#wlulex

One activity per day. If you haven't checked these off the bucket list yet, its time to start planning and get outside – we’re here to help.

1. Panther Falls

WHAT: A big rock/small waterfall that you can jump off of into a swimming hole. 

WHY: Because you don't have class, it is hot outside, and there isn’t a better spot to cool off. 

HOW: Directions: Take U.S. 60 East through Buena Vista and past the turnoff for the Blue Ridge Parkway. Turn right onto Panther Falls Road and drive about 3 miles until you see the Panther Falls trail parking. Then, get hiking! [Directions from the Outing Club Guidebook]

           What to bring: a bathing suit, towel, sunscreen, snacks, and ya crew.

2. Stargazing at the OC Gazebo 

WHAT: A cozy spot in an open field, perfect for seeing summer stars.

WHY: Because nights are warm and you don't have THAT much homework...

HOW: Park at the Outing Club barn. Then, cross the hill that is Peniel Farm, and climb the next hill to reach the Gazebo – I know, it seems far, but it is worth it.

           What to bring: a sweater, a blanket, and maybe a telescope??

3. Sunrise on North Mountain

WHAT: The best sunrise spot around. And you don’t even have to hike--you can drive right up to the overlook. 

WHY: Because sunrises are always worth the early wakeup calls. 

HOW: Directions: Take Main Street south out of Lexington to where U.S. 11 and Route 25 intersect. Turn right onto Route 251 toward Lake Robertson and Collierstown. Route 251 will turn into Route 770. Follow Route 770 to the crest of North Mountain. [Directions from the Outing Club Guidebook]

           What to bring: a sweater, warm hat, and camera for that sunrise #lexpic

4. Hike Sharptop Mountain 

WHAT: A little-known gem amongst Rockbridge area hikes. 

WHY: You’ve got the day free, and it’s time to explore somewhere new (but make sure you actually do have enough time – this is a day trip for sure). 

HOW: Take U.S. 60 East through Buena Vista to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Turn left on the parkways heading south to mile marker 86. You will find the parking area on the right. [Directions from the O.C. Guidebook]

           What to bring: 2 full water bottles, sunscreen, and snacks/lunch. Wear hiking boots or tennis shoes – not sandals. 

5. Picnic on Cold Mountain 

WHAT: A beautiful, open field at the top of a short hike. 

WHY: Cold Mountain is the perfect low-effort, high-reward spot for a lazy outdoors day. See photo below – this place is practically begging for someone to have a picnic in the grass.  

HOW: Directions: Take U.S. 60 east for 15 miles, through Buena Vista and past the Blue Ridge Parkway to Coffeytown Road. Take a left at the general store onto Route 634, Coffeytown Road. Drive to the fork in the road, turn right on Route 755, Wiggins Spring Road. Drive to Hog Camp Gap and park. The Cold Mountain access is across the street. [Directions from the Outing Club Guidebook]

           What to bring: a picnic blanket and food, sunscreen (no shade at the summit), and that ~special someone~. 

6. Paddleboard the Maury River

WHAT: Test you balance or just splash around while getting a good workout in. 

WHY: The Maury is so close to campus, and the water is the perfect temperature this time of year.

HOW: Head out to Jordan’s Point for a good put in. Take West Nelson to Anderson Drive, turn left onto Saunders Drive, park, and get ready for a great day on the river.

           What to bring: check out your board and paddle from the OC barn. Wear Chacos or other water sandals, a bathing suit, and sunscreen. 

7. Sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway 

WHAT: The perfect  sunset spot that doesn't require any hiking, and its a short drive from Lexington.  

WHY: Watching the sun set is the best way to end any day. 

HOW: Directions:  Take U.S. 60 East through Buena Vista. Turn left toward the Blue Ridge parkway, and take a left onto the parkway turnoff. Once on the parkway, take your pick of prime sunset spots.

           What to bring: a sweater, your friends, and whatever else you need for your sunset experience (food? hot chocolate?). 

We met with Austin Frank (17) of Friday Underground Records and their current artist, Dana Gary (18) to get you the lowdown on Scholasticism and the FUDG Records mission. Dana talks us through her process and vision for her debut album while Austin walks us through the business and management side of creating art.      

How do you even go about making an album?

Dana: Excellent question. I have no idea what the correct answer is, but here's how I did it:

I usually start with words. I collect phrases on my phone throughout the day as they are given to me and often lump them into poems later. My basement is very echo-ey and forgiving, which makes it my favorite spot to experiment with sound. I'll sit down there with my ukulele and my words, and I'll sing and sing and sing until I stumble upon something that either gives me teary eyes or a racing heart or both. Usually the song solidifies a day or two before a recording session when I'm pressed up against that deadline and forced to make instinctual decisions about structure and instrumentation.

(Above: Dana, the Artist, needs to eat, too)

Has the project changed over time or during recording sessions?

D: It's absolutely changed as a concept. It used to be about the problem and process of artistic inspiration, but now it's about inspiration in the context of the college experience. As we've gone through the process of recording, the songs started demanding equal amounts of cavernous and intimate sound. I didn't anticipate that duality, but now it makes sense:

Scholasticism is about living in your head - a traditional place of solitude - while your head undergoes expansion, an experience I particularly ascribe to my time at W&L.

Why should people listen to this? What do you hope people will get from listening to this?

D: Lexington is bizarre. Everyone who's lived here has the common experience of re-establishing contact with the outside world and discovering that this town is, in fact, an uncommon experience. My hope for Scholasticism is that it can serve as fuel for the eternal discussion about what makes Lex a crucible worth cherishing. I wanted to sing about how we all suffer and grow in the palm of this place. I hope this music can be a way of remembering what it's like to learn and create and fall in love in this environment.

What's been the best part of this experience so far? What's been the worst?

D: The best part - besides witnessing the avalanche of support for the Kickstarter - is the validation of accompaniment. If there needs to be a "reason" to make art, for me, that reason is human connection, so hearing other people or other instruments effectively voicing what I'm attempting to express indicates that what I'm expressing has the potential to be universally understood. That's such a hopeful moment, and it makes me feel as though I might be onto something. The worst part is that all too often I write or hear parts I'm not entirely capable of playing or singing (whoops). Sometimes I'll be learning how to play these instruments as I go along in the recording process. Austin has the patience of a saint, redoing all those takes simply because i couldn't keep up with the pianist/vocalist/ukulele player in my head.

Describe the album in one word (other than the title).

D: Thesis.

What's your favorite track off the album?

D: The title track.

What have you learned about yourself through the making of this album?

D: These songs are meant to illustrate the college experience of saying farewell to previously held sources of inspiration or meaning in favor of new ones. "Scholasticism," in its title alone, evokes this mental and emotional tug-of-war. The turbulence of the past few years at school has been a necessary process in making both the spiritualism of my youth and the intellectualism of my early adulthood sing in harmony.

Anything else you want to add?

D: I love you, and I hope you like what we've done with the (concept of Lexington as a) place.

BONUS: Check out this playlist--created with Dana’s musical inspirations in mind- made by yours truly! 

http://myw.lu/PurserPlay

What is FUDG Records?

Austin: FUDG Records is the cool, musical younger sibling to Friday Underground. We’re pretty much an extension of the FUDG mission to support student art on campus. While we’re not technically the same as FUDG, we share a lot of the same people working on our projects.

We first had the idea last year when Elaina, Dana and I were listening to Ralston perform at Friday Underground. We loved his original music and really wished that we could have his songs recorded somewhere - so we just decided to do it! Now we’re working on our third album, which is so much more than I think any of us ever dreamed!

How has FUDG Records evolved with each new artist/project? What's unique about this current project?

A: With every record, we’ve set our sights a little bit higher. Ralston’s album was a big step because it was our first record. We pretty much learned how to work with big groups of musicians, figured out the best way to do the physical production, and how to do all of the recording, mastering, etc.

In addition to being our first full-length album, Elliot’s record was our first venture into crowdfunding. We were successfully able to raise over $800 to help make that project a reality thanks to a bunch of really generous backers on our Kickstarter project!

Dana’s album has been a huge step forward for us. We’ve pulled out all of the stops to help really make her vision a reality. Any of us who know Dana already understand that she has a brilliant, creative mind, and some of these songs have been huge undertakings to get recorded and produced - I think we’ve done really well so far, though! We’ve also set our fundraising goal much higher this time around at $2000. Amazingly, we hit this goal in under a week, which absolutely blew us away. Then we extended it to $2700 and hit that! I think by the end of the campaign (March 8), we want to be somewhere around $3000. We raised so much mostly to expand the kinds of products we’re able to offer. We’ll be doing our normal CD option, but we’re also releasing a 12” record as well as a photo book companion to the record. Printing a record has been pretty much a life-long dream of mine, so I’m beyond excited to make this happen.

How do you measure success?

A: I’m absolutely metric obsessed, so we go about doing this in a bunch of ways. On one hand, we want to make the best art possible. At the end of the day, if we’ve produced a record that we’re proud of, then we consider the project successful. I can say that I’m incredibly proud of every single project that we’ve done.

Another way that I like to measure success is through streaming and digital sales data. I check up on our artists every few days to see what’s getting streamed. Our music has had thousands of plays, which is incredibly exciting.

Finally, I feel that we’ve been really successful in how much money we’ve been able to raise to support student artists. Over the course of the last 3 records in the past year, we’re on track to raise well over $4500 for our projects, the vast majority of which has been put towards making our projects as good as they can be.

What do you hope the future holds for FUDG Records?

A: I’m really excited to see where FUDG Records goes after I graduate. Dana has expressed some interest in keeping the label going and searching for more great on-campus artists to work with. I also hope to stay involved on the business and production side of things since I can do that all from wherever I am after graduation!

Coolest promotional feature (for any artist)?

A: For Elliot’s album, I really enjoyed the CD launch/listening party that we had in the CGL. Student Activities helped us out getting some awesome food, and we lit the atrium with some awesome lights from the Production Club. The turnout was fantastic and we all had an awesome time celebrating an awesome artist and project!

For Dana’s album, I’m just unbelievably excited to print vinyl. I love vinyl, and I’m so excited to add a record that I’ve helped produce (and played on) to my collection. This is going to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine!

Follow FUDG Records on social media and stay up to date with all the developments as Scholasticism is gearing up for release. Also checkout previous artists, Elliot and Ralston, on Spotify!

https://www.facebook.com/fudgrecords/

https://www.instagram.com/fudgrecords/

The website:

http://www.fudgrecords.com

As I sit in the depths of Leyburn staring morosely out the window at the aesthetically pleasing architectural wonder that is Woods Creek and wondering how I’m going to write my 40-page capstone paper on an unbeknownst topic, I begin to dream. I dream of a time when life was simpler, when each day the hours stretched out before me like an endless stream of time. When all I had to worry about was whether or not I had remembered to feed my dog. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love being at school. But humor me, because I’m writing this in my sad little carrel on the 3rd floor of the library, and because Feb break is so close and yet so far. 

What follows is a ranking of all the W&L breaks. Because these are the kind of things the Internet was created for. 

#6 Summer

Summer rocks, obviously. But did I mention I’m a senior? Let’s not talk about it.

#5 Feb Break

Ah, Feb break, the least-favorite-sibling of all the breaks. That’s relatively speaking, of course. Like being the non-famous third brother of Chris and Liam Hemsworth. You’re probably still ridiculously good-looking. Feb Break is usually the break that I want to do something exciting after surviving a sad cold winter, but the amount of work I have slowly crushes my dreams of skiing in the Swiss Alps or lying on a beach in Fiji (ha ha my bank account laughs derisively).    

#4 Thanksgiving Break

Dearest Thanksgiving break, your downfall is the looming inevitability of exam week. Arriving back on campus 10 pounds heavier and with none of your work done is always a shock to the system. I’d be willing to bet you had a 12-page paper or two due that Monday.  

#3 Reading Days

Reading days always lives up to the hype. It’s still warm enough to be outside, long enough to travel somewhere, and early enough in the school year that you didn’t really need a break, but got one anyways. Places third only because a) it’s shorter and b) you likely had a million pages of reading that you didn’t do.

#2 Spring Break

Let’s be honest, half the beauty of break is having no work to do. So spring break claims second place. A lot of fun to go to the beach with friends, or hang out at home, but be sure to check out the trips W&L offers during spring break. The Outing Club has some excellent ones, as does Student Activities. Directly following spring break is spring term, so returning to Lex is the easiest thing you’ve ever done. Hellooo, one class.

#1 Winter Break

Oh winter break. You’ve broken free of exam week and all you have before you is three weeks of glorious nothing. THREE. WEEKS. Winter break is full of excitement and possibilities. Christmas! Hanukkah! New Years! Awkward neighborhood parties! All other breaks pale in comparison. 

As much as we all hate to think about it, the final week of spring term is almost upon us. For those of us who have never packed up to go home before -- or simply resent the process -- there are some definite tried-and-true strategies that make it a little more bearable, so that we can spend our final days with friends rather than splayed out on our bedroom floors.

First step involves the clothes, perhaps the most prominent of our packing despairs. Our advice to you would include being immensely critical of what you end up bringing home for the summer (if you’re splitting a storage unit with friends) so that you’re not lugging a ton home that you never use. Additionally, there are some tips that make sorting through clothes a little easier. While packing dresses or nice clothes, leave them on the hangers that they’re already on so that you don’t have to re-hang them in the fall. If you cut a trash bag and slip it over, you can bundle them all up and lay them neatly on a vehicle.

Earlier on in spring term (or now, if you’re a bit of a procrastinator), pack away all your winter clothes so that you only have out the warm-weather clothes that you’ve really been wearing. Then you’re only sorting through half your wardrobe on that dreaded final day.

Next comes storage and boxes. Go get some boxes from Walmart (cheap) or find ways to repurpose boxes that you already have. Use a sharpie and write down every item you put in a box -- preferably on the box, so you know exactly which ones to open as you’re inevitably hunting for something later.

One of the unfortunate realities of going to school in a college town is that storage units fill up quickly. Next year, be sure to call around spring break time in order to make sure you get one! Don’t be afraid to venture to storage units in Staunton or other nearby towns though; those usually have space even near the end of spring term, and if you split up your packing time, the drive isn’t painful.

Although the dorm descriptions say that command strips are a-okay for the walls, there’s still some old paint. Be super careful removing bulletin boards and hangings -- you don’t want to have to pay your deposit when you actually did follow the rules. 

Additionally, take note of all the knick-knacks you dragged to school at the beginning of the year, sure you’d find use for them at some point. If you haven’t touched it in months, take it home so it doesn’t fill up your tiny room!

Be sure to return all library materials, sell back any school books you don’t have use for, and to donate any clothes or items that you no longer need! Note: if you have business casual clothes, the Career Development office is ALWAYS looking to beef up their closet.

The professor asks a question. This is no softball question. This is a question with substance. You wrack your brain thinking of an impressive answer. Across the room, you see your crush raise their hand, slowly, casually, no problem. Leaning back cooly, looking like a snack, they give a breezy answer which makes the question seem totally easy. You swoon.

After class, your crush picks up their backpack with grace, says hello to their many friends (because lots of people like this person) and saunters on to conquer more hearts and studies.

Valentine’s Day is coming up. You’ve been dying to talk to this smart cookie. Now’s your chance. Be bold. Ask your crush out. Here are our tips:

1. Leave a note on the desk your crush usually sits in. If all goes as planned they will text you after class. 

Advantage: Your crush will spend the class scanning the room trying to guess who left it.

Disadvantage: If they sits in a different desk that day someone else may find the note. 

2. Find out who their friends are. Pick one you trust and have them set you up on a “blind date”. Only it won’t be blind for you - just your crush. 

Advantage: This seems casual and cool and totally not your idea.

Disadvantage: You can’t trust everyone. If they tell your crush your plan... cut and run.

3. Write it on a potato and roll it to them. 

Advantage: Everyone likes potatoes.

Disadvantage: I see none.

4. Why wait for a phone number? Send an email. This way you could hyperlink a video of your favorite episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. 

Advantage: You probably already know their name and class year so no need to ask for it, just send it.

Disadvantage: There’s a chance your crush won’t like your favorite TV show and then you’ll know immediately you have no chemistry which I guess in some ways is an advantage.

5. Use Airdrop to send an infographic about why they should go out with you.

Advantage: Easy!

Disadvantage: Creepy.

6. Wait by the Dhall dessert bar until Crush wanders through.

Advantage: It seems like chance brought you two together under the lights of the Marketplace by the sweet smells of Lucky Charms Treats (or whatever you call those little bars of cereal that are essentially Rice Krispie Treats but not).

Disadvantage: You might end up waiting a really long time and maybe your crush will not even venture to Dhall that day.

7. Collaborate with your professor to coordinate a “meet [the professor] after class” situation. Clearly this is a ploy to get your your crush to come to you - your crush is too smart to fail so they will be so shocked and relieved when it’s you waiting with cheese and crackers to tell them they actually did quite well. 

Advantage: Clever way to clock some alone time. 

Disadvantage: They may not appreciate the panic they’ll feel when they’ve been swept up by the unknown.

8. Instagram direct message a dank meme. 

Advantage: Everyone loves a good meme.

Disadvantage: Some may consider this juvenile.

9. Make them a puka shell necklace. 

Advantage: They will think you had style like 20 years ago.

Disadvantage: If they don’t end up wearing it you can’t ask for it back politely. 

10. Jokes aside, just ask! 

The worst thing that could happen is they will say no and then go live on Facebook/Instagram and tell their followers you asked and feature you and you will be so embarrassed you’ll have to run away. ...Right?

...But, probably not. So, go ahead, take a chance, be confident & start a real dialogue like a real adult. At the very least, you can say you tried something scary today. Or, they’ll say yes.

Either way: stride of pride.

So once you’ve succeeded, here’s what to do on your date:

Head out on a hike.

Visit the RC State Cinema in town and catch a good movie - or when the weather’s nice check out Hull’s Drive In.

Pack a picnic for the Outing Club Gazebo for a sunset near campus - or take it to the Parkway.

Grab dinner in town. 

Whether you’re paired up or not (or somewhere in between), Valentine’s Day is a holiday that somehow makes it into everyone’s minds. 

The candy aisle in Walmart is overflowing with pink and red packages, nauseatingly sweet commercials rule the airwaves, and you suddenly long for times in third grade when the holiday meant construction paper Valentines at school rather than midterms.

If it’s just another day for you, February is still a great time of year to take a step back and celebrate some of the relationships that get you through the day, if only for a few hours. (Or to gorge yourself on chocolate and treat yourself.)

For those of you looking to get into the spirit with minimal effort, here are some quick picks to get you going for the next week.

The easiest way? Watch a movie. Regardless of whether you’re a film aficionado or more of a type-away-at-your-laptop-in-the-background folk, the ambiance, storylines, and music of these sappy films are guaranteed to put you in the spirit. Now, whether the spirit means snuggling up with somebody else, enjoying the atmosphere by yourself, or joking with friends is entirely up to you.

10 Things I Hate About You will have you laughing. Valentine’s Day is a cute montage with plenty to love for everyone. About Time is a wholesome and poignant look at both family and personal relationships. While You Were Sleeping is a classic misunderstanding (that ultimately leads to a satisfying will-they-or-won’t-they tension.) Finally, Me Before You and Like Crazy each contain more of an intense, desperately romantic vibe.

More bookish than film-oriented? Looking for something more long-term to indulge your sappy craving? Each of the reads above homes in on a thoughtfully written love story, some more idealized than others. Whether it’s the frenzied grip of first love or a more philosophical breakdown of what it means to be in a relationship (or not in one), the stories aptly capture the sweetness of the holiday.

The Infinite Moment of Us and Isla and the Happily Ever After are both sugary, slightly angsty romances you can’t help but root for. The Beginning of Everything and Everything Leads to You are both coming-of-ages in nature, with romances thrown in that complicate that narrative. Attachments is a classic, laugh-out-loud read that is everything you never knew you needed in a romantic comedy. For the more cynically inclined, On Love is a rational look at a very irrational feeling -- breaking down the process of getting to know others in a way that’s (truthfully) a little mind-blowing.

Throw in some Kit-Kats and some heart-patterned fuzzy socks and you’ve got yourself a night in!

As easy as it is to get wrapped up on the undergrad side of campus, many students forget about how many opportunities exist in the law school. Students can take certain law classes, study in the library, and engage with law students through various organizations. Washington and Lee boasts both a robust undergraduate education and a prestigious law school.

Some students find their home in both.

“Double Generals” -- people who attended Washington and Lee both as undergraduates and graduate students -- are more common than people would expect. With Lexington already being familiar turf, WLULex caught up with these folks to see how their experience as a student here has changed with the campus.

view from the law school on an early morning

Katie Bennett, ‘14, ‘19L

Where did you spend the most time as an undergraduate?

I probably spent the most time in Newcomb Hall with Professor DeLaney. (I was a history major.)

Where do you spend the most time now?

I unfortunately spend the most time now in the law school—a lot more work then undergrad!

What’s the strangest change you’ve seen in your time here?

I think the strangest change is the junior housing. We didn’t have that at all! Not really strange though, wish we had those when I was here!

Did you take off any time between undergrad and law school?

I took two years off and worked as a marketing coordinator for the American Red Cross.

How do you interact with undergraduates?

I am on the SJC so I interact with them quite a bit! Not really socially anymore though; I kind of feel too old [for that.]

Early Fielding, where  the Executive Committee meets.

John Houser, ‘15, ‘18L

Where did you spend the most time as an undergraduate?

When I was a freshman, I remember Mac’s being the place to go.  And not just to waste away a slow evening, but to get a quick meal (how times have changed).  If we’re talking about on campus, I used to obsessively eat at Co-op.

Where do you spend the most time now?

Mac’s got traded for Palm’s when I made the switch from undergrad to law.  Co-op is off my list completely, since there’s just no way of easily getting there during the day for me. 

What's the strangest change you've seen in your time at W&L?

Third-Year housing.  Not that I ever went out much as an undergrad, but it’s still odd to think there’s a place on-campus people actually use.  It’s definitely been the largest project W&L has undertaken during the last seven years, too.

Did you take any gap between your time at undergrad versus law school?

I went straight through.  It made graduation anti-climactic, to say the least. 

How do you interact with undergraduate students now? What are ways you think W&L students could better "bridge the gap"?

I only interact with the undergraduate side of campus through the EC and, to a more limited extent, my job in the copy center.  What I wish could happen, as far as bridging the gap goes, is for the students on each side of campus to have a better idea what the other is up to.  Contact and Outing Club are two examples of predominantly-undergraduate organizations that law students would be interested in, if only they knew what they were up to (and, to their credit, both brought on law students in recent years who began advertising events, successfully, in the law school).  As for the law students, I wish more knew that we could audit undergrad classes, because I’ve always thought that’s an untapped resource.

Café 77 (Co-op), a favorite undergraduate haunt.

Cole Bollman, ’16, ’19L

Where did you spend the most time as an undergraduate?

I spent the most amount of time studying up at the top of commons at the booths, hunting/working at Big Spring Farm (about 10 minutes from campus), and a lot of time in Lexco. I definitely spent a lot of time outside hiking and running on the Chessie Trail. I think I had a little bit more free time to do things that were away from campus in undergrad.

Where do you spend the most time now?

Now, I still spend a lot of time studying up at the top of commons at those booths. (There are a lot of awesome people in the law school, but there is also a lot of anxiety and intensity and it’s nice to get out of that environment and also be around some of my undergrad friends who are a little more low-key.) I am also in the law school main reading room working a lot. I still go hiking and run on the Chessie, but not nearly as much as I did before law school. I haven’t been out once to Big Spring to go hunting since law school started. I rarely go to LexCo. I go on a decent number of Outing Club trips and I try to make it out to the Outing Club barn to climb a couple times a month. 

What’s the strangest change you’ve seen in your time here?

This is a tough one. I think that the strangest change I’ve seen is just how isolated the law school is from the rest of campus. There is very little overlap or mingling if you didn’t attend W&L for undergrad or if you don’t currently know students on the undergrad side of campus. I think that most law school students aren’t aware of much of the undergrad side of campus beyond D-Hall, the gym, and the school store. It has been fun to introduce people to Co-Op (law school students still call it Café 76 or [whatever] it is actually named), the tea house, outing club, and several other study spots around campus.

Note from undergrads to the law school: the official name for co-op is Café 77!

Did you take any time off between undergrad and law school?

I went straight through.

Alright, Lexers.

It’s officially winter in Lexington, which means...

1. It’s gonna get cold

2. It is time for A VERY important PSA from your favorite wlulex-perts:

BE!

CAREFUL! 

WALKING!

ON!

ICE!

Though watching classmates slip and slide down the footbridge to campus is entertaining, there is a safer, better way.

To properly walk on the ice and snow, we simply have to take a page out of the book of the fanciest bird: the penguin.

These guys have clearly got it together.  

Though @wlulex could not secure an interview with a real penguin, we’ve done some research to compile the following penguin-inspired tips to keep you on your feet.

Dress Appropriately.

Penguins are always prepared to look their best. They’ve got 24/7 tuxedos. We humans, on the other hand, need boots, coats, scarves, gloves, sunglasses, a smile, etc. to keep us safe from the cold.  

Focus.  

Have you ever seen a penguin stare down at their phone? No. Reading a book while they walk? Of course not. Penguins can’t read. Save it for class.

Waddle!

Take small steps or shuffle to keep yourself stable. Lean your torso forward and keep your center of gravity over your front leg. Keep your knees loose, extend your arms out like flippers, and embrace the waddle.  

Trust No One...

Assume all surfaces are slippery. Our campus does a great job of scattering rocks and salt on slippery surfaces, but we can’t be too careful. Be prepared. 

Still feel uneasy? I guess you can always bring your own salt and sprinkle it Hansel & Gretel style as you walk.

Be prepared to fall.  

It could happen. It could happen in front of people. Those people might giggle. They’ll probably check on you, but they’ll also probably giggle. Learn from this little cutie. Penguins fall down, but they get up again. 

Get back up and take it one step at a time.  You can do it!