SmART

transcript:

[Begin: "White Mischief" from "Still Life at the Penguin Cafe"]

Some students have a harder time navigating the new environment and finding healthy ways to deal with the pressure. A stressful day can sometimes trigger uncharacteristic or excessive behavior later that night, especially in regards to alcohol. In the face of the many challenges that Smithies experience from day to day, it is important to find effective and healthy ways to deal with the pressure, to relax, and to renew.

[Begin: "Fireflies" Harp cover by Youtube user theheartrender, Originally by Owl City] What do you do when you're stress, overwhelmed, or exhausted?

It helps me a lot when I'm stressed out to go work out, and Smith has Get Fit Smith classes during the year, which are free exercise classes during the evenings and they're totally drop-in, so you can go whenever you want. So that's a really fun way to get some exercise and you can go with your friends

I like to sit in my room and listen to music. Music is a big thing for me, it's a big part of my life, so I like to just turn up the volume and anything that has a heavy bass is always well enjoyed.

Sleeping is number one. I don't sleep enough and I probably should sleep more this year.

It really helps me to spend time in the house with the community and with my friends. Everybody is usually feeling as overwhelmed as I am or more, so that's usually helpful.

Talking to parents, to friends, back home as well as in Smith, always helps. And just going out for a while always help too. And New York and Boston are very near if you really feel stressed you can always go for like one day or two days during the week and come back.

I do spend a lot of time at the barn and that's a huge stress relief for me, to spend time around animals and to have that, which is something non-academic to think about, to do.

Sometimes just being, like, somewhere with my own thoughts or like watching tv or being in my room usually helps, just taking a break from everything.

[Music begins: "Circle of Life" from "The Lion King"]

So what does it all mean?

What have we learned throughout this video? Six main things:

1. That most Smithies (about 80%) don't drink or drink in a very low risk way.

2. That if individuals find themselves in a dangerous situation, there are many effective strategies they can engage in to keep themselves out of risk.

3. That there are several biological and social factors that affect an indivudal's alcohol metabolism, including biological sex, gender, and social expectations.

4. Smithies try very hard to recognize when an individual has had too much to drink and, in those situations, they are not afraid to call for help, since Smith has an amnesty policy.

And 6. We have seen that several factors can affect high risk drinking, a major one being stress. Smithies try hard to manage their stress by finding outlets and keeping themselves balanced.

Thank you for joining us on this segments, and we hope you'll join us next time for "The Smithie Chronicles: Sleep and the Smithie."