Stay Healthy

I don't know about you guys but everyone around me is getting sick... and today I woke up with a sore throat. Not such good timing whatsoever... I've been gulping down the vitamin C and have been taking cough drops like they're water! 

Here's a few ways to try and remain healthy to get yourself through finals:

1. Soak up the sun

Just 20 minutes of sunlight each day significantly boosts the production of vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D not only helps protect your body in maintaining healthy immune function, but it also, in a sense, makes you happier. 

2. Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated is always important. Even though you may not feel as thirsty as often as you may think, drinking plenty of water is still essential to help eliminate waste and prime your body against infections from pathogens.

3. Sweat

Never underestimate the importance of regular exercise. Exercising is of course a great way to get into shape, but it also increases the number of natural fighter cells in our bodies that kill off infection. So even if you only have time to walk around the block, making the effort goes a long way in keeping you healthy and infection free as we approach finals.

4. Get your veggies

Eating brightly coloured fruit and vegetables is also a great way to keep infections at bay. They are rich in vitamin C and E and antioxidants. Their ability to increase the functionality of your immune system means that adding these fresh fruits and vibrant veggies to your daily diet helps your body guard itself from infectious viruses.

5. Try to keep your stress levels at a minimum

By keeping your stress levels down, your immune system will stay up to par. Stress takes an enormous toll on the immune system and makes you more vulnerable to everything from a common cold to major diseases.Yes, yes, I know finals is coming up but start preparing now to avoid the pile up of stress that comes along with cramming. And if you don't already, make sure you get enough sleep and take time out to do the things you enjoy. 

It's That Time Again

WOW... I cannot believe we only have 3 weeks left of school until summer break. That means two weeks left of study and one week of finals. Man, did this semester fly by or what?! For some of us, we have already completed our first year of college. For many others, you are off to a four year university already! Congratulations, that's quite an accomplishment!

Now I'll get into my study talk:
I have come up with a few new study tactics to help myself stay on track for spring semester finals. As I have stated before in previous blogs, taking mini breaks during your study hours is so so important and will actually improve how much information you can obtain.A post on PsychCentral states that "even brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve one's ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods." Why is this? After a while you begin to subconsciously lose your focus and your performance on the task declines. Your body becomes used to the task and "habituated" to the feeling of completing that task so the stimuli no longer registers in a meaningful way to the brain. So trying to study while you feel like you are losing focus will not benefit you in any way and will only make you more exhausted. So take 10-15 minute breaks and go for a walk, prepare a snack, anything that will divert your attention elsewhere so that when you return to your text books your brain will be refreshed and ready to learn again.

Another thing that has proved to be helpful for me lately, is studying right before I fall asleep. Normally I watch netflix before I fall asleep or grab my phone and go through all of the social media sites. However, I have learned that by studying before I fall asleep, my brain is able to keep that knowledge processing all night and I wake up with almost everything memorized! Not to mention, if you are having trouble falling asleep, studying before bed may help tire you out, I know it does for me!

I know finals is a stressful time, but if you start preparing now, you should be well prepared and will most likely go into your finals feeling extremely confident.So just do it! Only three more weeks and you can put your books away for three months! That is unless you are taking summer school... but thats another story!

Friends

Throughout this past semester I have really began to acknowledge the importance of having great friends.

I was very nervous to move from living alone to student living at the beginning of this semester. I'm sure as many of you also felt, I was scared that I wouldn't get along with my roommates. I mean of course that's part of college, but with my personality and the fact that I really don't like change all that much, I was extremely worried about how I would adapt.

I remember the first time I met all of my roommates, of course it was kind of awkward at first, but they really made me feel welcomed and really tried to include me which was extremely helpful in making it easier for me to adapt to my new living situation.

As the semester progressed, my roommates and I got very close and I'm am so happy with my decision to move to tropicana gardens. I have made friends that will last a lifetime.

My actual roommate, Jess, and I stay up all late almost every night just talking about our day, and listening to one another. It has been so great to become best friends with my roommate because I always know that when I come home, she'll be there to talk to if I had a bad day, or even if I had a great day! It's so important to have people in your life that you know you can turn too, especially if you are living far away from your family!

I just want to urge any of you who may be apprehensive about moving in with other people or obtaining other roommates to just go ahead and do it! You never know who you'll meet, they might just turn out to be a great person and life long friend whom you may have never met if it wasn't for college. I also think it's important if you do have roommates, to try to be there for them, even if you don't exactly 'mesh'. Everyone's in the same boat; virtually new to living on there own and being away from their family and childhood friends. Everyone needs somebody, and I know that if it wasn't for the roommates I have now, I wouldn't be enjoying college half as much as I am! They have really made my first year of college a great experience and one to remember!

Enjoy the Moment

Why were we in such a rush to grow up? 

I remember when I was younger I would always think to myself "I'm so excited to be a big kid". Well now I realize that being a 'big kid' isn't at all what it seemed to be when we were youngsters. Actually, now that I am a 'big kid' I sometimes wish I could go back to being a younger where my biggest worry was a scrape on my knee and whether or not mom was going to let me have ice cream after dinner. Those were the good old days, weren't they? We had not a care in the world and also.. No big 'adult responsibilities..

Although being little was great, being in college and at the age we are at right now definitely has its perks and "I really love being 18" moments too. We are finally able to be independent and we are officially becoming who we really are and finding out new things about ourselves each day. Each phase of life has its ups and downs, but hey thats what makes life so great! 

My main point here is that although we may sometimes wish that we were young again with very little worries, we must enjoy being the age that we are now.. Because in 10 years we are going to look back at our time in college and envy it. 

Growing up is inevitable, but we can choose to live in the moment and experience life as it is. Don't wish the days away because one day you'll look back and wish you'd have really lived instead of always looking beyond to the next phase in life!

Life is a great journey, so put down your phone and stop trying to capture all of the great moments on your snap chat story, and actually take in the moment.. Because for somethings pictures just won't do justice.

The Semesters Coming to a Close

Wow, I can't believe that we are almost done with the spring semester already. It is are for my to believe that I am already almost finished with my first year of college?! Where has time gone?

For some reason I feel like the end of this semester is a lot harder than the end of the fall semester. I feel like I have not stopped doin
g homework for three weeks straight. I don't remember feeling this way last semester. The teachers just keep piling on HUGE amounts of homework along with trying to cram in one more test before finals, and not to mention the notorious amount of presentations and projects that have been assigned for the last couple weeks of class.

I currently have to write three term papers, prepare for two exams and put together a twenty minute powerpoint presentation all on top of making sure to keep up with my online class. Yes, this was all assigned this week, so it's not like I've been procrastinating. And yes, it all needs to be done within the next week.

Surprisingly enough, I have been able to manage my stress and push through by taking breaks and trying not to overwhelm my brain. I have just realized that my life will be consumed by homework for the next couple of weeks, but once these four weeks are over, we are off to summer break! SO thats what's keeping me going during this overwhelming time, and it should be keeping you going as well!

We are on the home stretch people, all you have to do is push through these last few weeks and we are on summer break!! Just keep that in mind as you are studying your brains out and everything will be okay!

Oh Netflix

To be completely honest, Netflix is a college students best friend and worst enemy at the same time. Nothing can derail studying and homework, among other things, quite like a Netflix binge session. Sometimes I find myself watching a TV series on Neflix until 2:00 a.m. (when I was planning on being asleep around 11:00 p.m.) Don't worry, if you suffer from 'binge Netflixing' you are not alone.A (not so surprising) 68 percent of college students admit to having watched a television series on Neflix at least once during their college career, according to a study done by Geoffrey Graybeal, a professor in communications at Texas Tech Unviversity.

I mean come on, when it comes to watching multiple episodes of your favorite show, or start your homework... of course watching TV is going to win at that battle. I mean it couldn't get any simpler, all you have to do is press the play button and the series will continue to play until you either hit the pause button or close your computer. Netflix has implemented and 'auto-play feature' which allows for the series to continually play. This is probably why Netflix is such a harmful procrastination technique, because unlike doing laundry or reorganizing your sock drawer, you have very little maintenance in watching Netflix.

Although I do admit, sometimes I get caught in this rut, it is not a good habit to get into. College students struggle to juggle their schedules as it is, however when Netflix is added into the equation, the 'not enough time in one day' struggle becomes even greater. There is a reason that TV shows come on once a week. They only take up one hour of your day once a week, rather than five hours that could be used doing more productive things. 

My advice to you: If you are a Netflix fanatic, giving up your Netflix shows may not be an option. However, I just suggest that you put your school and social life before your binge watching. Make sure all of your school work is done, and then maybe on Sunday afternoon after you've been with your friends all weekend, open your laptop and watch a few episodes of your favorite series!

Be You

I came across this quote earlier today and I thought to myself, what a fabulous way of looking at life. I thought that college kids, especially could benefit from this type of positive motivation.

I feel like there are times when everyone feels a bit out of place, and through these years of "finding ourselves" many students tend to get lost or lose their true selves along this estrange journey of trying to fit in. The reason for this? All of the obstacles one encounters on this journey; achedemics, family matters, new finances, romantic relationships, changing friend circles, and the constant juggle of school work with social life and possibly work. It is hard to find a balance. Juggling these matters can prove very different than life had been in the past and can many times be very difficult.

Remember-

You are most important:
Take care of yourself and your health. Realize how much is too much and find a balance that keeps you happy with every aspect of your life. Seek help in whatever aspect you may need it. Yes, it is okay to ask for help, everyone needs it sometimes. If you aren't doing as well in your courses as you hoped, make a change! Go to a study group or seek help from the awesome tutors in the LRC. SBCC has a huge amount of resources to help with achedemic improvements. Have faith in yourself! You've made it this far, just keep going and remember that the best is yet to come!

Define Yourself:
Don't allow the everyday struggles or hardships you face define you. Everyone experiences struggles, its part of life, and these struggles are what shape us into who we are today. In addition, don't let other define you... or let yourself be defined by others. You are you, and you are the best you, you can be; nobody can be a better YOU! Let every lesson be a type of inspirations that leads you to make tomorrow a better day.

There may be times when you find yourself questioning your plans for the future, school plans, housing plans, a potential relationship, or any other aspect of importance in your life. There may be a time when you feel completely out of place among your friend group, you may feel alone. No matter what the uncertainty is that you may be experiencing,
no matter where you are in life, remember that you can always find the confidence to push through! College is definitely a journey and may be a difficult journey at times, but it is also a great part of life where you learn so much about yourself, others, life... you wouldn't want to waste it on worry!

Personal Finance

I know that earlier I was a bit bitter about my finance class as I am not the best with numbers and was not appreciating the fact that I chose to take an online late start class, however, this class has already started to benefit me.

During the first week of class, one of our assignments was to make a budget. From then on, our task was to keep track of our spending for the month, and then finally prepare a budget control sheet demonstrating our budget next to our actual spending.

This assignment proved to be extremely helpful in showing me where I spend the majority of my money and just exactly how much I spend without even realizing it! I realized that I underestimated my spending on a few categories, with the biggest expenditure going towards food. As with many college kids, this is a touchy subject in terms of a budget. Starbucks is a huge money sucker that usually attracts tons of college kids because yes we do need our caffeine! However, I realized that I go to Starbucks multiple times per week, and paying four dollars for an overpriced latte really does add up.

Through this assignment I was able to obtain a grasp on reality and understand how much I really could save by just watching how much I eat out (and how many overpriced lattes I buy ha ha).

I really do recommend this class for anyone who wants a realistic perspective on how money works when your out on the real world. We are currently learning about the two biggest purchases one will make in their entire lifetime: buying a car, and purchasing a house. These are things I never learned how to do in high school, which in my opinion is ridiculous since high school is suppose to prepare you for 'the real world' but that's another story. As I said before I wouldn't take this class as a late start class since their is so much info crammed into one week, but it is a VERY beneficial class, and you will definitely walk away with knowledge on real life money adventures!