Opinion

You know that panicky feeling you get in your stomach when someone is giving you the side-eye? Maybe the following scenario will jog your memory.

2011 has already brought with it some changes, perhaps the least important of which is my controversial move to page 3. Aside from that, economists seem to think we've \

Stress. Everyone reacts differently to it, especially around finals. One thing I think most people will admit to having done at least once in their life is "stress eating."

Dear readers, This year we decided to change a tradition at The Aggie: Columnists now write for a quarter rather than an entire year. Our goal with this new policy is to bring more voices and viewpoints to the campus newspaper and give more people the opportunity to take on the challenge of writing a column.

As a senior embarking on my second-to-last quarter at Davis, I've come to realize that some things are unchangeable, absolute. These are truths that I have discovered myself or have come to accept after many years of battle. I pass these truths on today in the hopes that they will somehow enrich the lives of others as much as they have mine. Let's begin.

Bikram Yoga's multi-billion dollar franchising scheme and the multiplication of various styles of yoga (everything from Power Yoga to Kundalini Yoga) start to look a lot like the rows of potato chips at the grocery store. Which one is right for me? Every aspect must be weighed in order to make a decision - flavor, quantity, calories and general label appeal. I do not mean to reduce the 3000-year-old Ayurvedic practice to snack foods (Ayurveda is based on whole, organic foods anyway), but let's face it, in the city of Davis alone, there are close to 50 different types of yoga to choose from. What's the rookie yogi to do? Try Laughter Yoga!

Now that classes for Fall 2010 are nearly over, only one thing stands between the student body of UC Davis and three weeks of vacation - finals week. Whether next week's tests will be your first ever at UC Davis or your last, you'll want to be sure they go smoothly. Heed the following advice to ensure you'll head off to winter break with grades you're proud of.

The idea of carpooling with a stranger usually ignites either a Jack Kerouac-like idealism, or the fear of being bludgeoned by a murderous hitchhiker. While both scenarios are possible, sharing a ride home for winter break will most likely be an uneventful experience and one that all students should consider.

Yael Steinberg's bias is quite apparent.

All right, I've bitten my tongue long enough. Usually I prefer to avoid the heaviest firefights on campus, having plenty to do teaching world history to my seventh graders and taking my own classes in the afternoons. But I am sensing a very limited array of voices on a particular subject, and I really must comment.

I estimate that 80 percent of you have no idea my Christmas started last night. I didn't dig through a stocking for that trendy new piece of electronics or open a greeting card that sung to me. I've never tried eggnog and my grandma never bought me a sweater I felt was too itchy. I still don't know what a partridge is, but I'm confident that if my true love really knew me, she wouldn't waste her shekels getting me one. On my first day of Christmas, I played a lacrosse game at a community college.

Since this is my last column of the quarter, and perhaps the conclusion of my column writing career altogether, I want to leave you, the readers, with something special.

As finals roll around the corner, there are many things to consider and reflect on, such as the noble student.

A penthouse in Manhattan, an editor position at Vogue - just two of the wishes I'd make if a magic genie were to now suddenly appear. Oh, excuse the Aladdin reference; I'm writing this column from home and am sitting beside my baby sister, who is currently in a daze watching the Disney classic.

Through the last nine columns, I've written at length about your health - what you need to do, what you can try, what you shouldn't do, how you can do this and avoid that, why you should be healthy at all. While I tried to err on the side of simplicity, some of the advice could get complicated, the details too difficult to recall weeks later. So you might have forgotten every tip I labored onto paper. I'm here to tell you this week that it's okay. Lucky for the both of us, all the advice I could ever hope to impart, and the only advice you ever really needed, was discovered by a long-ago marginalized Greek philosopher.