Yesterday, the Asian American Culture Center held a presentation and workshop to help students unwind and find ways to de-stress. “Catching Good Vibes” focused on using suncatchers as a means of creating something pretty to interact with the wonderful weather that has finally arrived. The event was relocated to the Women’s Center in the Student Union to provide more space for the arts and crafts. The event was originally to take place in the AsACC’s main room.
Each spring semester, the AsACC’s outgoing event programmers hire roughly nine new interns who shadow and assist in presenting events like “Catching Good Vibes.” Neeha Zaman, Audrey Hom and fourth-semester student Val Chia are the current outgoing programmers. The interns who led this event include second-semester Abhigna Reddy, and fourth-semester students Hannah Lee and Emily Liu. Stress was a fitting topic to cover for this event, especially as Emily is a Psychology major — this helped me connect to this event as I also major in Psychology.
An important caveat with stress is that it can be helpful in moderation. If it pushes you to get homework done on time (or write newspaper articles to meet deadlines,) stress helps limit the amount of time you can waste putting off an assignment. By the same token, stress can compound into other health-related problems or exacerbate ongoing ones. The presentation pointed out that the interference of stress with appetite and mood is not good, and prolonging this will diminish any benefits gained from more manageable stress. Attendees were first told to write down anything that was a current catalyst of their stress, then rip up the paper. While the activity may seem cliché on the surface, it can be enlightening to see huge hurdles in your life minimized down to phrases written on torn pieces of paper.
The suncatchers provided by the event featured plastic sketches of butterflies, dragonflies and other critters. Suncatchers refract direct sunlight, enhancing the colors that are painted onto them. Thankfully, the center did not hold the event during the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, as otherwise the sunbeams would have been impossible or dangerous to be near. Either way, there was plenty of paint to go around, though some of the containers were… unruly, dirtying up the canvas cloth on the tables and endangering people’s clothing. Once the designs were finalized, attendees brought the suncatchers to the windowsill and let them shine on. Everyone admired each other’s creations, lending credence to the notion that art brings people together. It was recommended to let them dry before latching onto the final appearance due to the paint’s tendency to form bubbles.
The environment reminded me of art class in middle school, when my peers and I were all granted access to similar materials and honed our skills while sharing the classroom. Unlike middle school, however, snacks were supplied, one being a bag of Jell-O-like treats. Even if the task of this event was to paint inside the lines, I believe you can never be too old for a coloring book — trust me. Anu, a second-semester student, felt the event “was really cool actually. [It] was really fun. I am glad I got a break from my classes.”
The Asian American Cultural Center will continue to “educate and advocate,” as Abhigna put it, for the Asian American community and the student body at large by hosting more events in the future. On Thursday, April 11, students will have the opportunity to make origami lotus flowers, and on Monday, April 15, there will be a bookmark-making event, both in Room 428 of the Student Union. More information is on the center’s website at https://asacc.uconn.edu/.