Opinion
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 — 9
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A case for the “Vomit Comet”: the beauty within struggle

I

t’s 2 a.m. on a Friday 
night. The streets are 
desolate. 
The 
faint, 
distant roar of “Pump It Up” 
in the distance slowly fades 
away, only to open up a lone-
ly silence. You are alone with 
your 
thoughts. 
Your 
mind 
races from one topic to the 
next, trying to make sense of 
the night you just had. Your 
voice is gone and your legs are 
tired. You want to sit down and 
relax but you can’t: you have 
to take the bus back to North 
Campus. You walk for what 
seems like miles and what 
feels like a millennium. Sud-
denly, in the distance, a beck-
oning light calls you. It’s the 
CCTC, and you’re greeted by 
a group of people in the same 
position as you. You found that 
at that moment you were a bit 
excited to see people you had 
never met. You find, at 2 a.m. 
on a Friday night at a bus stop, 
a community. 
“Yeah, I live on North” is a 
phrase that is often met with 
disdain, distaste, mockery or 
even just straight pity. “Oh, you 

have to take the bus?” “Oh man, 
how early do you have to wake 
up in the morning?” “Wow, 
I’m so glad I live on Central 
Campus.” These are all com-
mon responses students use to 
respond to the North Campus 
assignment. While most people 
easily find themselves being 
herded into this anti-North 
mindset, I was convinced that 
there must be something amaz-
ing and unique about North 
Campus, and something that 
the 20% of the students dorm-
ing on North Campus could 
latch onto. I became embold-
ened, energized and motivated 
to find this “something.” Little 
did I know that I would find it 
at the CCTC.
The “Vomit Comet” is the 
slang term many students have 
used to denote later buses on 
weekend nights that go back up 
to North Campus. The name, 
noticeably, comes from the 
sickness, tiredness and nausea 
that most students bring back 
with them after a wild night 
out. Despite its retched nick-
name, it is on those buses that 
a University of Michigan stu-
dent will find something more 
profound than anything the 
Philosophy Department could 

teach you. 
As my weary legs sought 
rest on a Saturday night dur-
ing Welcome Week, I thought 
about how much I wanted to go 
home. I’m usually not one for 
going out, instead opting for a 
night that consists of listening 
to music and hanging out with 
just a few people instead. How-
ever, I found myself overcome 
by the opportunistic spirit 
of college and I decided to go 
against my status quo. With 
everything done with and my 
desire to go home stronger 
than ever, I remembered that 
my Mcard and housing card 
were both in a friend’s dorm. 
On North Campus. I made the 
pilgrimage to the CCTC with 
my friend and fell onto a cold 
bench. All of a sudden, small 
groups of people piled in and 
I was sitting with and around 
at least 20 to 30 other students 
making their way up to North 
Campus. The silence turned 
into a light buzz of conversa-
tion, which only picked up as 
we entered the bus. People 
who had never met before and 
who didn’t have any reason or 
excuse to talk to each other, 
were. The camaraderie spread 
like wildfire across the bus, 

and soon everyone was con-
tributing to the conversation. 
“That’s what it is,” I thought to 
myself, “It’s the community.”
Students taking the bus up 
to North Campus, students 
trekking through mountains 
of snow to get to class and stu-
dents struggling through cal-
culus all have experienced this 
phenomenon. As human beings 
and as young adults, it’s easy to 
focus on how we are different 
from one another. Diversity is 
very important, especially con-
cerning growth, progress and 
the inclusion of unique and 
underrepresented groups of 
people. However, it is very easy 
to get so distracted by what 
divides us that we forget how 
similar we are. All it takes is a 
collective experience to show 
us that we are similar enough 
to relate to each other, an expe-
rience where a group of people, 
small or large, can realize that 
their struggles might be more 
similar than they think. All of 
sudden, either consciously or 
unconsciously, if one realizes 
that another person also dis-
likes taking the bus, if they also 
find calculus hard or if they 
also dislike how some custom-
ers treat them at work, then 

they realize that they might 
not be alone in other struggles. 
We all face struggles in our 
lives. We all carry weight with 
us, some of it is light and some 
of it is heavy. Sometimes the 
weight we carry is unseen by 
other people, either because 
we feel like we need to keep it 
to and solve it by ourselves, or 
because we invalidate our own 
feelings and experiences. This 
weight only gets heavier. After 
a long time, it can feel like 
we are alone in our struggles 
and that they are something 
we will inevitably be crushed 
under. These moments though, 
moments of relatability, cama-
raderie and connection, can 
make a monumental change. 
They can destigmatize our 
own views about the struggles 
that we face. We realize that if 
someone also carries the same 
small weight that we carry, 
then we are not alone in at least 
one of our struggles. Knowing 
this simple fact can give way 
to new bonds, connections and 
avenues toward realizing that 
we do not have to go through 
our lives alone. 
If we as human beings can 
truly realize that we are not 
alone in our struggles, small or 

large, the world could change. 
This isn’t idealized or utopian 
speak. Buses, restaurants and 
calculus are all microcosms 
of 
this 
very 
phenomenon. 
Through shared small strug-
gles, larger struggles can be 
heard and stronger bonds can 
be formed. This is something 
that is inherently human to 
realize: we are uniquely simi-
lar and that our individual 
identity is not invalidated by 
a larger, group identity but 
instead bolsters us as individu-
als.
While the “Vomit Comet” 
and North Campus have their 
respective downsides, only in 
those places and in other plac-
es of collective struggle will 
you find the most human inter-
action. Only in places where 
struggle is felt and in turn, 
heard, will you find the growth 
and progress that moves us 
forward as a society. So, next 
time you feel like throwing up 
on the bus back up to North 
because of how many times 
you’ve heard “Pump It Up” in 
one night, listen to the con-
versations around you. Maybe 
even join in. You could change 
someone’s life. Or they could 
change yours.

ZHANE YAMIN
Opinion Columnist

The cost of inaction: 
What to do when school isn’t working

I

n January of 2021, Demo-
crats rode into Washing-
ton and took control of 
the White House and both hous-
es of Congress. President Joe 
Biden’s approval rating stood at 
over 53%, and the nation looked 
hopefully to a leader who prom-
ised to restore order and sensi-
bility to American politics. As 
Biden took the Oath of Office, 
stocks soared to record highs, 
investors bullish on a president 
they believed would bring sta-
bility to markets in a post-COV-
ID-19 era. The Republican Party 
appeared a disgraced organi-
zation, and with the events of 
January 6 top of mind, many 
contended the Republicans were 
facing a lost election cycle, as 
they did in the aftermath of Nix-
on’s resignation.
Almost two years later, Amer-
ica faces a very different politi-
cal landscape. As stocks remain 
below where they were at Biden’s 
inauguration and economists see 
a recession as an increasingly 
likely scenario, economic senti-
ment has tanked. Biden’s approv-
al rating has dropped more than 
10% since taking office and 
the Democrats face only a 19% 
chance of retaining both houses 
of Congress. All of this raises the 
question: what happened?
Perhaps the primary cause of 
the Democrats’ fall from grace 
has been the economy. While 
external factors, like the war 
in Ukraine, certainly impacted 
inflation, 
continued 
stimulus 
spending by Biden after the 
economy had already begun to 
recover 
further 
exacerbated 
it. While it’s impossible to pin 
the blame on any individual, 
Democrats soured their public 
image by denying federal spend-
ing’s role in boosting inflation, 
continuing to propose large 
spending packages even as CPI 
climbed rapidly.
When 
Democrats 
finally 
decided to act on the impending 
economic crisis, they passed the 
Inflation Reduction Act, which 
despite its name has dubious 
impacts on short-term inflation. 
Though the core components 
of the bill, such as prescription 
drug cost reductions and tax 
credits, are useful tools in fight-
ing inflation, the $369 billion in 
climate spending and $79 billion 
in funding for the IRS raised 
many eyebrows. The Congres-
sional Budget Office (CBO) has 
projected that the Inflation 
Reduction Act will have a “neg-
ligible effect” on inflation in the 
coming months and years, call-
ing into question its effective-
ness as a policy measure.
Though the Federal Reserve 
is the entity primarily respon-
sible for controlling inflation, 
the other parts of the federal 
government also have an obli-

gation to take actions that aid 
the Fed’s objectives. Other than 
the flawed Inflation Reduc-
tion Act, however, the Demo-
crats have continued to take 
reckless actions that compro-
mise the fight against inflation. 
Most recently, the White House 
unveiled its plan for student loan 
relief, which the Congressional 
Budget Office assessed at a cost 
of $400 billion. 
While high student debt is 
certainly an issue, canceling 
$400 billion of debt in the midst 
of high inflation seems impru-
dent, as it would likely increase 
consumer 
spending, 
further 
worsening inflation. Moreover, 
doing so has been shown to be a 
regressive tax by income, educa-
tion and wealth, meaning that 
the plan will further contrib-
ute to disparities in household 
wealth between college gradu-
ates, who typically earn higher 
salaries, and Americans without 
college degrees — enigmatic of 
Democrats’ priorities shifting 
from their blue collar roots to 
the more genteel interests of 
urban elites.
While there are many reasons 
for the Democratic Party’s fall 
in popularity, a large share of 
their troubles are rooted in their 
detachment from Main Street, 
pocketbook, kitchen table issues. 
Though the Democrats of the 
mid-to-late 20th century were 
perceived as a blue-collar party 
in support of working class vot-
ers, modern Democrats have 
struggled to escape their image 
as an elitist institution. 
While it may be easy to dis-
miss Trump voters as racist or 
uninformed, the populist move-
ment he created was incredibly 
powerful. In flipping Blue Wall 
states like Michigan, Wisconsin 
and Pennsylvania in 2016, he 
swayed traditionally Democratic 
voters who felt neglected by a 
party that had left them behind. 
Though Biden’s uniting message 
as a traditional blue-collar Dem-
ocrat helped the party win back 
many states in 2020, his rampant 
spending and perceived pander-
ing to the left wing of his party 
has reverted the Democrats 
to the same elitist image he’d 
hoped to avoid.
In order to regain the image 
of competency and moderation 
that Biden embodied upon enter-
ing the White House, Democrats 
need to immediately pivot their 
strategies behind policy and 
messaging. The first step they 
must take is being honest about 
the state of our economic prob-
lems. By first presenting infla-
tion as “transitory” then pinning 
it on Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin and corporate greed, 
and now claiming inflation will 
worsen if Republicans take con-
trol of Congress, Biden has lost 
the trust of the American people 
and sabotaged opportunities for 
future bipartisan collaboration. 
As we likely head into a reces-

sion, Americans must be able to 
look to their president for sup-
port in bringing our nation back 
to a healthy economic state. By 
refusing to acknowledge his 
own party’s role in furthering 
inflation, however, Biden risks 
continued Democratic runaway 
spending stalling his ability to 
curtail inflation.
In addition, Biden needs to 
exert his authority within the 
party to rein in the left wing 
and unite leadership around 
core policies. As opposed to the 
GOP, which during the Trump 
administration voted famously 
monolithically, Democrats have 
struggled to keep their agenda 
reasonable due to the high levels 
of disagreement between the left 
and centrist sects of the party. 
While the Infrastructure Bill 
was a bipartisan victory, poli-
cies like student loan forgiveness 
have angered many middle-class 
voters and left the Democrats 
seeming out of touch.
Finally, 
Democrats 
must 
adjust their messaging to high-
light 
the 
policy 
successes 
they’ve had and the ways in 
which they’ve bolstered the 
long-term health of the econo-
my. When asked about how the 
Democrats could regain their 
credibility with the American 
people, Charles Shipan, a profes-
sor of political science and the 
co-author of “The United States 
Congress,” said that although 
the “Democratic-led Congress 
and President Biden have been 
unusually successful at passing 
laws, including many that are at 
the top of their agenda … Demo-
crats talk about them in terms of 
how much money they’ve allo-
cated to address problems.” 
He continued by arguing that 
Democrats should instead “talk 
about policies they’ve enacted 
to help the middle class and … 
focus on the actual content of 
the policies and how (they) will 
help people and stabilize the 
economy.” Though the Demo-
crats have a significant amount 
of work to do in order to restruc-
ture their party’s priorities, 
they have succeeded in imple-
menting many policies that help 
average Americans. By shifting 
their core messaging toward 
these achievements, Democrats 
can not only regain the trust of 
Americans, but also rebrand 
their image nationally as they 
refocus on everyday issues.
Ultimately, while the Demo-
cratic Party has lost the trust 
of many Americans, it remains 
more redeemable than the GOP. 
Though their policies have been 
divisive thus far in Biden’s term, 
there still remain many Demo-
crats, including the president, 
who support the party’s tradi-
tional working-class identity. If 
the Democrats can learn to ele-
vate those voices, they might just 
have a fighting chance at bring-
ing stability to their party and 
America as a whole.

Is the Democratic party out of 
touch with Americans

NIKHIL SHARMA 

Opinion Columnist

T

his semester’s honey-
moon period is quickly 
coming to an end. When 
the calendar flips to October 
and midterms start rolling 
in, quantities of caffeine con-
sumption and sleep trend in 
opposite directions. For some, 
the early signs of burnout crop 
up in the ever-lengthening 
shadows of the ever-shorter, 
cloudier, colder fall days. The 
source of this feeling of con-
stant exhaustion could be any 
or all of grades, mental or 
physical health, overcommit-
ment, career anxiety or finan-
cial concerns. While symptoms 
may vary, a general theme is 
that it all feels like too much. 
In some quiet moments doubt 
starts to creep in, “What am I 
really doing here? What am I 
toiling like this for?”
For many — hopefully most 
— having established healthy 
routines keeps this struggle 
mostly theoretical. For others, 
these feelings can be pushed 
aside for another day and busi-
ness continues as usual, with a 
quiet hum of discontent under-
girding an otherwise produc-
tive routine. Maybe the week 
in, week out is more painful 
than enjoyable, but morale and 
output remain more or less sta-
ble. For others still, my previ-
ous self included, the pressure 
of the career expectations, 
impending 
paper 
deadlines 
and utter exhaustion outweigh 
the ability to lead a sustainable 
existence. 
All 
assignments 
start to feel like tasks, innu-
merable in quantity and insur-
mountable in scope. Sometime 
into the semester, external cir-
cumstances begin to feel like 
too much to cope with.
There is data to back this up. 
Take one of our peer institu-
tions: The Ohio State Univer-
sity. According to Bernadette 
Melnyk, the chief wellness 
officer at OSU, 71% of OSU’s 
students were facing burnout 
in April 2021. Outside of OSU, 
it is well documented that 
mental health suffered dur-
ing the pandemic, as isolated 
students were deprived of ade-
quate social interaction. And 
yet, day after day, month after 
month, this exhausting ritual 
continues. Maybe grades are 
maintained, maybe they are 
not, but one thing is certain: 
the status quo is not working. 
While the stigma around seek-
ing help is being eroded, more 
serious action remains taboo. 
Herein lies the problem with 
the grinding routine of college 
burnout: Inaction is a silent 
killer. The status quo has a 
subtle ability to disguise itself 
as safety because it is viciously 
familiar. Alternatives to the 
default are largely ignored by 

fear and uncertainty. For a 
select few, though, it is worth 
considering whether college 
is the right setting in which 
to move forward. While it may 
seem difficult to consider, I 
suggest taking time away from 
school, as it can be a viable 
option, even if it feels daunt-
ing. 
When one leaves school 
without graduating they “drop 
out” rather than “move on,” 
or some other positive phrase. 
This may be a mere semantic 
difference, but it speaks to a 
deeply-held 
cultural 
belief: 
that shifting from the estab-
lished achievement track is a 
deviation rather than an act of 
creation. In a gap year, students 
can travel, volunteer, learn a 
skill or pursue a career inter-
est. Off-season internships are 
often less competitive than the 
highly sought-after summer 
gigs. Most importantly, the 
clock counting down to gradu-
ation is temporarily paused 
while one can explore curiosi-
ties with more latitude. 
The idea of graduating “late” 
is scary, but ultimately mean-
ingless. Afterall, what is the 
difference between the classes 
of 2022 and 2024? When the 
weight of each passing week 
in the few fleeting months 
that make up a semester feels 
overwhelming, thinking on a 
timeline of years feels radical. 
Taking the time to step away 
and reorient oneself within 
a life that can be expected to 
continue for decades is a mere 
course correction. 
At the very least, whether 
remaining on campus or not, 
university students may ben-
efit from broadening their 
perspective of what counts 
as a beneficial experience. In 
two years I moved to a new 
city, worked in a new indus-
try, traveled internationally 
and refocused my goals for my 
return to school. These were 
formative experiences, made 
available outside of the con-
text of the four-year college 
path. 
On the other hand, I also 
attended the graduation of my 
friends that I entered college 

with, having completed just 
half of the credits required to 
cross that very stage. Many of 
these friends were also able to 
explore career opportunities, 
study abroad and invest in 
formative growth experiences 
without having left school. 
The harsh reality for those 
feeling “behind” is that time 
does not stand still, whether 
in school or not. This is all the 
more reason to exert agency 
over one’s limited time, rather 
than trudge toward an unsat-
isfying future. The terms of 
improvement, and responsi-
bility for growth, are more 
fully shifted onto the student. 
Admittedly, a kind of expe-
rience relativism can be naive 
depending on the ends that the 
student is pursuing. If the goal 
is to ultimately grow in some 
meaningful way it clearly mat-
ters how the time is spent. I 
am only advocating for tak-
ing time away from school if 
there is a direct plan of action 
to best use it. It should also be 
clear that there is immense 
value in having completed a 
college education in terms of 
the professional and personal 
freedoms it can afford. Much 
of the time, gritting something 
out for practicality’s sake may 
pay dividends. 
I also recognize that this is, 
of course, not a path available 
to many. Having strong famil-
ial support behind making the 
decisions to leave and return 
to school when I did is far 
from guaranteed, and I do not 
take that blessing for granted. 
There are myriad financial 
and logistical reasons why up 
and leaving school for a couple 
of years is not feasible. Do not 
let the reason be fear. Fear of 
judgment, fear of career pros-
pects or something even more 
trivial keep you from thinking 
about what might be most ben-
eficial, as radical as it might 
seem. 
When the long nights of the 
soul come for some of you this 
semester, consider what the 
risk of taking bold action is. 
Then consider what the risk 
of not taking bold action is, if 
only for a moment.

WILL COVEYOU
Opinion Columnist

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