Student column: Use these tips to survive FHPW

By Allison Harwood

If anyone says surviving a journalism workshop is easy, they’re wrong.
   
At the Flint Hills Publication Workshop in Manhattan, making it out alive can be difficult. Luckily, here is a guide to surviving FHPW and all it throws at you.

Four girls + one shower = one big problem

Girls like to be clean and smell nice. Unfortunately, this is a problem when you have four girls in one room. In my room, to avoid screaming over who got to clean off when, we split shower time in two parts. Two girls showered at night and two in the morning. This worked out well and everyone kept up their personal hygiene.

$10 for two meals
Many students gaped when they learned they had just $10 for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in the Union could cost up to $6, leaving only a small amount of money for lunch. The K-State Student Union food court offered cheaper options, however. Small containers of cereal were closer to the $3 range. My favorite option was bringing cereal bars from home. This way, you could keep all $10 for lunch and sleep in a little later.

Not a dancing queen
If you’re anything like me, the thought of going to the basement of a hotel to a dance with people you’ve known for two days doesn’t sound fun. It sounds awkward.

Call me a spoil sport, but laying in bed watching “Pretty Little Liars” sounded much more enjoyable after a long day. I won’t rain on any dance-loving students’ parade, but rest assured it’s OK to skip out if it’s not your scene.

Hot N Cold

Not once was I a comfortable temperature while at FHPW. Manhattan was under a heat advisory. The highs reach triple digits and the air almost felt wet it was so humid. Meanwhile, inside the Union and Kedzie Hall it felt like late autumn at best.

There was no real solution to this issue, but the best advice I can give is dress lightly and bring a jacket. While you’re outside you can carry your jacket with you and soak up the warm air. Once inside, you can snuggle up inside of it to keep from freezing. Bonus suggestion: Bring a front closing jacket instead of a pullover, so it is easy to get in and out of in the quickly-changing climate. 

Allison Harwood is senior at Free State High School and a student in the advanced writing class.