consciously made a decision to break up the monotony of his daily routine by riding his single-wheeled contraption. So, find the little things in life that make you happy and practice them daily and you'll probably be a happier and more productive person!

Hey, Look at Me!

Vroom, vroom. As I walk, I look up from my phone to look where the noise is coming from. Vrooooom. Looking up, I see a sports car fly by me and come to abrupt halt at the intersection of Curtin and Bigler by East Halls. As the vehicle sits at the stop sign, the driver continues to rev his car's engine. The noise was so ear-splitting that I bet everyone within a half-mile of the car could hear it.

I was curious who would dare cause such a disturbance, so I looked into the window of the vehicle and saw the driver appeared to be a male student with glasses. He was also puffing on a vaporizer. But what I found to be especially interesting about this situation was the different reactions it elicited from people. Of the many people in my vicinity, I observed three distinct responses among them: aggression, intrigue and indifference. 

Photo Credit: Damian Morys

The first and most apparent reaction I observed was from a male student who looked to be a freshman. When the noisy sports car halted at the stop sign, the male student (we'll call him Mr. Yeller), yelled something at the driver of the vehicle. To me, this engagement did not look friendly and  it appeared that Mr. Yeller was heckling the driver in some way. He might have said something to the effect of "You think you're so cool," but I can not be sure of this. In this hectic moment, I quickly deduced what appeared to be happening. I interpreted Mr. Yeller's reaction as a sign of his alpha male tendencies to always strive to be the biggest and loudest. This hypothesis was reinforced by the fact that he was walking with two females. 

While Mr. Yeller's reaction was quite unique, most other people did not care at all. Upon hearing the first revs, people immediately snapped to attention and seemed to communally lift their heads from their phones. For some, however, the obnoxious rumble was not enough to keep their attention and they proceeded on with their day. Others, perhaps intrigued by the car, stared until they walked by the car. 

In review, I believe my observations from this week are an accurate representation of the uniqueness of humans. People will always react differently to a given situation. I think it's interesting how something provoking for one person may be completely overlooked by another person. So, what can we learn from this? Perhaps we can learn that our actions, whether we realize it or not, can effect the people around us. And also we can learn that being loud isn't always the best way of getting attention.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and remember- I can't make this stuff up!

Focus On the Fry

Before I start, allow me to explain that I am not a not a creep, but rather a fine artist. I assure you that people-watching is contemporary fine art. Understand that I realize this topic may be controversial for some, but my aim is simply to observe how weird humans are and to have a little fun imagining scenarios. OK, now that that's out of the way, let's look a some people of the week.

As I stopped to sit down by the HUB to take care of some administrative tasks, I couldn't help but to watch as student sitting outside the HUB mindlessly shoved french fry after french fry in his mouth (and I'll admit they looked delicious). I watched his expressionless face and his rhythmic process of digging his hand into a greasy paper bag, pulling out an endless stream of fries. He had the thousand-yard stare, looking off into nothing.

 Right as I started to get bored with this Mr. French Fry, another guy, I assume it was his friend, plops down next to him smiling and talking about about something. Mr. French Fry was too engrossed in his meal too utter anything more than a slight smile and chuckles to whatever this other guy said. Now I'm genuinely worried about Mr. French Fry; I can't help but to think what he might be going through. And then there's the other guy who, having just gotten rejected, whips out his phone and starts typing something. Let's call the second guy, "Phone Guy."

Phone Guy is what I like to call a "classic millennial." When faced with rejection, he just takes out his phone. In our society, I feel like people's phones have become a safe place when they're embarrassed or bored. Even I am guilty of it. 

Photo Credit: gifemotions.tumblr.com

Moments later, a female strolls up to the duo and takes a seat, smiling and saying some words. Poor girl doesn't know what's about to hit her. Boom! Both parties, Mr. French Fry and Phone Guy, seem briefly interested but continue with their respective tasks. What's left for her to do? That's right, whip out the old phone. What is it with these people? Is there no kindness left in the world? Or has the stress of college made them incapable of human interaction. 

Such questions got me thinking. I realized, as weird as it may have looked at the time, we probably have all gotten to the point where all we want to do is clear our minds and eat some good comfort food. School is stressful, but french fries are not. With all the hubbub and noise we deal with as Penn State students, we sometimes just need a little escape, no matter how small. Perhaps this was the case with Mr. French Fry, or perhaps he was just staring for no reason. No one except him will ever know what he was thinking, and that's the fun of people-watching