The Joys of Working Out

By Kayla P. Solinsky. Please allow me to state the obvious: graduate school is one of the most mentally and physically taxing experiences ever. Breaking a mental sweat while writing the dissertation proposal, applying for fellowships, and grading papers is a normal occurrence for most grad students. Unfortunately, breaking a literal sweat is not as common, but it really should be. For many students, college is a place for having a fabulous body and sweating hard at the gym. Lucky for me, I was never a victim of gym culture peer pressure. My younger self always complained that the gym was always too far and far too sweaty. Working out was nowhere near my mind in my junior year, when I was diagnosed with severe depression. It seemed normal for the therapist to prescribe pills for the depression and other pills to counteract the side effects. Read more...