Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Lifestyle

Because you’re worth it.
Lifestyle

Because you’re worth it.

You’ve probably heard the saying, before you can love someone else, you need to learn to love yourself… Well, the same is true of connections. Before you can create meaningful and lasting connections with anyone else, you must first connect with yourself. In today’s frantic world, we may forget to take the time to check in with ourselves, and we end up neglecting the most important relationship we have. Self-connection is the process of being in touch with the worthiness and wholeness of yourself. This may sound like a scary prospect, especially if you purposefully avoid being alone with your thoughts. However, forming deeper connections with yourself can boost your mood, help you understand yourself, and can even have a positive effect on other relationships in your life. If you ...
Autistic Connections: how does technology help autistic people live their best lives?
Lifestyle

Autistic Connections: how does technology help autistic people live their best lives?

If I were to ask you how many times you use technology in a day, the number would be higher than you think. The likelihood you’re reading this on a screen, or have seen a link to it on Orbital’s Instagram Stories (@orbitalmagazine, by the way), is incredibly high. In fact, from the moment you wake up, until you fall asleep, technology is everywhere. How else would we wake up on time, preserve food, or read the news as soon as it happens?  Technology enables us to live a faster, easier life than previous generations. The same sentiment is true for autistic people, some of whom use technology in ways that neurotypical people do not. FYI, ‘neurotypical’ just means anyone who does not have developmental conditions such as autism or ADHD. It’s important to define autism, as it’s a c...
Connectivity through understanding: Emetophobia and relationships
Lifestyle

Connectivity through understanding: Emetophobia and relationships

Trigger Warning: Discussions of vomiting and anxiety.  Note: the purpose of this piece is to bring awareness to Emetophobia and the effects it has on making connections and forming relationships. It is from my experience, and I do not aim to speak for everybody.  Emetophobia is a debilitating phobia of vomiting which affects my everyday life and leaves me completely panicked whenever I feel sick. My experience with Emetophobia has not been easy; even the thought of sickness sends shivers down my spine. No one likes being sick, but for me, this fear is next level. Emetophobia isn’t easy to deal with, and it is certainly not easy to explain. It can put massive strain on relationships and friendships because, naturally, it isn’t easy to empathise with a phobia you haven’t personal...
Mummy’s Boys
Lifestyle

Mummy’s Boys

What really defines a Mummy’s Boy? Reluctantly independent? Stupidly stubborn? The fact that mummy’s opinion trumps everything else? Can these qualities define YOU? The connection between mothers and their sons is possibly the strongest bond there is. So why aren’t all boys Mummy’s Boys? The answer changes from person to person, but the one element that is shared between all Mummy’s Boys is love. Who else are you going to gossip to about your latest love affairs, or run to when the other kids take your football off you at break? Mummy is the one that solves all your issues, whether it be with a hug or with a bowl of your favourite food made with an extra dollop of mummy’s pity. These are the foundations of what it means to be a Mummy’s Boy. If you’ve ever heard any of the following,...
Body Dysmorphia
Lifestyle

Body Dysmorphia

I was afraid to leave the house today and I am not the only one. Considering the issues in the world at the moment, this might seem trivial, and maybe it is, or at least I wish it was. This morning, I woke up, tried on a shirt that I’ve worn many times, looked in the mirror and felt disgusting. I won’t hide the way I felt. I gave myself the same look I would give a group of maggots on a rotten apple. If it were a friend looking at themselves that way, I would not encourage it. Carolyn Korsmeyer claimed that ‘it is the foul nature of the objects that trigger this emotion’. I saw myself as foul because I had a muffin top. The modern world is an incredible place, the connections we can make and maintain are wonderful, and our ability to influence each other is widely beneficial. After ...
An Honest Discussion About Queerness and Connection
Lifestyle

An Honest Discussion About Queerness and Connection

Relationships can be difficult to navigate for anyone, but finding your place as a Queer person can present quite the challenge. Not only can it be more difficult to meet a love interest, but it is also common for LGBTQ+ individuals to feel less comfortable discussing their romantic prospects with friends and family, even if they are confidently ‘out and proud’. It can be difficult not to feel like an outsider when friends are frequently discussing their heterosexual crushes and flings. Particularly for lesbian and gay students, the loneliness of being on a night out, surrounded by straight couples and afraid to approach someone of the same sex for fear of being seen as predatory (an insecurity ingrained into those who fall outside of ‘the norm’), is quite an upsetting experience. Not ...
Issue Five Introduction: The Friend Game
Features, Lifestyle

Issue Five Introduction: The Friend Game

At six, I pledged to a girl named Isabel that she’d be my best friend forever. She was blonde. I was brunette. Despite this, Isabel always insisted on playing Gabriella when we re-enacted scenes from our beloved High School Musical. I started to hate her a tiny bit. At fourteen, we fell out over boys.  When I was nine, I told myself my best friend was a girl called Aoife. She was a bitch in the making, and something about that drew me in. She had a strength that I didn’t. But, like any blossoming bitch, she wanted to surround herself with other bitches (and despite my efforts, I was just a bit too off-the-wall to fit the bitch criteria). I haven’t spoken to Aoife since I was twelve, when her parents shipped her off to boarding school.  When I was thirteen, my best friend w...
Vintage Kitchen: Victorian Sorbet
Lifestyle

Vintage Kitchen: Victorian Sorbet

Now that it’s summer, the weather is warmer, and the daylight hours are longer, it made sense to wrap this series up with an iconic treat that we all associate with the season. BBC Radio 4’s podcast, You’re Dead To Me, did an episode exploring the history of ice-cream. The podcast mentioned horrifying 18th century flavours from whale vomit to ‘out there’ ones such as parmesan and artichoke. Towards the end of the podcast, food historian Dr Annie Gray described a recipe from the Queen of Ices: Agnes Marshall (1855-1905). Agnes Marshall was a pioneer of ice cream and frozen desserts, using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice creams, long before the invention of the modern freezer. In 1885 she came out with the patent freezer which could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes and is considered...
From Oxfam to “oh dayum!”: the rise of thrifting
Lifestyle

From Oxfam to “oh dayum!”: the rise of thrifting

Picture this… It’s 2013. Katy Perry’s “Roar” is blasting from your brand-new iPhone 5c and you’re getting ready for a shopping trip with friends. As you are yanking on some sexy mood rings and an edgy print New Look crop top, you get a message from a friend: “I really fancy going into the charity shops, can we?” You are stunned, offended even. Charity shops are for Grandmas, weirdos, losers…why would you ever want to step foot into those dusty antique collectors? Fast forward… It’s 2020. You’ve been in lockdown for four months and all you dream of is seeing the welcoming red sign of the British Heart Foundation. How you long to be browsing the aisles of Oxfam, arms brimming with treasures. What could be better than an afternoon of thrifting? A decade ago, buying clothes ...
The Secrets behind CEOs: How does a billionaire’s daily routine contribute to their success?
Lifestyle

The Secrets behind CEOs: How does a billionaire’s daily routine contribute to their success?

When you picture a billionaire, it’s not a far stretch to imagine a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the person responsible for managing the operations of a company. They uphold the views of their company, and are the main point of communication between a business and the public. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk are the best-known examples of CEOs, and were the owners of their company. This, however, is not always the case. For most of us, a CEO is a man sitting in a chair, getting paid thousands to do seemingly nothing except attend weekly board meetings, to which he contributes two measly sentences. It’s hard not to picture that the average salary of a CEO in the UK is £80,000, over three times the amount of the average UK salary- which sits just under £26,000!  However, w...