Artifact2Draft

The host of a podcast at Georgia Tech discusses myths and traditions on campus. She explores how these traditions can bring the student body together and also help them cope with the stress of schoolwork. She mentions the rolling tradition at Auburn and plans to research another tradition at a different school. She then focuses on the academic-based myths and traditions at Georgia Tech and how they reflect the high level of stress students face. She talks about how students romanticize their schoolwork and use aesthetics to stay motivated. She also discusses the intimidating nature of Georgia Tech and myths surrounding graduation rates. She mentions the superstitions surrounding the Ramblin Wreck and how they reflect students' paranoia about their grades. Overall, she explores how traditions and myths at Georgia Tech glorify the stress and rigor of the institution. ლელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელელე� Hey guys, welcome to this episode of my podcast here. I'm your host Caroline Lund and I'm being a student here at Georgia Tech. And of course for the purposes of this artifact I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to be covering some myths and traditions that we have here on campus and I want to reflect on how this affects our student body and how it may even Bring us together and I also want to kind of touch on how these myths and the traditions that we have on campus how it kind of leads us to Cope with the stress of our schoolwork because I think that's really important to touch on and how we kind of begin to Romanticize our stress in our schoolwork In order to try to stay motivated Which it can be healthy and sometimes it can't but for me I just think that's something really interesting that we can start to touch on and yeah Okay Okay, so to start I feel like a lot of the time when people think of like college traditions Of course, there may be a few academic based ones like here and there but I feel like in general a lot of traditions that college campuses have are either sports based or More social slash fun based if you will. Um for me, I feel like okay So the first example that I can personally think of is the rolling tradition that they have at Auburn It's kind of like the first one that pops in my mind because I grew up like in Oregon and also my sister goes there And so since I grew up that way I remember even doing this when I was going down and visit with my parents and basically if you don't know what it is um, it's when they If they have a home football game and they win and they throw toilet paper over the trees in like their little corner And honestly, I thought that was a lot of fun or Another tradition. Okay. So this is my draft in this spot here. I'm going to be talking about I'm going to research and then I'm going to be talking about another tradition on another school's campus Preferably not in the southeast. So that way I can get more variety but something that like I think is relevant and That isn't act so much academically based so that way I can juxtapose The kinds of traditions that other colleges have compared to the ones at Georgia Tech And so yeah Okay, so if we skip over that I'm going to continue here however at Tech when I think of like myths and traditions all the ones that first come to my mind is the thing the Thing is like they're all academic based and none of them really seem to have too much a base in like a social aspect necessarily Because of this I think this like really reflects on the Georgia Tech student body as a whole and With these habits on how some of the students perhaps like like maybe cope with the high level of stress that they face here at Tech to elaborate more I know this one girl and Don't get me wrong. She is actually the most aesthetic person I know like her Instagram is so pretty and I've seen her on tik-tok and she loves to make tick tocks like about like a day in my life at Georgia Tech and she Basically is like walking you through like when she wakes up in the morning like who she goes to visit who gets who she goes To see like her classes when she goes to the gym what she's eating that day And it's all it's super interesting and she's so talented at it, and I I honestly like love watching her content um However, I do know this girl And I like I'll get home from the library and it'll be like two or three in the morning And she's still working like she's still doing like Her extracurriculars as well as all of her schoolwork that she needs to be doing so obviously the day of my life videos Isn't necessarily a 100% accurate reflection of what she's doing on a daily basis So obviously this goes to show that tech isn't necessarily all rainbows and butterflies Even though she certainly adds aesthetic and romanticizes her school life at the end of the day At the end at the end of the day It's still a very difficult institution to where like this made me think like why do we feel the need to romanticize? This kind of um our schoolwork and things like that when I feel like I don't really see that as much other schools especially ones that Don't have the same academic reputation that tech does so I just thought this was really interesting And I kind of wanted to get more feedback about this so um To get more insight on what romanticizing schoolwork at tech looked like I Decided to create like this Google form to send it out to like a bunch of people asking if they've ever tried to add some sort of Aesthetic or vibe to their studies in order to keep them motivated and although not everyone said yes there were a good bit of people who said that they do like to go to places like coffee shops and To set up their materials all neatly so that way they feel more productive Or even posting on social media to kind of more or less keep them accountable, and you will So yeah, I just thought that was really interesting because it seems like and I've even done it myself So I feel like there is this pattern of romanticizing our schoolwork And kind of adding an aesthetic doesn't necessarily have to be like a dark academia aesthetic that we're necessarily studying But there's definitely Some sort of drive that a lot of people use to kind of make their schoolwork seem To kind of fluff it up more if you will So yeah, but that's just kind of a couple of examples of romanticism romanticization of schoolwork on Tech's campus So I kind of want to tie that back into our traditions and our myths and so how do our traditions are in our myths? Glorify the stress and rigor as an institute, and how do we as a student body react to it? So yeah, let's get into it Okay, so to get more into the specifics of what I mean by this There's a couple things that I want to mention Starting off with the entirety of the week of welcome For large colleges is usually typical for students to get there a couple of days before especially students who are you know? Thinking of like rushing or doing Greek life or even the student-athletes who like actually have to attend practices earlier And stuff like that. However, I even when I was a first year I thought it was really interesting how all Georgia Tech students moved in an entire week before classes started because Compared to like all of my friends who are going to Georgia College or UGA I was the first one to leave out of all of them and Because they had only moved in the weekend before so I just thought that was really strange and because of this it really was like kind of a running joke during people who I met during week of welcome that Like we were kind of all saying like oh, this is the only fun week that we're gonna have in college that's why they're doing this so early and It kind of did become like a little like myth around the campus that like oh gosh like as soon as it's As soon as this week is over like we're not going to be having any more fun for the rest of college We're just going to be like studying studying studying And of course this isn't necessarily true But I do think it does speak to the attitude like Georgia Tech students have about their school and that honestly can be really intimidating And to add on to the intimidating factor of this another myth that I've heard even like growing up Is that during during the week of welcome as well even our president acknowledged that at Georgia Tech Apparently people used to say during orientation if you look to the left and you look to the right Only one of you will be graduating from Georgia Tech So I decided to double check this With my roommate because I know that both of her parents actually went to Georgia Tech like a while like a long time ago And I wanted to confirm before I said anything on this podcast so that way I wasn't just making stuff up But yeah She confirmed with me that her parents like went through Georgia Tech and they kind of had that lingering over their heads because that was an actual thing like one in three are Graduating and so like that is like really scary like that's really scary And I remember when I was little like I would hear that my dad He'd be like wow like Georgia Tech is a really good school like like only one in three Graduate and like even though thank goodness like that's not the reality anymore The fact that that is still like a myth and kind of lingering around if people don't do their research That's honestly really intimidating and so I think that myths like that can really contribute to the overall stress of the student body and just really reflect on how How difficult like Georgia Tech life can be um yeah and another myth that I want to mention is that the fact that If you touch the Ramblin Wreck before your first year finals over then you'll fail your finals and even though that's all fun and games When I went to touch the wreck for the first time they asked they like check They were like are you like they were kind of freaking out They're like are you a first year? I was like no no I'm not I promise and then they let me touch the wreck And so even yeah, it's all lighthearted, but if you really dive into it. I just think it's really Interesting how the students here are paranoid about their grades and are willing to more or less like Rationalize getting good grades through the idea of superstitions, and I'm not like on a high horse or anything like I am No exception to this I didn't touch the wreck until I was a second year So there's that for you like I'm not trying to say like oh, yeah Well, I was a rebel blah blah blah because that's not the case at all um And yeah Okay during this I'm going to have like more instrumentals stuff like that Um Yeah Okay, I think because okay, so these are this is my stakes portion because of the myths that surround Georgia Tech many students I feel like have like These certain traditions not only create a Sense of community because even though it's tough like at the end of the day We're kind of all bonded by the fact that like this school is hard, but at the end of the day We're gonna all get it through together get through it together, and so it does kind of create a nice little community Where students are willing to like help each other out? and But also help us kind of collectively deal with the stress that we face And even though this is a good thing We also do need to have a call to action and look at the history of some of our traditions in this Let's just see why do we do them so that way we can be more mindful of our own mental health and our peers And yeah, that's my job. Please let me know what? Changes I can possibly make. Thank you