Last spring I wrote a different column for this same publication, which chronicled training for my first full marathon during a record-setting, bone-chilling winter. On mornings when most people didn’t even want to leave their homes, my running buddy, Johnny, and I would head out on 15 mile runs.

We ran downtown, we ran on far out county roads, we ran uphill and downhill. If you think it sounds insane, I completely agree. As I’ve written before, crossing the finish line of that marathon last May was certainly a highlight of my life thus far.

To this day I get giddy when I think about the entire experience. I also get a bit nauseous when I think about traveling that far on foot just to say I did.

I’ve been a runner for as long as I can remember. Yet, when the day book started to fill up with checklists and chicken scratch reminders, running is usually the first routine item to get nixed. It’s hard to make time for exercise. However, last week when I made a point to run I remembered how needed it is. Here I hope to provide helpful hints on fitting exercise into your busy college kid lifestyle, by learning how to do so myself.

— Courtney Kueppers, Editor in Chief

I am a foodie and I’m not sure when it happened. Somewhere between studying abroad and interning in New York, I found a real passion for trying new foods. Escargot? Sure. Truffle oil? Heck yes. Arepas? You know I’m there. In fact, I’m running there.

But when it comes to cooking … up until a few months ago, I was strictly a bowl of cereal kind of gal. I have been known to miss key ingredients while baking muffins, drop entire pans of vegetables onto the bottom of the oven and burn pancakes before they are cooked all the way through. Cooking was not my forte. And in return, I packed my body full of processed, packaged, pre-cooked garbage with ingredients no living being was ever meant to ingest.

At the beginning of the New Year, I decided to make a change. I was going to clean up my act, literally. I was going to start eating clean. And eating clean means cooking. In return, cooking means time.

As a senior in college, my whole life is a game of give and take. But recently, I’ve decided my body cannot be something I give up because of deadlines, late nights at the office and late Saturday mornings in bed. Eating right is something you have to make time for, for the sake of your body and your mind.

And the results are pretty delicious.

This is where I plan to share with you my foodie triumphs and failures, my trial-and-error journey to finding the place between a happy, complete to-do list and happy, complete nutrition. I hope as I find the time to take care of my body through food you can find what works for you, too. Hopefully, together, we can find the food that makes us feel good.

— Kristina Bornholtz, Managing Editor

Write the paper due Tuesday, study for the exam Wednesday morning. Research the topic for the group meeting Wednesday afternoon so you hopefully look like you know what you’re doing.

My life has turned into a to-do list. I’m scheduling every moment of my day and hoping I can fit lunch into my day. This is not how I want to finish off my senior year of college.

College is supposed to be the time of our lives where we try new things, where we meet people we will know for the remainder of our days. It is when we learn the habits for the rest of our adult lives. Personally, I don’t want the rest of my life to be littered with post-it notes covered in empty check boxes.

I am determined to find harmony between emotional and mental health and my school schedule this semester. I invite you to join me as I try to find extra time in my day and enjoy the free time I do have.

I started today by making a list of fun things I want to do this semester. There is not one thing amidst the hopes which will further me academically. It is unlikely I will stop making lists altogether, but there is an important difference with this one: there is no pressure to finish anything. If I get to go swing dancing in the Cities, great! If I don’t spend an entire night watching Friends with my roommate, that’s okay.  Make a list. You don’t have to find the time yet, but start dreaming now.

— Anna Mateffy, Photo Editor