The Wall

Definitely more wheels than doors. Fun fact: Lego (the company) makes more tires than any other company in the world! So they make enough wheels for me to feel confident that there are more wheels than doors. Wheee!

If we include pulleys, it seems as if we also ought to include gears. Think of all the mechanisms! In that case, I support my earlier answer: wheeeeeeels! (Can you tell I long for movement?)

You have value as a human being, regardless of your skills or lack of them in any area. Getting good at things is something we work towards throughout life. Many other folks around you are also insecure about their abilities, even if you can’t see it. Don’t despai, just keep learning and growing!

I need somebody! Help! Not just ANYBODY! Help, ya know I need somebody HE-ELL-ELL-ELLP. But also, good for you for asking for help! This is a stressful time of year and I love to remind folks to get in touch with BC’s Counseling Services if you’re feeling overwhelmed: bit.ly/BC-counseling Be well, my friend!

I find meaning in being supportive, because I’m a wall. You’ll find different meanings, and they’ll probably change throughout your life. Ask yourself the Father Himes questions: What am I good at? What brings me joy? Who does the world need me to be? You’ll find meaning where the answers intersect.

Yup I sure do have advice! I’d check in with Health Services if I were you (bit.ly/BostonCollegeHealth) – or if you’ll be home for the holidays, your regular doc. My guess is they’ll suggest you mix up your diet a bit and get some plant based nutrition in there but I’m just a Wall that doesn’t eat or poop so… check with them 😉

If you need a break, take one. Might have to be a short one, but do move around, have some water!

I am sad that you feel that way. Know that most of us go through periods of our life when it seems like that, but things change and it will not always be this way. Counseling Services is available if you need to talk it through with someone: bit.ly/BC-counseling

Sleep more, cram less. And try and eat some normal food. Hold on, you’ll make it.

BC Libraries staff very quickly produced an eclectic list of 31 titles. I recommend also browsing the Holiday Special Staff Picks: library.bc.edu/staff-picks/holiday2022.
48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by Sir David Attenborough
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dune by Frank Herbert
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling & Anna Rosling Rönnlund
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos Good
Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett <
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Round House by Louise Erdrich
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Frieden
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez

Give yourself time, and feel how you feel. It’ll take longer if you pretend you’re over it when you’re not. Be kind to yourself in as many ways as you can.

It’ll be easier if you’re with someone you genuinely trust and care about, but there is still a leap of faith where you trust them and let down your guard. Mutual trust is the magic.

Good advice all around: trust your gut, and if you want good knees, don’t be a Corgi.

I’d say different, not better or worse.

BU still has some visitor restrictions due to the pandemic, so I’d recommend checking their website before visiting! If you’re asking if you can visit BC, of course! Check the website for the best ways to do that.

Bio is fascinating and research progresses rapidly and covers huge areas of knowledge. It is no wonder it is not a gut course! Being a required course for pre-meds adds to the general level of anxiety, too. Peer tutoring at the CFLC (bit.ly/BC-connors) is done for the semester, but if you are struggling in Biology next semester, please try them.

There are many ways to define “good”. Also, as is true for any community, there are a range of different types of folks who are here! I hope you find kind, generous, thoughtful, and interesting people here!

According to BC’s most recent financial statement, BC spent about $335 million on instruction this year, up from $315 million the previous fiscal year. https://bit.ly/bc-instruction

My Library helpers and their colleagues have revealed their favorite lines from books and poems:

“Shortcuts make long delays” – Bilbo Baggins, Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” – The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, Stephen King

“Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.” -Watership Down, Richard Adams

“And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Isn’t it pretty to think so.” – The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

“Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.” – Dreams, Langston Hughes

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” – On the Road, Jack Kerouac

“And so, unlike most commanders, whose position is weakened by failure, Vercingetorix gained reputation with every day that followed the reverse.” – Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar

“Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” – Mother to Son, Lanston Hughes

“To harbor spiteful feelings against ordinary people for not being heroes is possible only for a narrow-minded or embittered man.” – A Boring Story, Anton Chekhov

“I will keep Oliver’s red dinner bowl on my shelf. It has been in my hands many times. I know its weight, and I know its depth.” – The Power of the Powerless, Christopher de Vinck

“He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” – To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

“Yet it is not in our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after us may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

“It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing and it was going to snow.” – Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens

“`My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,’ said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, `Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!’” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea.” 100 Selected Poems, e. e. Cummings

“The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose” – Old English Folk Poem circa 17th Century

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” – Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”― I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou, 

“Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.” – For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering The Earth In Its Human Feet, Joy Harjo

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” ― Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

“I will slip you any privilege I grasp / I am your aunty for life / Here are clean sheets, / and my spare key” – The Aunty Poem (Mi Privilege Es Su Privilege), Mohja Kahf

Me, personally… no. I am in a committed relationship with The Lobby Door and have no eyes for anyone else. (Well, no eyes, in any case, since I am a Wall.) On the other hand, a sexy mustache does sound heiß…

I don’t tend to think of questions on a continuum of weird-not weird. They’re all very interesting. Though I do think it’s a little weird how many people are concerned about whether things are or aren’t sandwiches.

England / France – One out of two isn’t bad 🙂