de-stress

I am a little bit obsessed with Claudia Conway. The daughter of two public figures—one a spokesperson for the Trump White House, the other a notorious Twitter #resister—Claudia rose to prominence over the summer in lockdown. She found TikTok like the rest of us did. She quickly disproved any assertions that her parents actually got along, speculation that had long been purported not just by gossip magazines, but also by reputable newspapers. And almost as soon as the Internet became sure she was who she claimed to be, Claudia went viral.

Even though midterm season has just finished, finals are right around the corner. If the upcoming exam season feels overwhelming, here’s Spectrum’s guide to separating yourself from finals and taking them one step at a time.

“What’s up? Want to dance?” At a house party in Queens, Ulises' construction worker friends convince him to dance for them. He agrees, but instead of bopping to the American music that is playing, he chooses to dance cumbia, a Colombian style. When they laugh at him and call him a loser, Ulises walks away, unwilling to give up a dance that represents who he is just to fit in.

New York City is home to the largest Chinese population outside of Asia, with over 100,000 Chinese residents in Manhattan. Although Morningside Heights has never been considered one of New York’s nine recognized Chinatowns, it houses over a dozen Chinese restaurants specializing mainly in Sichuanese and Hunan cuisines.

Despite the many drawbacks of life during COVID-19, it would seem that working from home has afforded some luxuries. Rolling out of bed, fixing breakfast, and commuting to work can all be done in one fell swoop, and we can now start our days in just five minutes. Yet, the numerous calls to reinstitute in-person classes point to the fact that we ultimately need separate work and home spaces to protect us from the greater insanity of living constantly in the same place in which we work.

Most of us can agree that being in college can be a stressful experience as we face a tsunami of midterms and problem sets, not to mention the additional worries of living in a global pandemic. Midterm season is now here, and without the comfort of a 4 a.m. JJ’s breaks after an all-nighter, the mid-semester slump is hitting harder than usual.

What does a typical ballet duet look like? Perhaps it is a depiction of a heteronormative couple, where the woman wears pointe shoes and is spun, contorted, and hurled through the air at the mercy of her male counterpart. But in her work “paired reflections,” choreographer Mari Meade strives to challenge this prototype.

“We work hard, and we play hard” is how a seasoned student framed Columbia during my Days on Campus visit. “Get high; get high grades,” another student reiterated. “They must be living their best lives, seizing every opportunity that comes their way,” I thought.

At 8 p.m. on Monday nights, I usually sit in the Spectator office. This is arguably the place where I spend most of my time, and inarguably, this is the place where I watch The Bachelor.