For those who like to exercise… and those who exercise even when they don’t like it 😉
Like most other freshmen at Harvard, I lived in the Yard my first year, which, alas, was sometime during the last century 😂. It turns out, the Yard is closer to Harvard Law School than any of the upperclassmen houses, and I had a close friend who had his eye on attending HLS after graduation. (P.S. He did, and yes, he made Law Review just like his dad. Anyway.) Because he’s sharp, Ben spent more time on the Law School campus next door than your typical undergraduate. Right before Winter Break, he told me about their gym, which he’d been using— small and dingy compared to the one we were were used to for the undergrads, actually, but it was populated by law school students (and, as mentioned, it was closer).
During Reading Period—two weeks when students were back on campus but had no classes in lieu of studying for finals, a kind of extended winter vacation, tbh ;-)—I accompanied Ben to that gym… and quickly went to school.
I was too intimidated by the older, wiser gym rats to make eye contact or engage any in conversation, but I’ll never forget overhearing advice (pretty sure it was meant to be overheard ;)) one law school student was offering another who was complaining about the stress of finals and all the extra time to fret about it and make it worse:
“I’ve doubled up on my workouts during reading period and finals. I come once in the morning and once in the afternoon. It fills up the time, gives me a break from studying, and it really helps relieve the stress by allowing it to go somewhere…”
I can’t say that I often double up on my workouts, but I can say that I have on occasion, and I found the law school student’s words ring true.
Just about all high school students in the U.S. are on vacation now and have even more time on their hands than during periods of remote learning. Some students are especially stressed out about pending college admissions decisions; others by their little brother or sister annoying them all the time; and still others by having to do extra chores and being under mom and dad’s 24 x 7 surveillance. Whatever your stressors may be this vacation, consider exercise as a healthy, effective antidote.
So it is with gratitude to my friend Ben for dragging me to the HLS gym and the HLS student whom I never met for his words of wisdom, and it is with respect and humility toward both that I pass them along to you. 🙂
Happy holidays,
Dr. Yo