Tips for making life just a bit more whimsical
By MADISON SEEMAN — meseeman@ucdavis.edu
Picture this: The laptop screens are shining, Canvas notifications are chirping and the scantrons are flying off the shelf. It’s the final stretch of the quarter, the season of tearful goodbyes to fourth-years and tearful hellos to blue books and piles upon piles of concepts to cram.
Math and economics majors are frantically crunching numbers, design students are desperately searching for the perfect hex code, music majors are mastering tunes at rates previously unheard of and data science students are doing whatever it is that they do (but under more stress).
We’re all a little worn out! The bottom of the motivation barrel is beyond scraping and life is a little less sparkling. We all could use a little more whimsy. I’m here to help you find ways to bring pep back into your step to the tune of Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten.” Save your sparkle with these helpful tips:
- Take a quick trip to my personal favorite art gallery: the first-floor bathrooms of the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Hall. It’s the best kind of art — vandalism. I legally can’t recommend that you contribute, but there are some must-see masterpieces in there worth checking out before they’re lost to an evil wash of white paint.
- Acquire more stuffed animals. I don’t care whether your current number is zero or 100: You need more. Try Squishmallows, Jellycats or even make your own! It’s not enough until you have no space left in your bed. If you aren’t buried under a sea of jungle animals and food with eyes on it, you aren’t doing it right.
- Bring back skipping — and I’m not talking about class. It’s the superior mode of transportation. Not only is it much faster than strolling across campus, it’s also 10 times the fun! Bonus points if you can find a nice field and lock arms with your friends like you’re in a Zyrtec advertisement. What could be more whimsical than that?
- Dip your toes into the seas of mass consumerism, but with an ethical twist — go thrifting! Many of you have the clothing side of thrifting mastered, but make sure you’re not letting the magic of the trinket aisle pass you by. Whimsy is stored in novelty Garfield mugs, metal dog statues and time-weathered Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Maybe you’ll find a miniature Pac-Man machine, a pirate-themed picture frame or someone else’s family pictures. The opportunities are endless. I’m not sure if you can buy happiness, but I know you can thrift it.
- Exercise your free will: Break some rules and social contracts! Sip some juice in a martini glass, slip some Monster Energy into your water bottle, don’t turn in your assignments or go off the grid. Remember, you are the master of your own life.
- Customize everything! Add one charm to your backpack, then 20 more! Sticker-up your student ID, bring a little star shaped flair to your scantron. Bring back heart-dotted i’s and decorate the first initial of your final essay like it’s a medieval manuscript. Claim your unofficially assigned seat with some tasteful pencil graffiti. Marking your territory has never been so stylish.
- Break up with reality and don’t let a lack of consciousness stop you from making new friends. Name your fridge, personify your plants; talking with your inanimate objects can only bring you closer to feeling like a Disney princess. You won’t believe what updating your fridge on your crazy chemistry TA will do for your whimsy levels.
- Assign strangers backstories. Maybe that very expressive phone call happening right outside your window is his last chance at convincing his father that he can’t take over the family stationery store because he has a soap carving dream. Maybe the lady who’s blocking your way to the soup aisle has been kicked out of her polycule for not washing the dishes. I personally find that there’s an inverse correlation between the quality of their imagined life and the bitterness of my mood, but the whimsy is still there.
So, chin up! Life in the trenches of finals may be the secret tenth circle of hell, but when you have whimsy on your side, nothing is impossible.
Written by: Madison Seeman –– meseeman@ucdavis.edu
Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)
