Isabella Simonetti | Why we shouldn’t give up on Penn
My surroundings, both on and offline, tell me that I should be having a good time at Penn.
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My surroundings, both on and offline, tell me that I should be having a good time at Penn.
In a few weeks, Penn’s early decision applicants for the Class of 2022 will receive their admissions decisions.
About a month ago, I published an article in 34th Street Magazine, telling my friends, family, and the Penn community that I am bisexual.
Penn is cutthroat. Its academic prestige and emphasis on pre-professionalism attracts ambitious, determined students. Their desire to succeed here, paired with factors like forced grading curves and unnecessarily stressful club culture, can have the effect of pitting students against one another, thus fostering unhealthy levels of competition.
I started the school year committed to practicing self-care. I promised I wouldn’t keep late hours, skip meals, procrastinate research papers, or cram for exams as I did in high school. I vouched to visit Pottruck four times a week, keep a journal, take walks by the Schuylkill, and go to bed early.
It’s no secret that mental health issues scourge college campuses.
I expected my freshman year at Penn to be consumed by late-night Wawa runs, interpreting syllabi, broken conversations over loud music at parties and cranking out essays in my dorm room. But my first semester of college has been packed with much more than the burden of finding friends and all-nighters in Van Pelt.
In college drinking culture, moderation does not exist.
Nobody likes to talk about money. It’s a sticky, uncomfortable topic that’s seen as distasteful and gauche to discuss. But there’s a culture of wealth at Penn that can be extremely restrictive and divisive. Socially, academically and professionally, students who come from affluent families have a leg up — and that’s worth a conversation.
Before starting at Penn, I was told to be careful. As a rising freshman girl, warnings from concerned adults about the rape culture that is so prevalent on university campuses superseded discussions of what classes I registered for or clubs I planned on joining.
GROUP THINK is The Daily Pennsylvanian’s round table section, where we throw a question at the columnists and see what answers stick. Read your favorite columnist, or read them all.
If you’re not talking about the fraternity party you went to Saturday night, Snapchatting pictures of the breathtaking campus or posting on Instagram with friends you made two hours prior, are you really having a good time in college? The fact of the matter is, even if you are doing these things, there’s a good chance that you feel alone.
GROUP THINK is The Daily Pennsylvanian’s round table section, where we throw a question at the columnists and see what answers stick. Read your favorite columnist, or read them all.
Recently, as I was decluttering my room, I came across my page in my fifth grade yearbook. Aside from the large red rings around my lips in my photo — a result of licking them too much in the wintertime — what stood out to me most was my answer to the question: What do you want to be when you grow up? A writer, I had said.