Addicting activities

Maryah Schrock began her hobby of cross-stitching when she was just seven years old. For those who may not know, cross-stitching is a specific type of embroidery that involves creating a pattern of “X” stitches to form a unique design. Schrock was first introduced to cross-stitching by her grandma during a long family road trip to South Dakota.

“I was just getting restless, so she gave me a needle and thread and told me how to do it, and I figured it out,” Schrock said.

On that road trip, she was able to cross-stitch her very first item—a bookmark with a bunch of farm animals. Schrock finds that her hobby of cross-stitching helps her de-stress and transition her focus from one task to a more enjoyable task. She usually commits around four to five hours a week to this hobby.

Right now she is working on cross-stitching a blanket. “I didn’t know what technique to use, so I actually went to my grandma and she was the one that pretty much taught me all the right techniques,” said Schrock. Most importantly, Schrock considers cross-stitching a way to bond and feel closer with her grandma: “It’s just me and her that have ever done it; it’s specifically a me-and-grandma thing.”

Celina Potwardowski considers her prime obsession to be drawing.  In fact, she is majoring in Fine Arts with a focus on graphic design and painting.  She hopes to someday work on video game designs or an online webcomic.

Every night, Potwardowski finds herself drawing something different to help her develop new skills and techniques.  Her last art piece was an ink drawing that took four hours.

Overall, Potwardowski commits around 28 hours a week to drawing and improving her craft.  Not to mention, she’s also a part of Art Club.

Potwardowski recalls that the very first time she was interested in drawing was all the way back in kindergarten, when she remembers being fascinated with all the beautiful pictures in the classroom.  As a little kid, she spent hours trying to replicate an image of a unicorn.

“My parents thought it was pretty amazing that I was there for such a long time doing one single picture,” Potwardowski said.

When she was younger, it started off with and animals (she was really into Pokémon), but now she likes drawing people and exaggerating certain aspects of the human body.

“People are fun to draw if you think about it.  They’re complicated, but there are so many different variations you can get with a person, and I also like getting expressions out of people, too,” said Potwardowski.

She credits the beauty and magic of animation along with many of her favorite childhood cartoons to have sparked the interest of art within her.

In addition, Potwardowski really takes inspiration from anime, specifically Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films.  “He’s kind of considered like the Walt Disney of Japan,” Potwardowski said.

Ultimately, her favorite thing about art and drawing is how “it can reach people in different ways.  Some people want something that is more of a personal story to them.  Other people want to be more mentally challenged.  Art is great at doing that.”

Malcolm Clay considers his favorite time-consuming obsession to be video gaming.  He began this obsession his freshman year of high school.

He likes playing on the GameCube, the Wii or “anything with like four cartridges that multiple people can play at a time.”

Specifically, his favorite games to play are ones that he can play with his friends.  Clay says he commits around five hours a day to video gaming.

Some of his favorite games include Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Mass Effect, Dragon Ball Z, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

In Clay’s opinion, the best thing about video gaming is how it connects various communities and brings people who share mutual interests together.

Clay recommends gaming to everyone because he says it is a great way to get to know others, as well as relieve your mind from the stresses of a hectic class schedule.

Christine Remigio refers to Tetris as one of her most addictive activities.  She began this obsession back in fifth grade when she started challenging her brother to online Tetris gaming battles.

Remigio said she commits about five hours a week to playing Tetris.  She views the game as an outlet and way to relax from school.

“I don’t like homework, so I play Tetris,” Remigio said.  What she really likes about the game is putting the pieces together and pushing herself to beat her newest high score every time.

Although Tetris is a pretty simple game, it is in fact the very simplicity of this game that makes it so satisfying for Remigio and puts her mind at ease.

Something that Daniel Hachet is really obsessed with is the key concept of sustainability.  He first got into sustainability in high school when he took an Advanced Placement Environmental Science class that included interesting labs and after-school gardening workshops.

“[It] helps make the world a better place,” Hatchet said.

Relating to sustainability, Hachet is part of the Environmental and Social Justice community in Stuen and also works 10 hours a week as the Residence Hall Association’s Sustainability Director.

There are many ways he recommends students can be more sustainable in their daily lives, as well.  Specifically, Hachet mentioned the UnPLUgged competition in October when dorms compete against each other to see which dorm can reduce their energy the most.

Some possibilities include making sure to turn off the lights, unplugging chargers when not using them, taking shorter showers, washing clothes in cold water and by drying clothes on the drying rack instead.

Hachet tries to personally incorporate sustainability in his life by limiting the amount of items plugged in his room, buying items with less packaging, avoiding eating red meats and always making sure to recycle.

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