First-year Amy Drolet has a lot on her plate. She is involved in Pride, the psychology club, and the American Sign Language club.
Of her four classes, she finds Voices of Liberation particularly stressful. “It’s not just recitation of facts. It’s in-depth analysis,” she said.
“I just have a (ton) of work.”
Drolet is not alone.
According to Max Carter, Campus Ministry Coordinator and Director of Friends Center, Guilford is “frenetic.”
Carter explained that he sees students with 8:30 a.m. classes staying up until 3 a.m.
“By midterm, folks are frazzled,” he said. “It’s not so much about not having the time. It’s that the culture doesn’t send signals that way. For at least one week, we’d like to send signals that you can take time to enjoy life.”
Carter pointed out that multiple activities exist on campus to take back time. He recommends taking advantage of those already in the schedule like tai chi and yoga and pointed out that at Guilford you can “get academic credit for taking back your time.”
For this reason, for the second year in a row, Carter had his Plain People FYE classes organize a Take Back Your Time Week to give people at Guilford a week of relaxation and enjoyment.
The week took place from Oct. 25-31 and was inspired by the National Take Back Your Time Day, which was founded last year on Oct. 24. The date is important because Oct. 24 falls nine weeks before the end of the calendar year. Americans, on average, work nine work weeks longer than other industrialized nations.
Britt Blake, a member of the Plain People FYE class, helped organize the nap-in, which took place from 12:30-3:30 in the hut on Oct.28. Blake helped facilitate the nap-in by sitting with nappers and acting as a human alarm clock.
“It’s really good, because it’s been a space for me to do what I want,” Blake said. “I have a lot of schoolwork, but being here just gave me a space and time to do what I needed to get done.”
Natan Harel also helped plan the activities. “Sometimes I was stressed out because I had to organize it, which is ironic, but when I thought about who it was for, it got better.”
Harel participated in the nap-in, which he said was “relaxing because it was very casual.” He learned that “keeping things casual is a good way to relieve time stress.”
The Plain People FYE students used activities from last year as a model for this year’s events but also thought of some on their own.
Like last year, the week included a showing of “Escape from Affluenza,” a film promoting simplistic living as a solution to stress and over-consumption, and an afternoon of cider and doughnuts.
Last year, though, Carter said, getting people to stop for 30 seconds for a doughnut was like “twisting arms.”
This year, they tried a different approach. Instead of the Krispy Kremes and Harris Teeter cider, they provided homemade doughnuts and local cider.
Some people stayed for an hour just chatting.
Drolet took some time out of her busy schedule to have doughnuts and cider with some friends. “We all have to face the huge workload,” she said. “But it was nice to get together and forget it for a minute.”
Carter explained that this year was successful in other ways, as well. Multiple groups got involved and held their own activities. Hildebrandt house hosted a waffle-ball game and pot luck dinner and the Pagan mysticism group held a bonfire by the lake.
Carter said that measures can be taken throughout the year to benefit more fully from time. He said to “simplify your life because there are more important things to focus on” and to “enjoy time rather than spending it.”z