Jordan Thorne, Author at The Orbital

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Test Your Drugs, Not Yourself

Student life is a special period in which self-exploration is deeply encouraged, for many people at University this means experimentation with drug use. In 2018, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a report which found that 56% of the 2,810 student participants who took part had used drugs in the past. This number should not surprise anyone familiar with student life, especially at Royal Holloway. The use of mind-altering substances, if not regular, is certainly a common feature of life for young people living with friends and away from family. Unfortunately, another common feature is that many students who decide to use these substances do so without an adequate understanding of the potential risks to their wellbeing. This is where the Drugs and Alcohol Awareness (DNA...

25Jan

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Creative Writing

Hedonism

They want parties and they want them now. The bugs of the metropolis glean blue in the daytime. Shake hands, rub wings, leap in flight from skyscraper to skyscraper. Fill plastic bags with belongings, once theirs, now mine: leather shoes, slinky handbags, velvet dresses and dark suede. Fur coats trimmed with snow scarves turn to chiffon and liquorice jackets come spring. They use terms like, ‘summer wardrobe’ and warble about ski seasons and active wear. Models overtake models, on catwalks and in rehab. They trawl from retailer to retailer as hands bump, and cards read: Transaction Authorised. Sunglasses meets Black Eyeliner’s gaze across the counter. They cram their mouths full of cheese, pastries, sun-dried tomatoes, passion fruit and tequila; the nectar of The Every-Day bec...

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Creative Writing

Letter from Farishta

05/01/05, Barki From Farishta between the wheat countries somewhere hunched like those women who chew beedis – we listened – unbathed unshat to our rusks and watched thatches of earth become our new home I thought of when we played shuttle once you sang you wouldn’t shut up that song from Umrao Jaan your dada sings with his snake hookah around his neck didn’t I say something like I will never marry that I wished to be those bikers we saw while picking our marigolds riding to Leh from the south like they meant to burgle the Himalayas – I bit Asif when he rode me for the first time last night I feared he will find my letter and – if this reaches you...

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Creative Writing

like the others

like the others blowing their hovels with pink salt with crumbled seeds as sand caskets he watched them recede it was the summer of disease

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Digital Copies

January 2021 Issue

https://issuu.com/orbital-royalholloway/docs/orbital_-_jan_2021

2021’s Biggest Releases on Every Console

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Science & Technology

2021’s Biggest Releases on Every Console

Whatever your console of choice, there’s plenty to look forward to this year in order to satiate your gaming appetite. No matter whether you’ve forked out millions to a scalper to get your hands on a new PS5 or Xbox Series X, fought your way through arduous Tesco queues to secure their £50 Nintendo Switch Black Friday discount, spent your lockdowns building your new supercomputer to assert your true gaming superiority, or opted for the perfect portability of a phone, this list will provide you with the absolutely, unequivocally, one hundred percent objectively, greatest game to get your hands on this year (read: entirely subjective guess based on the author’s questionable and limited gaming knowledge…). Xbox’s (E)xemplary (E)xample - It Takes Two (expected release March 26th) Produ...

The ‘New Year, New You’ Is Coming Under Review

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Lifestyle

The ‘New Year, New You’ Is Coming Under Review

It’s that time again. The age-old spiel of ‘New year, new me’ is back out in full force. I can’t tell you how many fitness adverts I’ve seen, Instagram posts telling me how to eat well and exercise better, influencers pushing a new diet regime that makes you lose more weight in less time during this first week in January. Even the News app on my phone is full of ‘health tips’, and frankly I am sick of it. We’re constantly being told to Do More!, Be Better!, achieve greater things, never stop hustling, always be grinding blah blah blah. It is becoming increasingly clear that we live in a society that values productivity and productivity only. Well, I’m here to say no more! Living in such a way can invariably cause burn-out, stress and anxiety – which are not the ideal. A more balanced form...

New Year’s Resolutions and Why They’re Overrated

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Lifestyle

New Year’s Resolutions and Why They’re Overrated

Every year starts out the same: it’s January 1st and you’ve promised yourself that this is your year to lose weight, get into fitness and eat healthy. You wake up ridiculously hungover the morning after New Year’s Eve and the thought of all that seems impossible, so you swear you’ll start properly tomorrow. 10 days into the new year, you’ve made a solid attempt but can already feel yourself slipping up, asking why you did not just set some more achievable, realistic goals. It is believed that only 8% of people who set out resolutions at the start of the year still continue to accomplish them in December. Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t manage to stick with yours, we’ve all been there. In today’s world, the focus on the idea of hustle culture has created a toxic concept of working ...

How to Live More Sustainably as a Student

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Lifestyle

How to Live More Sustainably as a Student

Over the last few decades, concerns about the carbon footprint we leave on this earth has become prevalent and has taken space at the forefront of our minds. We have seen recently what happens when we stop moving and focus on where we are, what occurs when air and car traffic is reduced, how clear the sea truly is, how bright the sky is meant to be and how clean the air feels. But how can we sustain this feeling and outcome? We have become more mindful of which bin a piece of wrapping should be put in or whether the piece of clothing we are wearing is environmentally friendly. Millions of questions around this continue to race through our minds, and as students we are becoming more aware of the future and what we can do to contribute to the welfare of the planet. Here are a few ways in wh...

25Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Lifestyle

Feeling lonely at uni? You’re not alone

We prepare for cooking by buying plates and cups, we prepare for paying accommodation fees by budgeting and we prepare for workloads by organising events in a diary. But no one tells us how to prepare for loneliness. “University will be the best years of your life!” “You’re most likely going to meet your husband or wife at uni!” “All the friends I talk to now are ones I met at university!” From the time we are accepted into university, we are bombarded with optimistic praises from post- graduates and adults that it was the best years of their lives and that we have so much to look forward to. Hollywood films project a harmful stereotype about teenagers finding their romantic soulmate and being the life of the party at a different club every night, drilling unrealistic expectat...