Thursday, June 11Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: lifestyle

From Lecture Halls to Boardrooms: Zaid Khayal on post-grad life
Lifestyle, News

From Lecture Halls to Boardrooms: Zaid Khayal on post-grad life

By Fatima Dadabhoy, Senior Lifestyle Editor A conversation on ambition, work ethic, and pre/post-grad life. 1. What was your time at Royal Holloway like, and what are you doing now? My time at Royal Holloway was a lot of fun it was both intellectually challenging and personally formative. Studying Economics gave me a structured way to understand how markets, incentives and human behaviour intersect. I valued how I was taught how to think, not just what to think. It was during Covid times, and we got to experience everything first hand. We endured online exams and lectures but overall, the experience really did prepare me for the working world. I now work for Deloitte Middle East as an analyst within the Strategy, Risk and Transactions. Working with different clients across ...
In Defense Of The ‘Chronically Online’
Opinion

In Defense Of The ‘Chronically Online’

By Matthew Gibbons, Staff Writer Trigger Warnings: Mentions of neo-nazism, racism, homophobia Crisps crunching, cans being tossed and cracked open, keyboard keyboard - this is the sound of the pale, unwashed 30-year old virgin dwelling in his mother’s basement, hunched over in front of a computer screen, chugging energy drinks and arguing viciously with strangers on Twitter… This is the prime example of the ‘chronically online’ stereotype. Coined in the 2010s, it refers to people who spend most of their time online and hardly ever leave their room, let alone go outside. Typically characterized as unemployed, socially inept and lacking face-to-face human interactions ‘In Real Life’ (‘IRL’) these ‘chronically online’ people are generally unfamiliar with showers or sunlight…so obvio...
FEATURE: Words of encouragement from your working-class Editor-in-Chief
Lifestyle

FEATURE: Words of encouragement from your working-class Editor-in-Chief

Ruby Saggers, Editor-in-Chief Content Warning: Mentions of cancer, bereavement, and bullying Being Editor-in-Chief during our forty year celebration of The Orbital is certainly a recognised privilege. This landmark has elicited particularly heavy reflection in myself, on top of the dread I already feel in my final teaching term as an undergraduate. My biggest reflection, however, is on how doubtful my seniors had always been of me - and how I have subsequently managed to prove them wrong. I hope that this piece gives you inspiration, working-class or not, to keep pushing regardless of outside opinions and assumptions based on the life handed to you.  At birth, much of my life had already been set in stone. My father, once a hardworking scaffolder, had been diagnosed with a b...
“Say It Again?…But a Little Slower This Time”: Navigating University Life With a Northern Accent
Lifestyle

“Say It Again?…But a Little Slower This Time”: Navigating University Life With a Northern Accent

By Madeline Sidgwick, Senior News Editor Coming from the North East of England, moving South for university was always on my bucket list. I have always had, and still do, the ability to romanticise London, posh accents and the undeniable relevancy of living in the South.  My personal experience as someone that possesses quite a strong regional accent has been interesting to say the least. I have had my accent described as everything from ‘charming’ to ‘chavy’ and on one occasion was asked to ‘slow down I actually cannot understand what you are saying’.  Before university I would have never identified myself as having a regional  accent or coming across as  stereotypically Northern in my personality– whatev...
Can One Ever Fundamentally Change?
Opinion

Can One Ever Fundamentally Change?

Honey-Rose Dunn, Staff Writer When I feel an old memory rush past me, and see a version of myself that feels more like a character than my younger self, I wonder whether I have become a completely different person. Over the years, our world changes and takes us with it, our bodies grow and age, our beliefs change, and our old memories blur behind the new ones. It’s as if we become new people all together. But, sometimes I feel like it’s impossible to outrun the past versions of myself, as if she haunts my new life and new experiences, as if I am unable to move on from the world she experienced. Perhaps we are not supposed to lose all the versions of ourselves, perhaps we never truly change. You can drop yourself in any part of the world and your scars will still be there, your mind wil...
Good Villager/Bad Villager: People Pleasing and In(ter)dependence at University
Opinion

Good Villager/Bad Villager: People Pleasing and In(ter)dependence at University

By Rhian Kille, Associate Opinion Editor ‘I saw that at the core of me, where something real and solid should be, sat a mirror, reflecting whatever I thought others wanted to see.’ – Moya Sarner, ‘Are you a people pleaser? It’s time to find out what you really want’, The Guardian (2025) As is true of most people pleasers, I like to think that people are overall pretty pleased by my façade of inexhaustible niceness and inoffensive demeanour. I used to include myself as part of this group, but recently anger, bitterness, and resentment, the classic symptoms of late-stage people pleasing, have begun to develop. I used to think people pleasing only made me a better friend. It was, I thought, at worst a harmless personality quirk, a cute pathological impulse. Now I’m coming to see it as ...
Let’s be honest, Am I too good at being a single woman?
Lifestyle

Let’s be honest, Am I too good at being a single woman?

By Senior Lifestyle Editor, Evelyn Fernandez-Jarvis Since the British Vogue article was released in October, questioning ‘Is having a boyfriendembarrassing now?’, I suddenly feel extremely validated as a single woman. Is thiswomen’s way of fighting back at toxic masculinity? I find this wave of opposing apartnership something that needs to be given more time to digest. In the age of Olivia Deanand Chante Joseph, there is a massive shift towards women romanticising activities asmundane as walking around the park, to using their empowerment by focusing on herselfand her future. With the emphasis on romantic love becoming less prominent I started toask myself: Why? Let's start with this idea of disappointment and dismissal. I feel as though in the modern ageit is now considered ‘rare’ ...
Does having a glamorous life lead to your ultimate downfall?
Lifestyle

Does having a glamorous life lead to your ultimate downfall?

By Evelyn Fernandez-Jarvis, Senior Lifestyle Editor Is there such a thing as being too lucky in life? Can a successful brand become the root cause of separation from the people we deem the closest too? I have been asking myself this question ever since the infamous Brooklyn Beckham decided to release his version of events to why he no longer wants a contactable relationship with his family. In my opinion, whilst trying to stay as neutral as possible, it made me think about the costs of fame and fortune. This one event on instagram had me and my housemates immediately glued to our phones, trying to put all the pieces together as if we were the detectives on a case of family estrangement.  The Beckhams' lives are extremely hard to visualise as something that is a reality, as i...
Honestly, Thank you.
Opinion

Honestly, Thank you.

By Lily Gregory, Senior Agony Aunt The university has changed. You see, I did my undergraduate degree here at Royal Holloway and now I’m doing my masters degree. This is my fourth year here and honestly I’ve never seen the university quite like this.   I go out to society events during the evening, and the campus is still busy. People are skating, playing football, chatting, singing, and doing group study sessions. I was shocked. Throughout my undergraduate degree, campus was quiet and never had the energy that it does now. Be it day or night, the campus feels like a university campus rather than a place with academic buildings on it. Since Covid it has felt as though something is missing. Now, I see society events booming, with some having mo...
Grief, Guilt, and the Fear of Forgetting
Lifestyle

Grief, Guilt, and the Fear of Forgetting

By Ruby Saggers, Editor-in-Chief The 19th July 2022 placed me in an eternal loop of grief. I lost my eldest brother, my absolute best friend, after he was missing for two days. Detectives informed us they had found a body at the bottom of our local reservoir: a short period of distress was met with sudden grief and everything fell apart.  Since that day, it hasn’t stopped; the bad news just keeps on coming. I lost two beloved cousins, my grandparents passed three months apart, and my father has been battling a brain tumour longer than I’ve been alive. Last September, we discovered he has a second tumour growing on his brain. Some days, he has trouble remembering who we are. Now, after all this, all I feel is guilt.  I haven’t truly been able to grieve the loss of my bro...