The first week of college can be intense: Class schedules still aren't finalized, you meet a billion new people, and, if you're a freshman, you're living away from home for the first time. Nothing major has really changed — you're just learning in college instead of high school — but I remember needing to find some solace during those first weeks of college. I never took the proper time for myself to sleep enough, watch Netflix, lay around, and, in general, de-stress.

Managing stress becomes more important than ever when you go to college because you simply have more of it to deal with; you suddenly have more responsibility for yourself and others, and you start to own your future, shaping it with the countless decisions taken each day. Your life becomes to you a self-made treasure, like those sh*tty macaroni picture frames kids give to their parents. Nobody can value your life (or macaroni artwork, for that matter) as much as you because they aren't living it: It's all yours. Here are six pieces of visual art and poetry to remind you of that.

1. "Eager" by Allison Schulnik

Is it weird that a claymation video made me cry? If you think so, then watch Allison Schulnik's most recent film: Along with two other people and a composer, she's made a poignant, unreserved expression of sexuality, nature, perception, and the mind. Simply paying attention to the amount of detail in each shot should be enough to convince you of the magnitude of this project. In an interview describing the subjects of her film, Schulnik said, “I’m drawn to these characters, for some reason. There’s something about the sad or pathetic kind of character that I like. There’s something sad about them, yet … it’s comforting to know that [they are] maybe not real.”

You can watch "Eager" here or on Vimeo:

2. "Road Trip" by Greg Drasler

An exhibition premiered back in June, "Road Trip" is a series of prints inspired by Drasler's long drives across the American Midwest, blending the constancy of the sky, the filter of sunbeams through the car windows, and the endless collage of gas stations, diners, and truck stops along the way. American experience is distinct in its scale and immensity, and Drasler's kaleidoscopic portrayal of Illinois highways captures the thrill of traveling across our beautiful country.

From the joining of shadowy constructed atmospheres of big sky vistas to the crazy quilt inspired grounding of vernacular architecture, cloud computing mixes it up with carousing of local color. I have stepped out of fluid interior places into the determined synthetic landscape produced by the car.
~ Greg Drasler 2014

Reservations

Eat and Sleep

3. "Reclined" by Burke Garza

Spine extended straight, flush to the cushions, like I’m on a boat down a river,

And lilting Bruckner filling the room, as if I was in the symphony hall,

Golden trumpet peals break the string surface of the violin waters,

And I’m carried through time: I can see the reeds on the bank.

Buffeted by bank and scared by the occasional dragonfly,

Whose buzzing wings beat humid Nile air into my eyes,

And reminded of the direction of this river,

I know I can only go on, that there is a basket and I must be in it.

What worth is it to shut your eyes to the crisp African skies,

Knowing nothing of reeds or rivers or baskets or bugs,

And anyways what good could the wood of the twine not have,

But to wrap you like soft rustling reeds, as a wooden warm nest, or a blue chair reclined.

If the rain will wash, and the sun will dry, what use do these tears have coming from eyes?

Life is a choice and lacks its own because, so cry no more and hear Nile wings buzz.

4. "Life Goes On" by Shinya Kato

Ending this past Sunday, Kato's most recent New York exhibition features a series of 19th century cabinet cards treated with a painting knife to layer on ethereal sheets of color. The cards range from scary to sublime, and are intended to simultaneously revive and subvert human memory. The liveliness of the colors invokes a new dynamism from the portrait subjects but also transcends their individual experiences in its own formless, abstract way.

5. "Eddies, Ripples, and Curls" by Burke Garza

Like light breeze tossed into the green wonder,

Or the able roll of tapping drumsticks,

We’re confident lines drug through a lifetime

Full of confusing, stumbling thoughts

And misfires of Lord knows what to make of things.

These are the times to feel life

In all its eddies, ripples and curls,

Its stretching intensity, pulling at your face,

Like the self-blasting surge of the waves,

Swimming with deep dissolving salt.

It’s times like these you feel humanity,

That abiding sense of connection,

The threadbare threading of that sincerity

Through every action, thought, experience,

Thrilling us to aspiration.

6. Arthur Streeton Landscapes

Though he lived in 19th century Australia, Streeton's sublime landscapes remind me a lot of the views on Rice University's campus. Almost entirely devoid of humanity, they focus more on Earth's unfurling horizon, creating an altogether inspiring scene. Streeton's landscapes breathe with the promise of the future and of wide open spaces, relaxing the viewer and inviting one to imagine life's possibility.

Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889

"Still glides the stream and shall for ever Glide"