salve from Megan + advice on technology

Salvete omnes!  My name is Megan, and I’ll be your RA this year and the province leader of Athens.  I’m going into my fourth year at UVA, where I major in Latin and Greek, dabble in English and art history, and run the Classics Club.

I was a GLA student in 2018, but believe it or not, I wasn’t that enthusiastic about attending at the time.  I planned to study political journalism, not classics, and I only went because my Latin teacher made me and told me it would look good on my college applications.  You can probably guess how that turned out - by the end of my three weeks, I’d fully changed my future plans to Latin education, and I haven’t looked back since.  So don’t fear if you don’t think you’re “the GLA type” or don’t feel as passionate about classics as you think others do.  You might end up surprising yourself like I did!

One thing GLA students often worry about is losing access to technology for three weeks, which is a scary prospect (especially after we’ve all spent so much time online during the pandemic), but actually turns out to be a nice way to get to bond with people.  You will get used to it, I promise, but the first few days of phone withdrawal might be weird.  Here’s some miscellaneous advice to help you adjust:
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• Think about what your phone does for you that you’ll have trouble living without, then solve those problems.  For instance, if you’ll miss being able to take pictures and check the time, get a camera and a watch.  A small notebook is also helpful.
  • Try making a list of everything you do on your phone during a typical day so you can get an idea of this.  Today I used my phone to look at a knitting pattern, text friends, track when I took medication, and read an ebook.  To prepare for life without technology, I would print out the knitting pattern, get my friends’ addresses, make a medication tracker in my notebook, and get physical books instead of ebooks.
• Tell your friends in advance that you’re going to be offline for the duration of GLA and give them your mailing address so they can write you letters.  You can even set up an auto reply for your texts or email telling people that you can’t access technology right now and providing them with your mailing address.
  • Even more importantly, get their addresses so you can send them letters first!  Look at Olivia’s blog post from yesterday for advice on this.
• Bring things to entertain yourself and others, like books, card games, and crafts.  Keep in mind, though, that GLA is jam-packed with activities and you might not have as much free time as you think.  (For some reason, I brought about twenty books to GLA.  I read one and a half.)  We promise we’ll keep you well entertained!
• Break those Snapchat and video game streaks now so you don’t have to worry about it at GLA.  Streaks in social media and games are designed to be addictive - if you feel anxious at the idea of breaking one, the nefarious design is working.  You can make a post explaining to your friends why you’re intentionally breaking streaks.  I know there’s a lot of social pressure to keep in constant contact with social media, but limiting your time online and fighting back against addictive design can do great things for your mental health.
  • On the other hand, if streaks are important to you for a deeper reason, you can ask a trusted friend to log into your accounts and keep them up for you.  When I was at GLA, I didn’t want to lose my year-long Duolingo streak because it motivated me to study languages, so I had my sister keep it up for me, which gave me great peace of mind.
    
    Above all, don't stress too much about a lack of technology - you'll get used to it very quickly, and you might be surprised at how much it can positively affect your mind and social interactions!  Good luck, and I can't wait to meet you all in a couple weeks!
    
    -Megan