Socializing during Shopping Period

As shopping period enters its final week, it's time for some reflection.

Full disclosure: I'm a shopping period fan. Some of us aren't. I know that. There's room for all of us at this table. But I have 63 classes in my cart right now. As a loosely dedicated English concentrator with a wide variety of interests, I might be living out the plot of a STEM kid's nightmares... or, their wildest fantasies? I've been getting Canvas notifications in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. Maybe I'll learn...

This is my actual C@B calendar right now.

What I'm saying is, as a self-proclaimed Shop-Til-I-Drop kinda gal, I have figured out some rules by which to live during shopping period in order to get by unscathed.

1. Don't ask anyone about their classes. This will save you all kinds of trouble. If you ask, you might have to deal with someone else's tears, or a really long list of classes you don't care about, or, worst of all, realize there's a whole department of classes you wanted to look at but forgot to.
2. Ask everyone about their classes. It's the only way to ensure you hear about all the cool classes. Also, it's a topical conversation starter. And, you can bond over being fellow intellectuals.
3. Up your outfit game. Impress those teachers in those hard-to-get-off-the-waitlist classes, impress your classmates with your post-break glow-up, and learn to regret sacrificing warmth for fashion. It's January. Wear a jacket.
4. Let go of trying to look good. When you're shopping 12 classes a day, and you don't want to socialize anyway, who has time to dress to impress?
5. Talk about how you have so much work to do. "The semester just started so quickly. I was not prepared!"
6. Talk about how you have no work to do. "I guess my classes this semester just aren't that hard? Also, if it happened during shopping period, did it even happen?"

It's a high-stress time for many, exacerbating everything from acne to moodiness. Just try not to rock the boat. Or, rock it intentionally. I don't know. What I do know is that shopping period must come to an end, for better or for worse.

This is a boat made in the class AMST 1220: Boatbuilding: Design, Making, and Culture last semester. Don't rock this boat in particular, because two friends are in it. But they wouldn't have taken it if not for shopping period, and that's the beauty of the Open Curriculum.

Images via Lily Willis '22.