Letter from the editor: A kick-start to 2023
Gabrielle Abdelmessih is the editor-in-chief of The Oakland Post for the 2022-2023 academic year. She is a senior majoring in biomedical sciences and minoring in journalism.
Welcome to the first issue of 2023!
To kick-start 2023, The Post decided to make this issue a “special edition,” delving into all things health and wellness.
The purpose of this issue is to be informational, motivational and self-reflective.
I’d like to thank all of my fellow Posties for their hard work on this issue. Thanks for reading! We appreciate your continued support.
“It is a privilege to do the work,” my energetic pilates instructor said, attempting to motivate a class of about 20 people to the muscle failure point of no return.
I have to admit, at 6:20 a.m. while holding my right leg in a bungee cord high up the air, glutes burning, sweat pouring (sorry…tmi?), privilege certainly wasn’t the first word that came to mind to describe the experience, but the instructor’s words resonated with me.
Because that’s exactly what taking fifty minutes out of my day, money out of my wallet, and expending energy to focus on me and my health is — a privilege.
Extrapolating her motivational train of thought brought me to the natural conclusion that it truly is a privilege to be healthy enough to exercise, wealthy enough to afford it in that setting and wise enough to invest in my future health by putting in the work now.
Unfortunately, due to many factors — including lack of resources, lack of information regarding proper self-care and a lack of time to be able to dedicate to self-care — many people are missing out on the ability to invest in themselves in order to decrease the likelihood of future comorbidities that, along with health disparities, will affect their lives negatively.
As a community, we have resources available to us that give us the opportunity to improve our health. But like the proverbial exercise bike turned coat hanger, just having it isn’t enough — you have to use it.
This does not only apply to our physical health. Ensuring our mental wellness is an integral part of maintaining our overall health, as well.
This issue focuses on resources available at the Rec Center, Counseling Center, social involvement on campus and much more.
We have these resources, and we should hold the university accountable for making sure these resources are available to the campus community to the fullest extent.
Take care of yourself so that you can take care of other people.
D. Adjoke • Jan 11, 2023 at 2:26 PM
Let’s face a simple fact here: If you are over 18 years old and have not learned how to care for your own health independently, a university is not where you belong and will do you more harm than good. I appreciate the Post informing readers what resources are available to them for their health needs, but most of these articles are written very patronizingly and maternalistically. We are adults, not children. While I recognize that some people have special needs, it is not the job or purpose of the Post to provide counseling or guidance to those people. You are supposed to be doing journalism here, not babysitting.
yousef • Jan 13, 2023 at 10:16 AM
Agreed. Adults are infantilized and not taught resilience or responsibility at a young age.
Gen Z and Millennials have lived the most coddled and posh lives of any human beings ever to have existed in the entire existence of humanity. They do not have a proper frame of reference for the state of the human condition. For almost the entirety of humanity death, bitter suffering, and anguish were the norms of human existence. It was not uncommon to lose several siblings or parents by the time most people came of age. Technology and wealth have insulated us from the realities of life as most of humanity has and does experience it.
If you want to get a wise perspective on the natural course of life as most of humanity lives and has lived it, then read the Book of Ecclesiastes written thousands of years ago describing what we have taken for granted.
Putting your current suffering in perspective to others is encouraging as it allows us to know that others have the same experiences as us and are capable of making it through things much greater than ours. Therefore, we should carry on and become more resilient as those who have gone before us.