u/Emotional-Motor-4946

Today I received an email that a student nominated me for a TA award. Although I didn’t win, I appreciated them nominating me. They wrote some really kind things in their nomination.

It is often a thankless job and we are often blamed for things outside our control (like course and university policies). I can’t speak for all TAs, but I do try my best to support my students and to set them up for success. As we enter into another year of budget cuts, please be kind to your TAs. Our workload keeps increasing (especially in this age of AI-slopification) while still being expected to deliver the same level of quality. We are trying our best!

I’m curious if anyone else lives with chronic fatigue and how you manage it. Obviously, I‘m not looking for medical advice.

I’ve recently gotten into cycling. I’m doing fairly short runs (20–30km) and they’ve been enjoyable. One thing that’s sort of getting in the way is I have some sort of chronic fatigue condition that I’ve been dealing with my whole adult life which leads me to experience really intense exhaustion after any physical activity (including walking 1km). I usually crash and don’t have any energy the following day. I know for “normal” people exercise doesn’t do this and in fact usually you’re told that exercise can help with energy but that has unfortunately never been my reality. I kind of compare it to an old cell phone I used to have where the battery would drain in a matter of minutes and never fully recharge. Like it would always sit at 20% and even if you charged it overnight, you’d wake up with it at 65% and after sending a few texts it would drop to 20% and stay there all day even if you never touched it for the rest of the day.

Most of the routes I take are fairly flat with some incline. It does get quite windy here though which can be tough. I usually average about 20kmh (I know it’s not that fast lol). While riding I usually feel okay. The fatigue is always there but I don’t feel exhaustion—that comes after the ride. I’m trying to find a good time to go for a ride. I find if I go for a ride in the morning, I can’t do anything for the rest of the day because I crash but evening rides feel arduous because by 6pm, I have run out of steam. My energy levels aren‘t influenced by diet in so far as I don’t just feel energized if I eat a carb-heavy meal or have caffeine. Nor does it improve with rest. I’m trying to find what works for me, but it feels like nothing does.

If you‘re in a similar boat, I’d love to hear what works—or doesn’t!

Carleton doesn’t usually switch on the AC until mid-late May. My office tends to get quite warm around this time of year since it faces west.

Where‘s the coolest place on campus? Ideally somewhere quiet as well.

I was thinking maybe one of the engineering buildings would be cool with all of the large machines that probably generate a ton of heat but that’s just speculation on my part.