Some of us spend hours every week at the ARC, while others rely on 8th Grade Dance Night at Joe’s to stay in shape. Regardless of how often we all work out, there is a general awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy routine.

Physical health is important, but unfortunately it is not the only thing we have to worry about when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It is also the less apparent conditions that must not be forgotten. Mental illnesses like eating disorders or genetic health issues that explain inherited diseases must also be remembered.

Right now, there are two student-run events on campus both doing a great job of bringing these overlooked health issues to the forefront. This week is the National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Delta Delta Delta sorority has put together several events to recognize the reality of this situation. The Women’s Resource Center hosted “NoBODY is Perfect,” a panel discussion on body image. On Tuesday, there was a letter-writing campaign at the Union encouraging people to write to companies in efforts to better represent women in the media.

The majority (95 percent) of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. Unfortunately, this means most of us have a personal connection to someone who struggles with an eating disorder, or possibly might be victim to one. But our campus is recognizing that there are hundreds of students struggling with issues like anorexia, bulimia or other less-defined forms of eating disorders.

Another “week” beginning March 1 is a local event called the I Dream of Gene Week. Sondra Feldman, a junior in LAS studying biology, decided that physical and mental aspects were just two of the many factors of our health that needed to be acknowledged. Something was being left out.

“While many people know the value of eating well, sleeping and exercising, we rarely consider our genetic health,“ Feldman said.

Last summer, Feldman interned at the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders, a center that empowers community members to seek information about genetic disorders and hereditary cancers. Feldman decided that this issue needed to be recognized by the greater campus community. What started as a summer internship quickly spiraled into a campus-wide event.

Monday night begins the kickoff to I Dream of Gene Week. This week aims to raise awareness about genetic health. The event on Monday includes a few speakers, including Judy Miller, a retired genetic counselor, and Nanette Elster, who plans to inform us about the ethical debates that surround genetics. These issues are prevalent in our lives for many reasons; some of these are obvious, while others are not so visible. The rest of the week includes other events to engage the campus in genetic health awareness.

As Feldman plans to one day be a genetic counselor, she feels passionately about individuals on this campus and their understanding of their genes.

“In this day and age, when we have the resources and the technologies to do so, we must be aware and take care of our genetic health just as we take care of our physical and mental health,” Feldman said.

Gene technology can give us answers about the future of our health, but as college students, the future is not always easy to think about, and many times can bring information that we feel we were better off not knowing.

The reality is that we are getting older and starting to think about marriage and children. It is important to understand that our genes do not only affect ourselves; we could pass something on to the next generation.

As college students, “being healthy” is not always easy. Our health is important — we all are aware of this, but oftentimes it is easy to overlook certain aspects of our well-being. As much as we care about being healthy, we don’t always know exactly how to do it. We are young and sometimes feel invincible.

I’m proud that our campus is able to recognize the illnesses that are happening around us. It’s inspiring to see students working hard to raise awareness about different health issues directly impacting our lives.

Ashley is a junior in LAS.