Caerus

Dear UCG-community: once again you asked, we answered. This time Alice, GT and Johannes answer your questions about eating during corona, judgement and your diploma. You can submit any other burning questions through this link.

1. With all the sitting at home and feeling shit because of everything that is happening in this world, I cannot stop eating snacks. Food brings me comfort and joy, but I don't want to get fat. What should I do?

Dear reader, 

I want to first tell you that you are not alone struggling with this problem. Many of us find comfort in food, and this is completely understandable. We always have to remember that we are living in a pandemic and because of this, food is becoming one of the only few things that are changing from day-to-day. However, I can understand your worry about becoming “fat” for the snacks you eat. To help you with this problem, I can give you some advice for strategies that I usually use in order to not feel guilty when eating snacks. 

First, I usually have 5 meals per day: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. Having a schedule is extremely important as you can, somehow, have more control on what you eat. If you follow a routine like this, you don’t have to worry about eating unschedule snacks as you will not be that hungry. 

 The second advice that I have for you, is to eat healthier snacks. Usually, when I am hungry I eat fruit, yoghurt or cereals. If you do this, you will feel less guilty and more healthy. This tactic can be beneficial also for the quantity of food that you eat during snack time. I don’t know if it is only for me, but every time I eat some kind of fruit I am more likely to be full and stop eating! 

Do these strategies not work? Don’t worry my dear reader, there is always a plan B. This plan B is slightly more painful than plan A. You have to be patient and consistent. As you can guess, this plan is called a “workout”. To be honest, I am not the greatest fan of workouts.  I understand that “working out” might sound pretty boring, but you should definitely try to work out with friends and with music. It could become something to look forward to during these boring days of the pandemic. 

Lastly, my dear reader, another piece of advice that I have for you is that “cheating” is okay. Sometimes we all need to enlighten our day with a little piece of chocolate!

2. People don't have time to judge you because they are busy judging themselves.

Well, that’s not much of a question, and if it is, I guess you’ve provided your own answer. Regardless, I’d like to comment on it. You’re quite right, people are often judgy and harsh upon themselves, but that’s not to say that they aren’t judging you either. If anything I think people looking down upon themselves is a potent fuel for them to look down on others. The opposite is obviously also true; holding yourself in very high regard can easily lead to viewing others in a lower one. But I think you know this already, and you also know that the best attitude to have is to pay no mind to the shallow judgements others apply to you and to quell your own urges for judging others. This is easier said than done because let's be real, judging others is so easy, impulsive, and sometimes, dare I say, fun. The impulsiveness can be hard to avoid. I have trouble with it myself every now and again when I meet someone. Before I’ve even said a word to them my judgements flash through my mind and all I’m left thinking is “fuck meeee you’re such a cunt”. I realise it’s irrational and not true (mostly) but the power of the impulse can often cause the first impression to be a lasting one.

 In terms of fun, I don’t know about you but I’ve had some meaningful and enjoyable bonding experiences with other people based on our shared judgement of the poor fashion taste of others (it’s not all mean, I judge fashion I like as well). It can honestly be very fulfilling to share the same ideas with someone about how trash (or fantastic) someone else’s colour coordination is. I know I’m talking about fashion here but it can be all sorts of things like how they walk, talk etc. So, in these cases, I would say shallow judgement can be a harmless pastime, however, I should mention that it’s important to keep your judgement victims out of earshot. It’s not nice to be upfront and say these things to their faces since these words, though they will mean little to you, can be hurtful towards them. The honourable thing to do is be respectful, and say it behind their back. Oh, and don’t spread rumours, that’s childish.

3. Is it a degree in "Liberal Arts and Sciences" or "Social Sciences and Other Stuff"?

Wouldn’t it be awesome if on your official degree it wrote: “This diploma is to show that Insert name here has completed a bachelor degree in social sciences and other stuff.” I’d love to have it but I guess it might detract from what little weight the UCG degree currently carries. 

Anyway, onto your question. I need to clarify, are you asking about what will actually be written on your diploma? If this is the case then I think it will depend on what major you choose. If you follow humanities then I believe what shows on the diploma will be a “Bachelor of Arts”. If you follow Science or Social Science then I believe you’ll get a “Bachelor of Science”. And if I’m not mistaken, if you’re a social science major, you can choose. I recommend “Bachelor of Science” though, seeing as a “Bachelor of Arts” degree is still widely ridiculed and looked down upon (hopefully that’ll change).