Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
Breath. I highly recommend a daily practice of breathing meditation as a way of practicing kindness to yourself. Thich Nhat Hanh provides an excellent, short introduction in Peace is Every Breath: O’Neill Library BL65 .P4 N46 2011.
All I can say is that I feel more like I do now than I did then.
It just is, is what it is.
The answer is much clearer when you define “enough” for yourself very clearly: how much, by what time, and to what level of quality.
My cousin the Magic 8-ball says “Cannot predict now.”
Russia: A history of Russia, N. V. Riasonovsky (O’Neill Library DK40 .R5 2000) America: A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn (ebook: bit.ly/bcl-zinn-peoples-history) Europe: Europe, A History, Norman Davies (O’Neill Library D57 .D28 1996) Middle East: The Arabs: A History, Eugene Rogan (O’Neill Library DS37.7 .R64 2009), Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore (DS109.9 .S43 2011)
You can practice with friends (of any gender) if you can open up to them about your concerns. You might be able to come up with a physical trigger to stop the laughter like pressing on your jaw. In any case you are very courageous to put yourself out there and I have faith you can do it.
When you set aside your fears & anxieties, talking to guys is just like talking to women. You find some common ground through trial and error, and overlook the awkwardness that’s inevitable when you’re getting to know someone. Oh, and tell your inner voices saying critical or discouraging things that you appreciate their help but don’t need them right now.
It sounds very challenging!
My advice? Live your life in an ethical manner, be kind to people and treat them with respect. Then, sit back and know you deserve respect, and what other people think is not something you can control. Try try try to worry less about what other people think (I know that is hard!)
I TOTALLY sang that in my head… ❤️
Probably 2 years, give or take? I wouldn’t think so by the time you reach college age. As long as you keep an eye on the power dynamics of the relationship and nothing is terribly uneven.
Some thoughts: get appropriate training and certification as required for your type of therapy and state in which you work, keep up with advances and new knowledge in the field, be caring, be ethical, set boundaries and take care of yourself as well.
I’m not sure what a library wall could add that the library contents haven’t already said. Here are 650 titles on the subject: bit.ly/bcl-affirmative-action.
You could do worse than to find everything by the writers in the Lowell series this spring: https://bit.ly/bc-lowell. For more, peruse this New Yorker list of essential reads of 2023. On this list, Paul Murray, Ben Austen, & Ben Lerner all spoke at BC recently, BC’s Min Song introduced Viet Thanh Nguyen in his inaugural Norton Lecture at Harvard, and Jon Fosse was featured in an O’Neill Library book display. A staff favorite is Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. BC’s own Elizabeth Graver wrote the can’t-miss Kantika.
Two resources you might want to try: Academic Coaching from the Connors Family Learning Center (bit.ly/BC-connors) or Wellness Coaching for managing stress, time, and academics at the Center for Student Wellness (bit.ly/BCStudentWellness)
Whenever people are on the cusp of a major change, there’s added pressure on friendships with all these questions roiling the mind & heart: Where will we all be next year or the year after? Will distance make us drift apart? Who will you & I become? Life is hard: hang on to each other, come what may.
Certainly! Fast Fourier Transformations (FFT) translate waves. FFT takes a complex wave and efficiently breaks it down into individual frequencies, revealing the components present and their intensities. This process is essential in fields like signal processing, audio analysis, and telecommunications, providing insights into the frequency makeup of signals in a fast and efficient manner. Check out the library catalog to learn more. We suggest starting with The Fast Fourier Transform by Brigham or Digital Signal Processing: A Practitioner’s Approach by Rangarao and Mallik.
For a bit of both romance and fantasy with a Polish folkloric twist, one of my helpers recommends Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Dragons, enchanted forests, and wizards await you–happy spring break!
The writer/journalist/podcaster Daniel Alarcón in his talk last night at Gasson told the fable of the library that collapsed because the architect didn’t account for the weight of the books, which is what happens when you lose sight of your mission. Any mission or set of values is something to strive for, and BC does in general strive to uphold its values. But BC is also composed of humans, and humans are bound to fail sometimes. You’re part of BC. If you think BC is failing to uphold a value, hold your community to account.
Did you know that rubbing the toe of St. Michael in Gasson Hall is supposed to bring academic good luck? For this and other fun facts about BC rituals and traditions, I suggest checking out Legends of Boston College (O’Neill Library: LD473 .L4 2004). And if you want to dive deeper on a particular topic, Burns Library (home of the University Archives!) is always ready to help you with your questions about the history of BC and its community members: https://libguides.bc.edu/burns/contact
Underrated: Pine Tree Preserve – check it out, so peaceful! Overrated: Frips. Why frips when you could have real fries?
