Staffer Sunnina Chen has a solution for your worst Sunday Scaries.

This past summer, my high school friends and I realized: we don’t make time to play anymore. 

We should play hide and seek. We could go to the playground. None of us play basketball, but we should try to hoop. What happened to our silly?

As we age out of K–12 team sports (when will I pick up a field hockey stick again?) and emerge into adulthood, it’s harder to seek out the same communities that play has previously provided. I grew up with the suburban norm of playing outside and running around in neighbor’s sprinklers. Four-square went absolutely bonkers in fourth grade—if Ace called out “Spud” as a rule, you bet we fell on our hands and knees for that catch.

Somewhere along the lines sneakers turned into heels, play dates became hanging out, and caring became “coming off as too much”.

Especially at Columbia, where the culture revolves around academics, it is so easy for students to get swept up in the façade of always doing work. Or doing something that seems important. If you don’t directly benefit from the outcome of your actions, what’s the point of even doing it? Unfortunately, New York City does play an important role in the lack of accessible outdoors areas to frolic in. But, community is accessible when you look more intentionally. Specifically through the vehicle of adult sports!

Adult sports: Running! Climbing! Ultimate frisbee for some reason is a hit at colleges. Compete in squash. Take the time to let go of how you are perceived, and to embrace your inner child. If anything, I like to think that people who are willing to look stupid with me, are the people who I want to keep in my life.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy—but you don’t have to be Jack.

Hooping via Bwog Staff.

NYU transfer Chalamet via Wikimedia Commons.

PresNouche via Wikimedia Commons.

A. Ham via Wikimedia Commons.