Happy Friday, Wildcats! Falvey Library is delivering you another semester of Weekend Recs, a blog dedicated to filling you in on what to read, listen to, and watch over the weekend. Annie, a graduate assistant from the Communication department, scours the internet, peruses the news, and digs through book stacks to find new, relevant, and thought-provoking content that will challenge you and prepare you for the upcoming week. 

Congratulations! You made it to the first Friday of the semester. The beginning of the semester can be both an exciting and anxious time. Maybe you’re nervous for some of your classes. Maybe you’re excited to see your friends. I know I’m excited to start my journey as a Falvey graduate assistant but definitely feeling anxious to jump into my classes. Whatever you’re feeling this back-to-school season, this weekend’s recommendations are some things to help you with the adjust to (or back to) college life.

If you have 5 minutes…and want to find out if you qualify for the student loan debt forgiveness announced by President Biden, read this article from NPR. It might just lift a $10,000 weight off your chest and answer some of your pressing questions on student debt.

If you have 30 minutes…and want to get ahead of the curve by boosting your reading skills, read the first chapter of Zachary Shore’s Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills. His 5-step method to academic reading will help you impress your professors in class discussions and save you time. As Shore puts it, avoid being a “Book Zombie.”

If you have an hour…and are in the mood for some good food, stop by the food trucks at Mendel Field on Sunday between 8 and 10 p.m. for St. Augustine’s feast day. Grab a bite to eat with friends, meet some new people, and enjoy some local food truck fare.

If you have an hour and 34 minutes…and want a back-to-school pick-me-up, watch Legally Blonde (2001). Even over 20 years after its release, the film still manages to motivate me to push through college. If Elle Woods can get a 179 on the LSAT, you can do anything.

If you have a day…and want to prep for the upcoming semester with some techniques to de-stress, read Judson Brewer’s Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind. It gives some good tips to managing anxious feelings and developing coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety, which will become increasingly problematic as the semester progresses.

Annie Stockmal is a graduate student in the Communication Department and graduate assistant in Falvey Library.