There is no question that college students are some of the most stressed and overworked members of adolescent society. As a result, many of them often put taking care of themselves on the backburner in favor of pushing out another assignment or taking part in a sports practice, theatre rehearsal, or club event. Students at MCLA are no exception to this norm.

That is why late this past January, just after students returned from their annual winter break, members of the MCLA community decided to put on what they dubbed a “Self Care and Safety Night.” This event took place in the student empowerment lounge in the campus center on Monday, January 22nd, at 6:30 PM.

Students who chose to come to this event were invited to take a look at different self care and personal safety items such as face masks, lip creams, Band-Aids, Advil, condoms, keychain alarms, and more. They were then able to create a little tote bag of whichever items they wanted to have. Moreover, these items were all free and people could grab whatever quantity they wanted. Next to these items sat placards explaining what they could be used for and why the event runners thought they could be beneficial for a college student attempting to practice self care.

In order to help them exercise self love and internal validation, students were also invited to grab any of a selection of pens and notecards and write loving messages to themselves reminding themselves to be self-accepting, kind, or any other personal affirmations they may have thought they could need reminders of in the future. Prewritten notecards filled with more general affirmations were also set out for students who did not have the energy to expend to write one for themself. And for students who did not want to partake in either of these options for whatever reason, markers and other supplies were set out so they could enjoy coloring on the notecards.

Toni-Marie Basil ’26 was the student body member helping to run this event. In an interview regarding her thoughts on college students and self care, Basil had this to say: “I think that [self care] should be something regular, like brushing your teeth. Self care should be something that’s integrated in people’s lives, and not a shameful thing, especially in this event where we paired it with safety. It is safety for your emotional state.”

Alongside revealing her belief that self care should be more normalized in college society, Basil also had an interesting thought to share regarding self care and social media, stating that with the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok, practicing self care has slowly begun to be more widespread (presumably because algorithms will often push that sort of stuff toward younger people).

The overall impression toward the event by students who chose to attend seemed to be quite positive; based on observations, they were seen to be laughing and socializing, and almost all of the supplies were completely wiped out long before the event was even over. One student who attended the event, Grace Santos ’27, had this to say upon an informal interview: “My favorite part was the coloring to be honest, and I think that having events based around spreading awareness for self care is very important.”

The similar views expressed by both interviewees regarding a wish for the normalization of self care just goes to show how much it is appreciated by all different types of students alike, be it student members running self care events or student members partaking in self care events. Based on the success of this event alone, it is certainly not out of the question that MCLA could host another self care night again in the future. Regardless, one thing is for certain, that it is essential for overworked students to be able to find the time and energy to practice self care.