The smell of chocolate wafted from the depths of the Wallace Residence Center, as students from across the University of Idaho campus did all they could to prepare for another brutal season of finals.
Students participated in stress relieving exercises to help focus and calm their minds.
The activities ranged from not blinking or laughing for ten seconds, crawling across the floor without dropping an egg to walking backwards across the floor without letting the egg touch the floor.
Nathan Reynolds, an academic peer mentor (APM), led the workshop for students and started the night with a quick activity involving plastic eggs.
Alexandra Stutzman | Argonaut
A group of students play “Apples to Apples” Tuesday evening in the Wallace Residence Center basement.
Inside the eggs were sentences which gave the students rewards if they turned in their egg early, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said turning the egg in early to receive reward is like giving in to implied peer pressure. Implied peer pressure, Reynolds said, is not said outright to a person but is suggested through actions.
Reynolds said the sentences in the eggs were reflective of goals and how the further out they are set, the more vague they become in peoples’ minds.
“I have never, never heard anyone say, ‘I wish I had taken less school,’” Reynolds said. “ I’ve never heard a doctor say, ‘Man, I wish I had only gotten my master’s, this is stupid.’ You hear it all the time, people saying, ‘I should have gone to college.”
Reynolds said he organized this talk as a motivational speech because students should know how to study and take notes already. Taking care of one’s self is also important, Reynolds said.
Kayla Thompson, a UI sophomore, said her favorite part was interacting with other people and the motivational speech.
The night ended with a few students staying to play games and eat the food APMs had set out next to the chocolate fountain.
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6