Georgetown University is a school where everything feels like a torturous rollercoaster ride. A friend of mine described this feeling as a constant, psychologically taxing oscillation between intense bouts of stress and immense relief. At the end of the day, all he wanted to do was to de-stress by doom-scrolling Instagram Reels until he felt numb again.
But what if, instead of fruitless, mind-numbing swiping, you picked up a pencil?
This issue’s “touch grass” theme feels like just the right time to advocate for something deceptively simple: sketching and doodling. Midterms loom dauntingly, schedules are packed, and time is of the essence. Still, I’d argue that making time to draw is a great way to reclaim your mind when everything on campus feels overwhelming.
Drawing works (even if you’re bad). I am by no means an art major, nor have I taken any collegiate art classes, but you don’t have to be a pro at something to enjoy it. The value of doodling lies in the fact that it often yields no valuable product at the end.
One of the great things about doodling is that it completely bypasses the pressure around competition and networking that is a staple of campus culture. Sketching doesn’t demand validation from someone else. It’s just you, your brain, and the act of shaping something on paper. It gives your brain a break without letting it rot away, watching endless videos that go nowhere.
I implore you to look to your surroundings on campus as your canvas (not the Canvas on your phone). Lau and Healy beg to be sketched or doodled while you’re sitting out on the lawn (in spite of all the construction). Suppose you’d like to sketch something more atmospheric; climb to the top of Leavey to overlook the entire campus glowing in the dark. Something beautifully humbling occurs when you translate the familiar into lines and shapes.
When people hear “go outside and draw,” they often imagine doing corny landscapes—sunlit lawns, Healy looming in the background, trees with leaves painstakingly shaded in. You may find landscapes incredibly boring; you may prefer drawing the organic over the inorganic. Perhaps you’re just not comfortable trying to replicate architecture and find it easier to draw people. Georgetown isn’t only trees and towers. You could even conjure up a mental image of what if Van Gogh painted Georgetown University.
The point is to draw what your brain is guiding you toward. It could mean reimagining Lau as a baroque building instead of a brutalist one. It could also mean drawing Professor Burk eating a bowl of Instant Ramen. It could just be a few squiggles that guide themselves up and down the page because you can’t think of doing anything else.
To put it simply, “touching grass” doesn’t necessarily have to mean drawing grass. Drawing is meant to be about noticing, not necessarily about accurately recording a scene. A great sketch can very well look nothing like what’s in front of you but still capture how your subject feels in the moment.
It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of always being busy, rushing towards a finish line that never seems to come. Every hour should be optimized. One more meeting for networking, one more case problem set, one more interview for a position you statistically won’t get. Bad drawing reminds you that not every action needs to be mapped out to be maximized. Life isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s meant to be enjoyed. “Wasting time” is precisely what can help you stay sane in the face of all this. You may want to draw a caricature of your favorite professor. Perhaps you’ll send your parents a doodle of your dog. Maybe for your next drawing, you’ll toss it in the trash, just like how the Tibetan monks destroy their own artwork. What matters is that you put your feelings into it, regardless of the outcome.
So, as the rollercoaster dips again just in time for midterms to approach, you should resist your Reels algorithm. Pick up your favorite writing instrument and pay attention to the magic of your imagination and the world around you.
All in all, I suggest you GCal yourself some time to waste time.
