IN MY SHOES: Don’t Fear "The Freshman 15"
Writing in The New York Times, Marisha Pessl urges college freshman to "carpe donuts" (or, in her case, beignets) instead of fretting over the Freshman 15:
Technically, the extra pounds arrived the summer before my freshman year, when I went to Paris on one of those exchange programs where you’re supposed to submerge yourself in a captivating new culture but end up hanging out exclusively with other loud, gauche Americans, going to clubs, smoking cigarettes and barely learning to order coffee in the native tongue. ...
When I made it home at the end of the summer, my mom studied the photos from my trip, but instead of commenting on the muffin top bulging over my belt loops, she said I’d never looked happier. Shocked, I scrutinized my beaming face, pink and puffy as a macaroon.
And then it dawned on me: A little weight gain when you’ve been downing croissants and crepes and dancing all night in discos with male models who spoke brittle English wasn’t so bad. No, that mysterious, feared affliction known as the freshman 15 was entirely misunderstood — menacing in reputation, but in reality? Marvelous. ...
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