How to Enjoy Spring at Carleton as a Chud

At Carleton, spring really tries to drag you outside by force: the sudden burst of sunny days after months of snow, the sight of students tossing frisbees, the endless rotation of bonfires and barbeques. There’s a kind of collective agreement towards being outside. You are expected to emerge out of your dorm room, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

In my opinion, it’s the season for extroverts. If winter is for disappearing into the depths of Gould Library’s first floor, spring is for playing hacky sack on the Bald Spot (P.S. If you don’t know what a hacky sack is, you’ll be seeing it a lot here!).

HOWEVER, THIS IS STOCK-IMAGE-COLLEGE-BROCHURE PROPAGANDA!

Spring can be a chud season! The idea that you have to match campus energy just because the sun is out is a social illusion. As a certified chud (believe me, I play League of Legends), I’m here to give you a few tips for enjoying spring at Carleton while maintaining your chud status.

Controlled Social Exposure

Not all social interaction has to be all-or-nothing. Practice what I’ve coined as Controlled Social Exposure: treating your social life like a finite resource.

What does this mean?

Know your limits and set boundaries for social events. Examples: Go to the barbeque, but stay for 30 minutes. Set an hour to sit in the sun, and an hour after to lie in bed. Show up late, leave early, or exist on the outskirts of a gathering to avoid the need to “activate” your social mode.

Ultimately, the point is to be outside, but not to appear. Be present, but at a bare minimum. Exist in a plane of unpressured existence.

Perfect the Irish Goodbye—For When You Do Go Out

If you do find yourself participating in an unskippable outdoors event, it’s important to plan out your exit before you even arrive. Here are some points on doing so:

• Decide your time limit in advance.
• Anticipate when you can say “I can leave now without explanation.”
• Use my tried-and-true exit strategy: gradually stand up, drift towards the edge of the group, say one or two simple goodbyes, and leave.

Do Micro-Outings

You don’t need to do a “full day outside.” Instead, try “fragments of outside.” A small 6-7-minute walk between classes. Sitting on a bench for no reason and then leaving. Walking to get your DoorDash at a different location instead of ordering it to the door.

Micro-outings work because they remove the pressure of commitment to a full outing.

Bring the Spring Indoors

The spring mood doesn’t have to be geographically locked. Open your windows even if you’re not going outside. Let light hit your desk in a way that makes your room feel less sealed-off.

One of my favorite things to do is to buy seasonal items to mark the shift in time. Whether it’s fruit or flowers, your inside space can reflect the season of spring without ever having to be outside.

My main point is to stop treating indoors as a denial of outdoors, but as a substitution for it.

Nick (he/him/his) is a sophomore from Seattle, Washington, and serves as the blog’s editor. He is a double major in English and Economics with minors in Public Policy and Chinese. A member of Carleton’s Varsity Soccer and Track and Field teams, he also enjoys staying active at the Recreation Center and running through the fields of the Arboretum. When not working out, he can often be found reading by Lyman Lakes (if the mosquitoes choose to leave him alone that day).

On campus, Nick works as a Writing Consultant in the Academic Support Center, where he enjoys helping classmates with their papers. He serves as a Program Director at Project Friendship, where he also interns and hopes to expand the program’s reach. Additionally, he’s part of The Manuscript Editorial Board and runs Carleton’s premiere book club, The Page Turners.