What would we do without JJ’s being open 22 hours a day?

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Mariah House, SEAS, Chemical Engineering (PoliSci minor), Des Moines, IA

Claim to fame: Madam Barbell, last CU Dems membership director ever, living in John Jay as a junior, Android user and iPad kid (with a sidechat addiction)

Where are you going? Nowhere (Iowa for a bit) and then everywhere (bouncing around until I’m bored—thank you remote work <3)

What are three things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2029?

1. Find a uniform out of your wardrobe—it makes getting up during finals, while going through a breakup, or having a mental breakdown over the looming recession much easier. If your day ever goes awry, change your outfit. It’s like Pavloving yourself into restarting your day.
2. Befriend a custodian, dining hall employee, mail room employee, and one of your building’s security guards. These relationships can help you out a lot,  but are also so important for remembering who actually keeps this institution afloat!
3. Every month, spend at least one intentional day with yourself. Not a day in Butler or your room, but at a museum, shopping, a park away from campus, etc… This world and school only get easier when you are more comfortable with your own company.

Bonus: Leave the library if you’re there past midnight, eat vegetables every day, and go to Dodge!!!!

“Back in my day…” I had no idea that the gates could even close, sophomores lived in Furnald, JJ’s was open 12 hours a day, and bomb threats were called by anonymous Twitter users.

Favorite Columbia lore? Greta Gerwig and Kate McKinnon Stage Kiss—V110 (2005)

What was your favorite class at Columbia?

Global Core: Middle Eastern Politics with Timothy Mitchell

Political Science: Voting and Behavior with Michael Miller

Engineering: Aerosols with Faye McNiell and Alternative Energy Resources with Dan Steingart

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like. The other…

Whom would you like to thank? Everyone in chemical engineering (especially Catherin Shim) for helping me survive in this awful major, all of my coworkers in Wien and John Jay, Genovee Dominguez for being the best boss alive, Mia Roque for being my rock, everyone I see in the gym 3 to 5 pm and 10:30 pm to 12:00 am, John Jay breakfast, LearnChemE.com, the Natural History Musuem, Chaplain Ryan of Canterbury, the rest of my family and friends, and the girl who saw me crying on Law Bridge freshman year and told me it was only going to get worse, but that the good things would only get better.

One thing to do before graduating? Take the Metro North and visit the towns in the Hudson Valley

Any regrets? MAAAAANNNYY—but the biggest of all is dwelling on any of them

Mariah via Mariah