Taking Care of Yourself

Recently, I have been extremely busy... and when I say busy I mean that I legitimately have not had even a minute in the past week to take a moment and gather my thoughts. It has been go, go, go... wake-up, get ready, grab breakfast and head out the door to walk to class. Then, since my school schedule only allows for ten minutes between classes, I have to rush from class to class, only to rush home and head out the door for work. Then, to no surprise, after work I grab dinner I grab dinner and head out the door to the library until 11:00 when the library closes and end up falling asleep around 11:30 from pure exhaustion. This has been my what my days have consisted of this entire week, and let me tell you... I am drained, tired, feeling under the weather, and have been somewhat aggravated in general.

Today I have realized that self-care and "me" time are essential to maintaining my well-being and well, my sanity. I have not taken one moment to myself this week; not one moment to gather my thoughts and destress, and I think it has really took its toll on me, both mentally and physically. In light of this realization, I decided to take one hour and dedicate it to myself; meaning that I wasn't going to worry about homework, who was testing me, what was going on on social media, or even stressing about my work schedule.

I decided to grab my yoga matt and head out to shoreline. I have always loved doing yoga, but since yoga studios are a bit on the expensive side in Santa Barbara, I haven't kept up with it as much as I would have liked. So having a love for yoga was only one reason why I decided to use my "me" time to go do some peaceful destressing. The other reason was just that; yoga is extremely peaceful, for me at least and when I practice yoga, my mind seems to center on that very moment instead of on every other nitty-gritty detail concerning my life thats usually passing through my mind. Boy key me tell you, I felt extremely better after taking sometime to take my mind off of my busy life. I even felt that I was way more motivated to be productive when I got home as well!

To all of us that are lucky enough to live in Santa Barbara: We are so fortunate that we live in such a place that has so many options for destressing and getting away from the hustle and bustle of college life. By this I mean that if we need to take a break from the enclosing walls of the library or realize that we need to stay grounded and take a break from the party scene, we have so many options to keep us busy, or help us destress. I mean what's a better destressor than the sound of the waves crashing up on the beach? So if you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out go take a walk on the beach, do some yoga in the park, go kayaking, whatever it may be that you enjoy, go do it - make some time for yourself and I'll bet you'll see a difference in more than one aspect of you life!

As the classes get harder....

I've realized that throughout my college career, my classes and course load have been progressively getting harder and harder. Obviously, this is expected as it is anticipated that your knowledge is to expand and you are getting closer and closer to preparation for real life. When I first started at SBCC, I sort of felt like I was still in high school. I walked into my first class and we actually had a seating chart because from the first day on, we were assigned groups to work with. I am in no way saying this is a bad thing, actually, it was extremely helpful in helping me transition into this dramatic life change; it was just a lot different than I had expected. Of course, it depends on what classes you decide to take during your first semester as well; if you jump right on the band wagon and take microbiology or something of that nature, then of course you will be hit with a bigger load of homework and a more college like feel in regards to the teaching style. However, I am speaking from my personal experience and my first college class was "personal development", which by the way was a fantastic class to start off the new chapter of my life with; it really helped me to notice things I had not even noticed about myself.

Now that I am well into my last (fourth) semester here at SBCC, I have realized that real life really is just around the corner, and with that came a class schedule that complimented that realization I had. I've been noticing that my classes have less 'busy work' and that my grades in almost every class I'm taking this semester revolve around midterm exams,, perhaps a few quizzes here and there, a course paper and the final exam. Because our grade consists of nothing but these elements, my stress level is through the roof. I am finding that I haven't really had much experience with preparing for tests on my own with solely lecture notes and without prior exercises or homework assignments to help. Although I am stressed out, I am so thankful that I am now taking classes that will really prepare me for the UC system.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

If any of you are in the same situation as I am right now, I just want to encourage you to keep going! You are not alone, and you will get through all these long days nights of studying and passing up invite after invite to study for midterms! Just remember fabulous things are yet to come and missing out on a few social events to ensure that you have good grades and are obtaining the knowledge you need to pursue your dreams will definitely be worth it... at least this is what I tell myself to keep me going!

Good Friends and Good Times

I've been talking a lot lately about how to obtain the greatest college experience from studying to enjoying the beautiful city we live in. I've also mentioned the importance of friends, but I really want to exaggerate this aspect of the college experience.

Like most of us, I assume, we've gained many "friends" at the beginning of college. By "friends" I mean a bunch of people that are willing to collaborate with you to get a bunch of people together to go out and party. However, as college goes on, and you keep maturing, you realize these aren't really the type of people who bring you up, or bring out the best in you. I think I have reached the point this semester where I have realized just that. My first few semesters here at city college I have to admit, I too, was one of the people who got caught up with artificial friends and thinking that all the partying and all the artificiality was such a great aspect of college life. Because I have started to realize that you need to surround yourself with people who lift you up, and keep you positive and motivated in  life, I've began to make some changes.

Although I still like to go out and party and still love being social, I've began to loosen the strings with people who are of no benefit to me. I've been hanging out with people who compliment my life and care about my wellbeing and let me tell you, I have been so much happier and so much more motivated to do well, not only in school, but also with taking care of myself. I've also realized that those who are your real friends will want to do more with you than solely get drunk and walk around to random parties. For example, this last weekend we got a group of our close friends together and all went camping for a night out at El Refugio Beach. (If you have never been camping out here in Santa Barbara, I highly recommend it. It is another one of those beautiful and extremely fun things that there are to do in Santa Barbara.)

All I'm saying here is that you need to surround yourself with people who will want to hangout with you for more than your 'under the influence self', people who enjoy you for who you are and want to get to know you without having any ulterior motives. I mean of course you and your friends are all going to have nights where you go out and party, but you just need to find the ones who are there to go get you some breakfast in the morning (and maybe bring you some advil) ;) Those are the ones you wanna keep around.

Need an Earth Science to help you fill IGETC

If you are still searching for a science to take in order to fill IGETC requirements, I highly recommend taking Earth 141 / Geography 100 with Michael Robinson! Let me tell you, I am not a fan of science of any kind and was actually dreading having to take a science class. Figuring out what science class I wanted to take was definitely a struggle, but I ended up adding Physical Geography (ERTH 141 / GEOG 100) and thought I would mosey my way through looking at maps, earthquakes and rocks and just be thankful that I don't have to take bio or chem for my major. Even during the first couple classes, I have to admit that I wasn't sold on geography; however, we are past the introductory phase of the course and I am finding that studying the earth and learning about why the earth forms the way it does and what happens during these processes is actually very interesting!

We are currently learning about the different types of plate boundaries and how/ why the earth has formed its volcanoes and trenches and why earthquakes occur in different places of the world. Yes I have to put in a little extra work into this class because I am not familiar with many of earth's processes, but it is so great to broaden your knowledge on things that you normally wouldn't put your energy into. You never know maybe you'd find something that genuinely intrigues you. Even though I am not going to major in anything concerning the nature of physical geography, I am really happy that I have taken this course to broaden my knowledge on physical earth science. I mean, how cool will it be to be a psych major or a film major or and accounting major and be able to chime in on a conversation about the hotspots that have formed to create the Hawaiian islands.

Lastly, Professor Robinson really does make the class. He is so enthusiastic about every topic brought up in the class and he really does make easy to well in the class. Again, I highly recommend taking this class if you still need to fulfill your science curriculum to move on to a four year college!

Have a fabulous long weekend everyone!

This Weather!!

This weather has been absolutely magnificent!I can't believe that it is February and we are already having mid-80 degree days! I don't know about all of you guys but I am in such a better mood when the sun is shining and the air is warm. Perhaps it is because it feels like summer is approaching, which in that case I guess I should be a bit bummed because we still have a long way until summer break is among us. Aside from that I have been in a fabulous mood!

Today during my break between classes, I decided to throw on a bathing suit and grab some textbooks and and head on out to Leadbetter. I have to admit, last semester I was sort of stuck in a rut and never really got out of the house to enjoy the fresh air or the beautiful places Santa Barbara has to offer. After today I realized how nice it is to soak up the sun and get a nice tan while also knocking out a few chapters in a textbook.

My reason for informing you all on my excitement for beautiful weather is to try and persuade you to go out and enjoy it. It has definitely helped lift my mood and I can bet that it will help lift yours as well. I have been much more motivated in all aspects of my life - eating healthy, working out, getting homework done... and I definitely attribute this to spending more time outside, enjoying the beautiful city we live in.

HOMEWORK BLAHH

In college homework is definitely inevitable, as we all know by know. However, we will all, at some point reach a point in the semester where we have no desire to open up a textbook and dissect it for three hours, or write another five page essay. Even though I haven't quite yet hit this point, most likely because it's only the beginning of the fourth week, but I know this point will unfortunately hit me sooner or later. That is exactly why I am trying to prepare myself as best I can, so that when the time comes that I would rather deep clean my whole house than read a chapter in my textbook, I will be able to surpass the urge to procrastinate.

The first thing I did when the semester began, was dedicate myself to going to the library at least 2-3 days out of the four days I attend classes. So far, I have stuck to this and am so far ahead in most of my classes. I also figured that going to the library during the actual school week would be super beneficial because I am able to work on the information that I learned in class that day and it has helped me retain so much more information. I used to always go to the library on Friday's, Saturday's and Sunday's, and just study at home during the week - which all of us college kids know that when you plan to study at home, very little actually gets achieved, except for a few episodes of Netflix and some Instagram stalking. So my advice to you would be to go to the library and study during the week instead of pushing all of your homework off onto the weekend; this way you will attain the maximum amount of information while it is still in your brain and also minimize the amount of homework you have to do over the weekend!

Since I have been going to the library more frequently, I have been taking advantage of some of the resources that are offered. First of all, the book store ran out of geography textbooks so I ended up never purchasing one. One day when I was at the library I decided to check out the textbook and I realized that not enough people take advantage of this awesome feature our library has! I also recently found out that our library has a nifty little machine that is specifically for photocopying, so I took the textbook over there and scanned the first three chapters that accounted for the first month of readings and at the end the machine will actually email you the pictures. It is super handy and also saves you a ton of money on a textbook. 

Everyone should take advantage of the awesome features our school has - they can save you a lot of money and make life oh so much easier!

"What I Learned About Life" -Paulo Coelho

I came across one of Paulo Coelho's poems on Tumblr the other day and it stood to be so relevant to college life, and life in general as you grow older and surpass your younger years.

"What I learned in life is, ... 

It takes years to build trust and only seconds to destroy it ..
We don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.. 

The circumstances and the environment influence on our lives,
but we are the one who responsible for ourselves..
That you have to control your acts or they will control you..

That sometimes the person you think will hurt you and make you fall..
Is instead one of the few who will help you to get up.. 

You should never tell a child that dreams are fake, it would be a tragedy if they knew..

The best kind of a friend is the kind in which you can sit on a porch and walk…
Without saying a word & when you leave it feels it was the best conversation you ever had. 

It’s true we don’t know what we have until we find it, but it's also true,
we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.. 

Don’t look for appearances, they can be deceiving, don’t go for wealth even that can fade,
Find someone who makes you smile, because it only takes a smile to make a day better..

Dream what you want, go wherever you want to go.. because you have only one life..
and one chance to do the things you want to do .." -Coelho

I pulled a few of the stanzas out of the poem that really stood out to me and that I also think are super relevant to all of us college kids. I have come to the realization lately that this really is the time when you have to figure out your life, and let go of all of the things in life that aren't advancing you forward and that aren't helping you take the path that you want to pursue in life. The poem discussed that the best kind of friend you can have is one who you can sit with at any time of day and just be comfortable with their presence; even though words may be absent, you still feel content and secure. I have been finding this particular part of the poem to be especially true. You find out sooner or later in college that your real friends aren't the ones that hit you up to party all the time or anything of that nature, but the ones that stay up and talk to you at 2 am when you're stressed about your presentation tomorrow and the ones that always enjoy your presence and continue to life you up throughout each day of your life. Another reason I love this poem, is because it really touches on almost every aspect of life and ultimately brings you to find the conclusion that you are the one that controls your future. It states that sometimes you have to give people a chance, and they may surprise you. After all life is all about surprises, you never know what can happen, just always make sure that you're trying to set yourself up for the right path by proceeding with things that benefit you and continue to move you forward through life!

PS. If anyone went to the Chainsmokers last night, I hope you had just as fabulous of a time as I did! Have a great rest of the week!!