Once upon a time, there was a girl who couldn’t do a sport to save her life.
Her older sister was a champion runner and her little sister was a national swimmer, but this girl was completely and utterly non-athletic. She tripped over playground equipment, never managed to hit a ball when she swung a bat and often got called out by her PE teachers for taking long, leisurely strolls around the school’s track while having deep conversations with her friends instead of actually running.
Then, that girl found something she was really good at: eating. Hot, crispy french fries and golden popcorn chicken, sweet and sour pork on fragrant steamed rice, sizzling steaks with baked potatoes slathered in butter and filled with sour cream, delicious duck confit with the smoothest pomme puree (a.k.a. mashed potatoes, for all you unpretentious folk out there)… she had so many favorite foods that she couldn’t keep track of them all.
Of course, this whole food-loving thing seriously clashed with the whole non-athletic thing.
If you haven’t realized it yet, yes, I’m talking about myself. I love food, and, try as I might, I can’t bring myself to enjoy participating in sports. I know some people aren’t athletic and love doing sports anyway but sadly, I’m not one of those people. I like watching movies. I like curling up in bed with a good book. I like scrolling through my Facebook news feed, or checking for new Instagram posts. I like writing stories on my laptop or daydreaming an afternoon away with a mug of warm coffee in my hands. Most of all, I love eating.
Since arriving at Ouachita, this has put me in a dilemma. Before I left Singapore, my friends and family teased me endlessly about how I was going to gain the Freshman 15 in college. When I stepped into Ouachita’s caf for the first time (they literally serve french fries and potato chips every day) and then the student center (my first time discovering the wonder that is Chick-Fil-A), I knew I was in trouble.
Oh, but that wasn’t all. After classes started, I spent a lot of time sitting around doing readings, taking naps, chilling in my dorm room and watching TV with my friends (Dancing with the Stars is our favorite). People I know spoke of strange hobbies like hiking and kayaking and intramural sports but when those topics came up, I usually started to zone out and think of what I was going to eat for dinner instead. I wasn’t exactly being active.
Coming from a big city, my main form of exercise was walking. Walking to train stations, walking to bus stops, walking to restaurants, to cafes, to fast food places… but then I got onto campus and found that I didn’t have to walk very far to get anywhere. I started clocking less than 5,000 steps a day. Everything was so wonderfully, frustratingly convenient!
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about having easy access to food. I would never complain about that. Food is beautiful. It can make or break a day. It can bring sunshine into a life. It can turn a frown upside down.
All I’m saying is that the Freshman 15—and the Sophomore 15, and the Junior 15, and the Senior 15—is a real thing. So, short of wearing blinders in the caf, letting my friends go crazy with my student ID so I run out of Chick money or suddenly developing a love for playing sports, the only way I’m going to stop the Evil 15 is to eat in moderation (ugh) and to force myself to work out regularly (blasting Pentatonix really helps).
And if by Christmas break, I seem to have doubled in size, cut me some slack. It’s hard to be a college student who loves food and hates to exercise!
Believe me, I know.
By Kimberly Wong
