The Weight Room

They swipe my card and I walk through the security gate, then make a left and head down the first flight of stairs. When I reach the landing and then look to my right I see a rectangular portrait size hole is cut from the cement wall and get a quick preview of the infamous weight room. What's with this viewing hole? It feels like some sort of viewing station in a high security prison. Is the concrete barrier to keep us out or our iron pumping mates in? I don't feel like I’m in school anymore or even on campus for that matter. It's like I’ve crossed some threshold and entered some foreign and unfamiliar place. It’s intimidating, but I really want to lift.

First stop is the locker room where I deposit and secure my street clothes, backpack, money, jewelry and lifeline (hokie passport). As I move out of the locker room and then continue toward my long overdue work out I’ve now entered the gym and have come face to face with the weight room. Occupied almost exclusively by men I move quickly, trying to avoid eye contact but at the same time studying the group discreetly. Who is using steroids and who is not? Hormones, steroids and more hormones - very intimidating. The weight room is probably not the best place for me, your average 98-pound weakling, to be hanging around. These guys are serious about their bodies and their muscles and therefore their workouts. In here it's all about big plates, big arms, big chests, big plans, focus, dedication, commitment and big workouts. I decide that I’m going to start eating better and get in shape - but not today and not here, maybe tomorrow. I make a razor-sharp left turn and head back up the same stairway I just descended only moments before but this time I pass by the locker room and continue on up one more level.

As I reach the third floor I immediately feel more comfortable. The intimidation factor has disappeared and the air is lighter. I feel more "at home." The third floor is a world apart from the first floor and the weight room. There is something about the third floor, just something, and as I begin to run I gradually start to understand what that something is. I see more women and more familiar and friendly faces on the third floor, it has a subdued, calm, inviting atmosphere and something that just makes me feel good and less self-conscious. It is a place where I feel as if I am not being judged and where all my anxiousness and worries subside. This is a place where I can workout and focus. It’s a place where I can fit in.

After a tough but satisfying workout I head back down to the first floor. Instead of making a beeline for the locker room I decide to face the fear once more and, so with the Jaws theme song playing in my head, timidly walk into that dreaded place for the second time today. I have been avoiding this place ever since I have arrived here at Virginia Tech but I really want to lift and I really want to overcome my trepidation. Looks of confusion and then disgust are aimed my way as the group realizes that I might actually be thinking of invading their space. I feel uneasy and like I really don't belong here. By the looks on these guys' faces I can tell that they don't think I belong here either. I'm scared but I'm also angry so contrary to what my gut is telling me to do, which is to turn around and run, I stay and walk over toward the free weights. What I thought would happen and what actually happened were two completely different things. I thought that the guys would get over the initial shock of seeing a small girl in the weight room and then carry on with their everyday workout, but I was wrong. I continued to get stares from everyone that was standing in that room. These guys acted like I was the carrier of some deadly disease as they slowly walked away from the free weights and then each and every section of the room that I ventured into. I soon knew the feeling of complete isolation - I was an outsider.

Committed to getting into better shape and to furthermore face my fears, for the rest of the week I continued to return to and to workout in the weight room. The faces eventually begin to become familiar. I soon begin to notice that there are different groups not just within the gym, but also within the weight room itself. Every week night I would see the jocks working out together, then the body builders, then you had the guys who really tried really hard wanting to obtain some muscular substance (but it didn't look as if it had paid off thus far), and now on rare occasions a few girls working out together. I was secluded, all alone and now was beginning to understand why I never went into that room. It was plain and simple intimidation.

Now that football season has ended and basketball just begining the room is stock full of our best linebackers and our starting basketball players, just keeping in shape for next season. The "jocks", as they are better known as, all stick together laughing and joking as they squat over 150 pounds of weight. The way you can decipher the athletes from the mainstream, run of the mill student is that they are covered in Virginia Tech Orange Bowl gear from their sweatbands to their socks. The jocks work hard in that weight room, but they play hard too, joking, laughing and messing around (after all it is the off-season).

Bodybuilding by definition is the process of developing the musculature of the body through specific types of diet and physical exercise, such as weight lifting. The weight room is jam-packed with the body builders; they represent the largest subculture in that room by far. The sizes of their arm muscles are bigger than most girls' thighs, and appear as if they are rock hard. However, unlike the athletes or jocks they are strictly business; all work and no play. "We spend hours in the gym each afternoon, and if we can't be here for more than an hour at a time we come twice" Chad Rotermund states. Chad continues by saying "our goal is trying to sculpt the ideal body, as close to perfect as we can manage."

The last group I observed was the guys that I see, without fail, every time I am in Mccomas. They workout so very hard in pursuit of that "acceptable" body, but somehow always fall short (you look at them and feel sad for them with all their effort, but no visible reward). I talked to a guy by the name of Neal Sekhri, and asked him what his reasoning was coming to the gym everyday? His reply was trouble-free, effortless, and undemanding: "To be honest, I have realized that I will probably never acquire the type of body that those guys over there have (as he points to the jocks or body builders), but as least I can say I try." Neal continues with a smirk on his face and a quiet laugh and says, "Maybe it’s the lack of performance enhancing drugs. I chose an all natural approach a long time ago.” (Sekhri)

Toward the end of the week, I think the guys in the weight room started
to recognize my face and their shock subsided. I don't think I was accepted
into their club but I think I started to blend into the background and become somewhat unnoticed.

As Virginia Tech students, all 30,000 of us are members of subcultures; a
subculture made up of college students, a subculture of undergraduates, post graduates, athletes, a subculture made up of Blacksburg residents, a subculture of engineers, science majors, communication majors - and the list goes on. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of different subcultures within this one university.

I have learned things that have given me new perspective on diversity, people and the groups that form among us. For one week I was able to segregate and differentiate between the different people, groups, cultures and subcultures that existed in just one room, in one building, on one campus. It was a cool and eye opening realization to see a world that I had never considered before. The world is full of great diversity and a complexity that is infinite in nature. What I observed was little more than a minute fraction of this diversity. I am getting the feeling that what I observed is a more universal phenomenon that applies to many different areas of our lives and our world. I furthermore believe that the study and analysis of different cultures and subcultures may be a key to achieving peace and understanding in, what appears to be, an ever increasingly volatile world.

Memoir

Ignore the killer fatigue, all the unpleasant effects of the constant stress, the headache, the personal issues of the day and pull it all together. I've got a surgical procedure to implant and ICD in an eleven year old at 7:30 AM. It requires a sure, steady hand, perfect focus and pure concentration. Make no mistakes. Got that 9 AM follow-up consultation with the 16 year-old girl and her parents explaining all the implications of her Long QT diagnosis. Will need to put on my game face and encourage the young patient and her family to see beyond the grim aspects of the disease and find some silver lining here. Try to describe how her "new" life won't be all that bad - good luck. Say all the right things - make no mistakes. Skip lunch again to be able to visit and evaluate a dozen very young and very sick children as promised. Display the big smile and happy face, try not to cry and show lots of optimism. Try to figure out how to best make their lives longer, happier, healthier, better. Choose the right therapies, prescriptions, and procedures - make no mistakes. Return all phone calls to PCPs and little patient's parents. Be kind, compassionate, caring, and patient. Eat lunch/dinner/vitamins. Forget about the sadness and helpless feelings and fall asleep so I can do a better job tomorrow. 


To dream, by definition, imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake (dictionary.princton.edu). I dreamt that someday I would wake, put on my white coat, and save the lives of thousands. I would make a difference in children’s lives but in families lives. After I conducted extensive research I discovered that only seven percent of students that apply to medical school get in (aamc.org). Instead of taking life as I go, I tend to construct my life ahead of time. When listing the pros and the cons of what my chances were to attain my medical degree I soon concluded that I was living in a dream that was anything but a reality.

I sit alone in my room, studying hard, adamant to never miss a class, but still continue to fail almost every exam. Feelings of dejectedness and heartbreak slowly consume me. I was tired, I was tired of studying, I was tired of crying, and most of all I was tired of failing. At this very moment the easiest thing for me to do is quit and walk away. I am thinking about running and never looking back. Being here, at Virginia Tech, is the only thing that I ever really wanted, and now the thoughts of not wanting it anymore where crossing my mind, could that be possible? I was struggling enough, slowly watching my dreams of becoming a doctor slip through my fingers, and now my entire college career was being swept away with it. I am 584 miles from home, from family, from anything or anyone remotely comforting. I slowly started picking up a textbook and immediately felt the sadness over come me, soon I could no longer read the words, as the liquid tears filling up my eyes, made everything a blur, soon there after my tears were slowly starting to hit the pages dropping fast and hard, like torrential downpours in April. First the words were becoming illegible, then the page in its entirety. I am losing my self; I am little by little losing who I am. The tears continually falling filling up the book as if it were an empty bucket.

The greatest thing about coming to college is that no one knew me; I could be whom ever I wanted to be. Know one had to know that in high school I got cut from the cheerleading team or that I was the girl who was the butt of everyone’s unruly jokes. I could be anyone, anybody I wanted, and not one person had to know, unless I wanted to open my heart and let him or her into the past I longed to forget. It was up to me to create my identity, my image and my reputation as a Hokie. I could learn from mistakes, make independent decisions and wisely chose how I wanted to live my life

If I have learned anything from Virginia Tech since I have been here it is that unless you try, and fail, you may have always wondered, you may have always asked “What if?”. I had to reach out and expand my horizons, only to find out that what I was once good at in the ninth grade was very different than what I excelled at now. I was able to push my way through and work hard to make it through the first semester only to discover that this was something not meant for me, something I may have never really wanted in the first place.

Today is the day I walk away from it all I get all the signatures and I am trying something new. Today is the day that I am taking a leap of faith, turning over a new leaf and forgetting what I once thought I knew. I am so nervous, maybe this is a mistake or could this possibly be the greatest opportunity for me to explore new things, and expand my knowledge far beyond the world of sciences? It is not easy admitting to myself that I was wrong, but I understand that it is ok to make mistakes and it is okay to be unsure. So today is the day that I sign off on something new.

Sometimes in life we feel as if our dreams, the only thing we had ever hoped for are shattered. That is not to say that great opportunities do not arise from them. I have learned so much from the time I have been here at Virginia Teach. I discovered that what I thought was exactly what I wanted, was anything but. I got a chance to experience something much different then before, and I liked it, in fact I loved it. When I signed the paper to leaving the college of science I thought I could potentially be making a mistake, a huge mistake. This semester is something new, different, intriguing and a breath of fresh air. I miss the thought of what could have been, but I love the thought of what is still yet to come.

The important thing to realize that hard work and struggle is not only worth it but filled with satisfaction and gratitude when finished. If everyone could just look ahead and see the finish line it is that silver lining that somehow gives you hope of a better tomorrow.

Breast Cancer Support Group

Breast Cancer Support Group
By: Kaitlyn Jankowski

The statistics are intimidating. According to the American Cancer Society, 2.4 million women living in the U.S. have already been diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer.

An estimated 192,370 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in American women during 2009. Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among U.S. women, responsible for more than one in four cancers. By the end of this year approximately 40,170 women will have died from breast cancer.

Diane Gully, facilitator of the breast cancer support group at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg said they have realized the many implications that breast cancer has on one’s life has developed a breast cancer support group. The purpose of the hospital sponsored support group will be multi-faceted and will cover a wide range of topics that will help breast cancer survivors understand the disease - its treatments, a patient’s options, the emotional side effects and the importance of gaining a perspective and awareness of this all too common disease.

Gully talked about one of the hospital’s goals - to create a place where women can go to talk about their illness with others who are able to empathize, and not just sympathize, with them.

During support group sessions the hospital will rely on a number of medical experts and speakers who will deliver presentations addressing issues of exercise, and ways to deal with the emotions and stressors that come with the cancer. To emphasize the importance of nutrition “the dietary department provides the food and snacks for the support group,” said Teresa Higginbotham, dietary director at Montgomery Regional Hospital.

“Once a woman takes action for breast cancer, she is a survivor,” Gully said “It is something that is important for people to realize and understand, that even if a woman just started chemotherapy, she is a survivor.”

Gully said the sharing of breast cancer information by group members, by its very nature being both person and intimate, develops into a resource of profound importance that stands to benefit all.

Gully said that the Montgomery Regional Hospital support group is in a position to make a difference in these many lives. The support group facilitates the ability of breast cancer survivors to become pro-active and play a larger more important role in their own recovery.

The breast cancer support group’s next meeting will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 18 from 7 to 8:30 pm. The meeting will be held in the first floor Board Room. For more information regarding this event please call (540) 443-3932.

Column: Officials should be more open as anxiety increases on campus

The recent deaths of Virginia Tech sophomores David Metzler and Heidi Childs should come as a complete and utter shock during this first week of school. The reported deaths occurred about 12 miles from campus in northern Montgomery County. Both students were found together, shot to death.

That same day, all Tech students were notified via the VT Alerts system to be on the lookout for a man between 25 and 35 years of age who had been seen masturbating in the lounge of a dorm here on campus by a female Tech student.

The man confronted the student when he called out in an attempt to get her attention. To us all as individuals, as members of the Tech student body, as residents of Blacksburg, surrounding towns, the distinguished state of Virginia and as citizens of the United States, we should all be in complete and utter shock - but I'm afraid we're not.

Following the acts of April 16, students, facility and parents were told that security would be increased to ensure a much safer campus. The police staff was increased, all dorms were equipped with limited access - allowing only residents entry to dorms. A system known as VT Alerts was instituted to send critical warning e-mails, texts and voicemails to students and family members, and 201 electronic message boards were installed that would instantly warn those in class in the event of a dangerous situation in classrooms.

Tech has declared a safer environment for us all, so why do so many of us still feel apprehensive? As students, we continue to receive e-mails from President Charles Steger encouraging all students to "be vigilant" and "be aware of your surroundings." While this is always good advice, at the same time it can't help but increase already high levels of anxiety and general uneasiness.

While I understand that Tech has made a sincere and gallant effort to improve security on campus, still I find myself looking over my shoulder as I walk between classes or toward my car. When in my apartment, I not only bolt-lock my door but now chain-lock it as well. I carry pepper spray on my key ring and no longer enjoy the walk from bus stop to apartment in the evening.

I am not alone. My roommates, classmates and neighbors share similar feelings and worries. It is critically important that the Tech administration, the Virginia Tech Police Department and Blacksburg and State Police Departments open a dialogue with us all so we can begin to understand what is happening, what has happened to cause this fear and to answer our questions.

Are the events that happen on campus here a normalcy, following the normal trend of violence on college campuses around the globe? Or have the recent security enhancements failed? What now appears to be a steady stream of criminal acts involving aggression and violence in and around campus has worked together to discourage and desensitize our community. This is unhealthy and a step in the wrong direction.

We need the help of the administration and law enforcement authorities to communicate with us all and set a healthy course and to answer the question: How safe is Tech?