Having Fun Yet?

By Julie Gorham

Staff Writer

Hands up if your school thinks you should have more fun. Oh, hey Mawrter, how’s it goin’? For those that haven’t heard, Bryn Mawr’s Dean of the Undergraduate College emailed us in the summer, encouraging us to add more play-time to our schedules.

Minutes after the message went out, Facebook’s newsfeed was strewn with love for BMC and its administrative awesomeness. We even get SEPTA tickets. How great is that? So, having fun yet? I’m sure some of you are nodding (you glass-half-fullers, you), but I’m also certain that just as many of you are staring at this with a hundred pages to read by tomorrow, faint purple-stains beneath your eyes and a color-coded schedule that looks like Skittles sunbathed on your planner.

The thing is, this “having fun” business is hard work. By the time classes, homework, jobs, meetings with faculty, emails, eating, and the occasional call back home (or for some of us, the commute back home) are taken care of, the idea of setting aside time for a fun activity is daunting at best.

But, Dean Rasmussen is right: without fun, we float in GPAs and applications for our Next Big Thing because just around the corner is The Future and we need to Be Prepared. What to do? Well, Mawrters, attend the meeting about the “Fun Quota” and offer your tuppence of what fun is. And book SEPTA passes.

Have dim sum then work it off miniature golfing in Franklin Square. Visit the Art Museum on donation-Sunday. Go to Rittenhouse to sketch people…and their dogs. Yes, that paper is important, and that reading probably will be on the mid-term, but neither is worth the years of therapy you’ll need if you don’t let loose a little now. So, go frolic in the arboretums.