You Don’t Need Another Study Tip, You Need a Walk

I have a confession to make. 

Until well into my second year at YU, I had never noticed that it says “Stern College for Women” at the top of the 245 Lexington Avenue building. My discovery happened by accident — I looked up only because I thought I’d heard something in the sky and ended up pointing at the bold, black letters. 

“Has that always been written there?” I asked a friend. She looked up, squinted and laughed. She had never seen it either. “I guess I never looked up,” she said. 

After that, I started pointing the sign out to everyone. Evidently, almost none of my friends had noticed it. Maybe it’s too high up. Or maybe, in our rush to get to class —late, bleary-eyed, desperate to escape the cold — we’ve all been walking around with our heads tilted down. I’m tempted to diagnose this as a generational problem, a crisis of presence, maybe. But that feels dramatic. So let’s just call it what it is: a lot of us are very bad at looking up.

That diagnosis doesn’t just come from mine and my friends’ apparent lack of spatial awareness. It comes from watching almost an entire class get sucked into WhatsApp and online shopping during what is arguably the best lecture I’ve ever taken at Stern. It comes from sitting with friends on a beautiful day and struggling to come up with more than three things to do in a city with limitless options. And it comes from realizing that I didn’t really know my way around, that I rarely went anywhere alone, that I almost never wandered, and that New York City had become a backdrop rather than a place I felt fully inside of.

Lucky for us, I’ve come up with a solution. I call it: The Walk. 

The Walk was invented by girls but it is also perfectly suited for boys, teachers and faculty. It’s made for anyone who feels they might be struggling to look up, who, like me and several others I’ve talked this over with, sometimes feels like a visitor in the place where they spend most of their time.

You might be wondering why I would dedicate an entire editorial, of which I only have a precious few, to urging you to do one of the most basic human activities. Who is she to tell me to walk? you might be thinking. I go to the gym every day. I doubt she can even open the door on her way out of 245. And to that I say: you’re right. I can’t. But The Walk is not for exercise. It’s for the soul. If finals are making you miserable, if you’re struggling to squeeze in more than ten minutes of sunlight a day, if your daily schedule has become mostly just “library” — then The Walk is for you. 

The rules are simple. The Walk must be done alone. Music is allowed. So is a podcast, if that’s your thing. Studying is not. Neither are phone calls or recorded lectures. The Walk is not for thinking or talking. It’s for turning your attention outward and becoming reacquainted — physically and mentally — with your surroundings. Let your thoughts rise and fall with the sounds and smells of the city. Or, better yet, leave them behind where they belong and come back to them later. 

My Walk begins on 34th Street, of course. My coat is open, my AirPods are in and my laptop is back in my room, where it will stay for the next hour. From my position in the center of Manhattan, there are four directions to choose from. Two involve water — the East River or the Hudson — and the other two involve a series of highly gentrified neighborhoods filled with stores designed to waste your precious time. I highly recommend getting lost during The Walk, if that’s a safe option for you. But whatever direction you make a beeline in when you leave school is a good one. Just don’t stop walking.

That’s not to say that The Walk is not for the intellectual. If you must listen to podcasts about the American Civil War, then please, be my guest. But if you catch yourself unconsciously reciting notes out loud in the middle of the street, you’re doing it wrong.

It is finals week, so if my personal procrastination tactics aren’t appealing to you, then perhaps science will. Embarking on a solo walking adventure has been proven to improve focus, sleep, physical health and mental wellbeing, especially during times of stress. In other words, taking a study break to power walk down the street might actually be a more worthwhile investment in your future (and your grades) than staying locked-in inside a windowless room. 

Let this be the nudge for you to grab your sneakers and head outside. To take a good, long look at the streets we call home; the places that sit and wait for you while you study and cram. Don’t think. Just notice. Invite The Walk into your life, and let it do the rest.