You Are What You Eat

As always, I want to talk about another subject that pertains to college life (surprise, surprise, right?). Yet another detrimental part of living what I'd like to call the "eternal sleepover" (essentially spending every minute of everyday with 40,000 of your peers) is the impossibility of eating healthy. Eating on a schedule and in proportion becomes slightly less possible when your in college. I cannot even count the amount of times that my friends and I have trooped down to get an unhealthy snack, whether it be ice cream or frozen chicken tenders, at 2 in the morning. Honestly, within the first month of my first semester I was getting fed up with my horrible eating habits. I was beginning to feel fatigued all the time and I knew that it had something to do with the fact that I truly wasn't getting all of the nutrients that I needed. Finally, I decided that I needed a change (I couldn't be malnourished AND sleep deprived) and I slowly found ways to improve my diet.

Obviously this is not a diet blog, but I want to stress the importance of a good diet, especially for a college student. It is so easy to get caught up in college life that we forget the we have to take care of our bodies. Eating right is beneficial in so many ways, not only does it make you feel good, it makes you look good, and it also helps you to continue to develop into adulthood in a healthy way. If we don't begin to think about these very foundational concepts, we may find ourselves later in life regretting some of the choices we are making right now.

In conclusion, although it may seem hard in theory to change these bad habits, including bad eating habits, it will be so entirely worth it a few years down the road. I know that it may seem as though college will last forever, but sadly it won't and we need to take care of ourselves for the present as well as the future! So be good to your body because you will be so thankful a few years down the road!

Farewell Quotes

I'm so sad to announce that this will be my final blog post of the year! I honestly cannot believe that this year has come to a close so quickly, but I digress. I spent a quite a bit of time this week thinking of the ultimate way to finish off this blog for the year. I reminisced a little and I read through all of my wildly eclectic blog posts from this entire year to get some solid ideas and I finally decided that I would pull some of the main ideas from my older blog posts and pull out some newer ideas to form a list of all of the my "life mottos" that I have gathered so far and would love to share with you all! So here goes nothing:

1. "Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact." - William James
I learned this lesson from my grandmother, bless her heart, who has been afraid of living since she was young. Many years of fearing the outside world has kept her held up in her own little home for the past 30 years, where her monotonous routine has become the entirety of her life. Though she doesn't realize it, through this she has taught me a very valuable lesson about letting go of my fears and taking advantageous of every little opportunity that comes my way, despite how scary it may seem. She has taught me that life is about protecting yourself from the world around you, its about diving in, taking risks, and enjoying the experiences that create a life worth living for.

2. "Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In first, it is ridiculed. In the second, it is opposed. In the third, it is regarded as self evident. - Arthur Schophenhauer 
I have heard this stated in several different ways by several different people, however its meaning always rings true despite its various mediums. I love this quote so much because it has encouraged me to think outside the boundaries quite a bit. Sometimes we are too caught up in unspoken social rules to move society forward. It takes someone who is a little bit different, but not afraid of that difference to make big changes in the world. I encourage you all to be a little different, think outside of the norm and use these things to better our world.

3. "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Crosby 
Although Bill Crosby might not be the most ethos worthy character in the media today, I still think that his words here are so very true. I have always been a "people pleaser" and I originally thought that this was the ultimate way to reach some sort of self-actualization, but I couldn't have been more incorrect. Life is a give and take sort of thing. You cannot forget entirely about yourself and you cannot forget entirely about others. You must find a happy medium in between these two points. Make yourself happy, but always be aware of others.

4. "Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison 
This is a lesson that I have most certainly learned from my Dad. I am so extremely lucky to have such an amazing support system, my family, that never ceases to believe in me and constantly pushes me forward (even when I would prefer that they didn't). My father always told me that I was capable of anything that I put my mind to, and although I was first wary about this growing up, I now know that this holds quite a bit of truth. We are all capable of something truly great. Don't let little bumps in the road discourage you from achieving your goals. And don't ever give up.

5. "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." - John Wooden 
This is a life lesson that I have heard straight from my mother (in other words of course) since I was a child. I have always been a bit of a perfectionist, which many times sets me up to feel as though I have failed. However, my mother always told me, despite how much I so disliked the idea, that there would always be someone smarter than me, someone taller, someone prettier, someone richer, but that I couldn't let that get in the way of who I was. And now I can admit that she was completely right. I was letting what I couldn't change or do interfere with the things that I was and could do. I was measuring my worth in things that I couldn't achieve rather than the things I had achieved. Although this idea is hard to grasp in the highly idealistic society in which we live in, it is the only way to find yourself and be proud of that person. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't let failures or inabilities to keep you from achieving your own personal goals.


I hope that you all find ways to find yourself from some of the lessons that I have talked about here, but also in all of the blog posts from this year! Good luck to all of you! I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts with all of you!

How to Avoid Every Student's Worst Nightmare: Procrastination

So this week I wanted to hone on a subject that I have previously talked about in varies blog posts over the past several weeks. When I started this blog I thought that I may be talking about many aspects of my life, but then I suddenly realized that being a student IS my life and almost my whole life. So once again I am going to touch upon one of the many things that every college student must face everyday, and that is the black hole they call "procrastination.

I find this issue so important to talk about because it has certainly become my vice in college. But in the past year I have come up with several tips that have greatly helped me in my college career so far and will hopefully be helpful to all of my readers!

The most important step to evading procrastination is to always write things down. As I mentioned in my last post, get a planner! It is honest to God, the BEST way to organize your life. I can tell you that you are a billion times more likely to forget about a test, project, essay, etc. if you don't have it written down. And in the event that you actually do remember to do it, it will probably be when your teacher reminds you of it in class the day before its due. So in conclusion, writing your assignments down will save you from that horrible feeling when you forgot to do something extremely important and will most certainly allow you more time to do your assignments. Writing everything down is absolutely key to evading procrastination!

Along with writing all of your assignments down, it is of the utmost importance to plan ahead. No joke. My friends find this habit of mine to be hilarious, but I don't let it faze me. As ridiculous as it might seem, it actually allows me to enjoy more free time than I ever did when I didn't plan out my day. At the beginning of every week I make sure that I update my planner with any changes to the syllabus in any of my classes and I check to make sure that I am not forgetting any major assignments or exams. And everyday, before I finish my classes, I not only write down what I need to do that specifically for the next day, I also make sure to plan time to complete projects and study for tests several weeks before their due dates. In doing this, there is no way to procrastinate. I never have to worry about not having enough time to complete a certain assignment and this is honestly the biggest stress reliever for the overly-stressed college student! So I encourage you all to plan out everyday, to make the most of your time and to take some of the stress out of these stressful last few weeks of classes.

Another favorite of mine is prioritizing. It seems like a really basic subject although this is another subject that often gets people into trouble. I have fallen into the trap many times when I choose to spend my time on something due in two weeks as opposed to something that is due in two days. It may sound crazy, but there are just some days when you would rather do anything but the thing that you actually have to do. The only way to avoid this is to prioritize. When I plan ahead for what I am going to do each night, I also include a little number next to each item, which tells me what I need to do first, and what I should leave for any free time that I have after completing the most important assignments. Don't forget to prioritize because it will certainly save you from procrastination!

The last, but certainly not least tip is to work on assignments whenever you have free time. This is something that I struggle with everyday. Everyone has their rituals everyday, and mine has become, come home and watch netflix, nap, eat dinner, and then try to fit all of my homework in. However, this method hasn't really worked out for me. And so I have learned that I need to fit in time to do my assignments whenever I have free time. This way, I can finish all of my assignments and still have a few hours of free time every night to do whatever I would like to do. This keeps me from procrastinating until the last few hours of the night to finish my work, but it has also opened up a lot of free time in my life! Completing my assignments whenever you can is one of the best ways to have your cake, but eat it too!

I hope some of these tips can help you all to evade the black hole of procrastination! Just three weeks left everyone! We are... almost finished!!

Organizing Your Way to Success

Today, I had the idea to talk about yet another topic that is so pertinent to the life of every college student: organization. However, before I begin I just wanted to mention that I am going to attempt to avoid a pedantic tone throughout this post, but if at any time I start to sound that way, just know that even though I say all of things, I certainly do not always follow through with them. After all, we’re all college students and this is the time that we are to be making mistakes, right? Well, I hope so.

Anyway, I wanted to talk a little bit about this subject not just because it pertains so well to the average college student, but also because they are general life skills that are definitely worth mastering when we have a much greater leeway to try new things and make mistakes. That being said, I’m going to give you all some tips and tricks that I try to use in order to “organize” my way to success.

Agenda. Agenda. Agenda. Agenda. I honestly cannot say it enough! If you don’t have an agenda I don’t know how you can survive in this crazy world. I am a self-diagnosed type A person, which lends itself nicely to my agenda addiction. I love having an agenda for so many reasons. I could go on for hours talking about it (talk about geeky right?). First of all, writing down all of my assignments, tests, project due dates, and meetings is the only way that I can remember them. In high school, the workload was a lot lighter and therefore it was a great deal easier to remember what was due when. However, college is a completely different ball game. Professors don’t remind you when things are due and sometimes don’t even mention that you have assignments due. So the only sure fire way to make sure you turn your assignments in on time is to write down due dates of assignments from the syllabus or as soon as you are aware of them. With this method I can assure you that you will never miss an assignment again. Another way in which the agenda works its magic is for those of us (basically all of us) who have time-management issues. Every college student has to fall victim to this problem at least once during their college career. For those of you that have perfect, unwavering motivation and drive, I commend you for this amazing talent. However, for most of us this is almost impossible. But there is still hope for us because having an agenda to plan out when you would like to work on each assignment and for how much time may keep you from partaking in these very unfavorable behaviors such as procrastination. Trust me, keeping an updated agenda that includes all of the due dates, test dates, and meeting dates in one place, will save you time, help you to keep your grades up, and manage your time more efficiently so that you have extra time to partake in activities that you would much rather be doing.

Yet another way to organize your way to success is to find a clean and quiet place to work. This seems so simple and it really is, but I always abide by this suggestion. When you have a billion things cluttering your desk, it is almost impossible to work on it obviously, but it also discourages you from actually accomplishing anything. This doesn’t mean that you need to be anal about keeping your room in order, but it’s not a bad ideal be a little anal about keeping a clean space to do your school work. Just give it a try, and I can assure you that your grades will be thanking you.

The third and last tip that I would like to share with you revolves around time management as I briefly mentioned before. However, this is a slightly different way to consider time management. Since I was little, the first thing that I did when I got home was finish all of my assignments for the night. I can assure you all that this was not a habit that I came up with on my own. I am completely certain that this was my parents’ doing, but nonetheless, it was a habit that I had until I reached the end of high school. Then as I reached college, I learned that the way that I was used to completing my assignments was not really the most affective way to do so. Why you may ask? Well, before I was trying to get as much done in as little time as I possibly could. I would sit at my kitchen table for two hours a night, rushing to get all of my work done with no breaks in between assignments. Doing my assignments in this manner I was not truly paying attention to what I was doing. And I also gave my brain very little time to recover in between assignments. I have learned since then that taking my time and taking small breaks in between is the most affective way to complete my homework. The truth is, the brain can only maintain focus for about 45 minutes before its power begins to wane and becomes distracted more easily. So in powering through some of my assignments without giving my mind a couple minutes to refocus itself, I was actually working much less effectively. So take this into account the next time you sit down for a long study session. It’s important to get up and give yourself a break every now and then! You will end up working much more effectively if you follow this tip!

Well, I hope that some of these tips can help you all to survive the brutal college workload! Keep organizing your way to success!

Navigating the World of Long-Distance Relationships

I have been in a long-distance relationship for about a year now, and although it may be seemingly uncontroversial I would have to say that it has been considered quite controversial by many of my friends and family. I am constantly bombarded with questions on the subject, some of them being things that I questioned when I first embarked on this journey, but others things that I would have never even thought about. And so, I decided that maybe I could use this post not only share some of my thoughts and feelings on the subject, but maybe also give a few hints and reasons to continue a long-distance relationship that you may be in or possibly even give you a reason not to fear long-distance relationships in the future.

Honestly, before this year, a long-distance relationship would have seemed unfathomable. I couldn't imagine being in a non-traditional relationship and that's probably how a lot of people feel. The truth is that it IS different. My relationship isn't traditional by any standard or definition, but it IS a functional and I have learned that functionality is what really matters in a relationship. 

Many people ask me how my relationship works. How can you love a person that you almost exclusively see on a computer screen? How do you feel loved when skype is the permanent third wheel on all of your “dates”? I can say that it is hard, especially this day and age and specifically at this time in our lives. It is a billion times harder to maintain a relationship when you are able to see each other just 2 or 3 times a year. You loose the physical element that is so commonly depended upon this day and age. Instead, you are forced to build a relationship on kinship and quite honestly, you have to really like the person that you are seeing to build this sort of relationship. My boyfriend and I are best friends. We know everything about each other, the good and the bad. And in the end, I have to admit that due to our extenuating circumstances, we have built a much stronger relationship than I ever would have imagined. If the chance to go back and choose differently, I think that I would not change a thing in our relationship. Although it is sometimes strenuous, the good always outshines the bad and I wouldn’t give that up for anything in the world. 

The second most common question that I receive is : “How do you think this will end?” People constantly want to know if we plan to continue our relationship and how we plan on doing that. And personally, I have no good answer for that. I would love to tie everything up into a neat little bow and know exactly what my life will entail in the future, but I don’t and that’s perfectly okay! To my family and friends this concept is scary. Those who love me are particularly afraid that I will eventually get my heart broken. But to be completely honest, I would be fine with that because I would know that I had not missed an opportunity. I would know that I was brave enough to be myself and do what was best for me. I would never wake up to regret or fall asleep with tormenting thoughts. I would always know that I put myself out there, whether that was the smartest choice or not. I would be happy just knowing that as cliché as it might sound, I took chance a on love. And just as I have, I hope that you all find someone that makes you happy whether they be near or far and whether that be for today or for a lifetime.

College Preparedness

So, today yet again I wanted to discuss a subject that is quite relevant in my life, college. Before coming to college I had a vision of what college would be, as I'm sure most of you had as well. I saw somewhat of an post-adolescent utopia where my only worries would include what I would wear out to party every weekend and. I didn't quite come to think about the academic, and most important, part of college. Before college I can't say that I ever truly studied, or at least my so-called standards for studying were relatively low. I have always been a hard worker; I have always done all of my work to my best ability. However, that "ability" seemed almost useless when I got to college in the fall and realized that college was more than an "eternal sleepover" with all of my best friends, in fact, it was WAY more than that. My first semester I studied hard, but after almost failing some of my first tests (what dreadful moments) I knew that what I once considered "studying" was certainly not going to cut it in college if I wanted to perform well. Luckily though, I sort of got the hang of it by the time that my next exams rolled around. It was not an easy feat, but it was definitely all worth it in the end. And so, I would like to share with you all some of the things that I did to prepare myself for the realities of college.

First, and most importantly, I have found that going to class is absolutely essential. I know that everyone has heard this almost a billion times, but in the hope that hearing this one last time will make everyone aware of it's importance, I'll say it again. This is not only the most important part of college, but it is also the easiest! You go to class, you pay attention for an hour and voila, you make studying the topic later much easy for yourself. I call it "priming". Although you can't substitute going to class for studying, you have just "primed" your brain with the information, which makes it much easier to study at a later time. Honestly, it is an investment that you will never regret. So get out of bed (I know, it's painful) and get to your classes because this truly is the first step to being well prepared for your exams.

Secondly, make an effort to make the information that you are studying pertinent and relevant to your personal life. There is nothing more boring than studying something that you don't care about. The only way to change that is to make it something you care about. Whether it's math, science, or English, there is a way to tie it to your life. If you are having trouble doing this, then I would suggest taking classes that are relevant to each other. This is a great way to spark your interest because the more that you immerse yourself into a certain topic or concept, the more opportunities there are to tie it to your life. For example, I am taking several english courses that rely heavily on advocacy. So I also took a women's studies course, knowing that some of the concepts would tie together and allow me to form not just a deeper understanding of the topic, but also find how pertinent these subjects were to my life. Taking the time to relate classes to my life has not just made me a better student, but it has allowed me to view my classes not as chores, but as a wonderful privileges I have to form a better understanding of myself and the world around me.

Thirdly, I have found that it is almost essential that I plan out and organize my schedule, with the help of my best friend, my planner. Some of my friends think that I am completely nuts over organizing my life, but I would say that they are just not worried about it enough. I have always found that using a planner to organize all of my assignments and activities was the best way to live a semi stress free life, but now that I am in college and I honestly can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, let alone the thousands of homework assignments, projects, and tests I have a month, I depend on my planner more than ever. The truth is, you WILL forget to complete something at some point in your college career and you will be kicking yourself for not having written it down. However, a planner does more than merely aide you to remember assignments, it can allow you to prioritize and schedule time to get all of your assignments done. Every single week, I plan out exactly what I need to get done everyday of the week so that all of my assignments don't fall on the same day. That way, I do get the chance to live out at least part of my utopian college experience.

I hope that some of these things will help you all to better prepare yourself for your college classes! Many of you have probably heard some of these tips a thousand times, but I hope that this will encourage you even more to follow these easy guidelines!

A Little Bit of Positive Psychology

Today I feel as though the icky weather calls for a little bit of positive psychology.  It seems to be every year just around this time that I get the winter blues. Sometimes its hard to put on a smile when it seems as though winter is never going to end, but I assure you all that spring is on its way. Nonetheless, to get us to spring I thought I'd suggest some tips to keep our smiles strong until then!

A few years ago, a former teacher of mine, for whatever reason that I can't quite seem to remember now, told us about something she referred to as seasonal depression. Not believing her, I took to the internet to prove its legitimacy. Sure enough, she was right. The idea seemed odd to me at the time, however in the last couple of years I have certainly have been feeling it. For some reason, when the sun is out people actually feel happier and seasonal depression can set in during the long abyss of winter with its shocking lack of sunlight. This infliction is somewhat hard to overcome and although snuggling up to Netflix seems like the best way to solve any problem, it doesn't quite solve this one. Since we just can't seem to count on Mother Nature to shower us with a few rays every once in a while I have decided to disregard the sad weather outside and put on my smile anyway. I am a true believer in the amazing power of a simple smile. Smiles show so many things to the world around you, but they can also be beneficial to just you. Smiles show confidence, but build confidence at the same time. They display physical beauty, but at the same time display inner beauty. A simple smile can improve your outlook on the world.

Smiles truly are magical. They are certainly contagious. However, more importantly, they can actually change your mood and your outlook in the world. So what do I prescribe for these sad, cloudy days? Exactly that. A smile! I think we can change the world with a simple turn of the lips. So go ahead and smile :). I promise you won't regret it!