Going Home is Bittersweet

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and a great time visiting with their friends and family! I had a great holiday as well as a relaxing couple of days at home spending time with my family.

The Santa Barbara Fam

You know, it's definitely a bittersweet thing...being back home that is. It's so weird because almost everyone is home from school to celebrate the holidays with their families, yet when you take a step back and look at things, everything is so different. You might not even see the friends you were so close with because everyone is trying to spend time with their families before heading back to college. Priorities are different and I think that's something that I have been noting a lot lately. During your first year in college you are essentially still a baby. You look forward to going home and seeing all of your friends, sharing all of your crazy college stories and hanging 24/7. However, this year I have noticed a change. When I go home, I spend a few days with my family, hanging out and catching up and then I'm ready to head back to Santa Barbara to get back into the swing of things. It is such a weird thing to realize, that my life is now in Santa Barbara. All of my friends are here now and not back at home. Sure there are still friends I love to spend time with back in Bakersfield, but as time goes on you realize that even your closest of friends drift away in some ways, mostly because everyone is going in their separate directions and their own paths of life.

Although this is sort of a sad time in life, it is also such a happy time. I've realized that in order to grow up, this change has to happen. You have to make your life where you are planted. So enjoy your time when you're back at home, but realize that it's okay to want to go back to your new home, your college home.

Cold Weather

Well I'm sure you have all noticed that is it getting quite chilly outside... and you know what that means... a much higher possibility of getting sick. Getting sick during the semester is quite possibly one of the worst things that can happen, but being sick during the last few weeks of class or even finals is just not acceptable. However, although we can take extensive measures to try and stay healthy, sometimes getting sick is inevitable. I'm going to share a few tips about staying healthy throughout these next couple of weeks and also a few tips about what to do if you do end up catching a nasty cold.

Staying healthy:

1) Make sure to drink lots of water and eat balanced meals throughout the day. Fueling your body is extremely important and also helps to keep you from feeling run down which in turn reduces the fact of catching a bug. 

2) Check the weather. As I'm sure all of you have figured out, the weather in Santa Barbara can change dramatically, even throughout the course of a day. Make sure you are wearing layers in the morning even though it will most likely get warmer though out the day. 

3) GET SLEEP. Your body is much more likely to catch a virus when you are sleep deprived, so try to minimize those all nighters as much as possible so that you don't find yourself in bed for 3 days missing essential class time.

I know all of these tips are mostly common sense, but sometimes these things do get overlooked when we are caught up in all of the studying for finals that occurs during the last couple weeks before christmas break.

Now if you do get sick, fear no more!! SBCC has an incredible health department. I have been to the health office several times, and I have always had such a great experience. The doctors are extremely nice and helpful as well. I went in a couple weeks ago because I was congested and had a sore throat. The doctor took me back even earlier than my scheduled appointment and I walked out with not only a prescription, but a little goodie bag of cough drops and pamphlets on how to stay healthy during the school year. My advice to you would be to utilize the health office as much as possible, it is included in your tuition, so just do it.

Call 965-0581 x2298 to make an appointment or

stop by Student Health SS-170

Life always keeps moving forward

During this time in our lives so many things are changing constantly and sometimes it's hard to get a grasp on everything thats going on. It's also hard to realize that as we grow up, people start to go their own ways, ways that benefit the lifestyle and career choices they are trying to pursue. This has been ever so present in my life lately... I have felt myself becoming more and more distant with people who I never would have thought I would grow apart from, and anyone who has ever experienced this knows just how terrible of a feeling that is.

I'm not going to lie, I have been pretty down about the fact that I feel that my best friend and I are drifting apart but today I came to the realization that this is only part of life and that just because we might not be able to call each other, or text each other everyday doesn't mean we won't keep in touch every once in a while. I've also realized that drifting apart from someone might be in the best interest of each of the people involved in the friendship because different life paths call for changes in relationships, and the need for new, different relationships in order to keep moving forward. In thinking about it this way, I've gained a new perspective and am able to keep a more positive head on my shoulders knowing that this is part of life, and I hope that if any of you are going through the same thing, this post helped you to understand that everyone will go through this at some point, especially in college, and that this is all part of lives magical cycle.

Just know that with whatever you are going through right now, whether it be feeling distant from a close friend, being stressed out about your hectic schedule or even a mid-term or paper coming up everything will work out. My advice to you is that if you are ever feeling down, upset or stressed out, just know that almost every other college student is feeling this way to some degree, so keep on pushing on and you will be just fine!

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Social Media

Lately Ive been thinking a lot about society's addiction to social media and then I came across a story that really opened my eyes. Essena O'Neil, an instagram famous Austrialian model spoke out to the world about her new, refined views on social media. Over the past week Essena changed over 2,000 of her instagram captions to things like "stomach sucked in, strategic pose-nothing about this is candid" or "I didn't eat all day in order to attend this shoot". Essena is speaking out to let everyone, young girls and women in particular, know that not many things in the media are actual representations of reality. Of course, we all know this in the back of our minds, but for some reason, many people still admire these models and envy the lives they portray through social media and instagram. Finally, Essena gave the world the real truth about social media and the lengths at which people will go just to make it look like they live a 'perfect' life.

This story was actually very interesting to me. I'm not going to lie, I've looked at pictures of 'insta-famous' models and have wished to some degree or another that I had the lifestyle they did, and I think most girls our age can agree that they have done the same. However, since reading about Essena's effort to stop the unrealistic portrayal of life through social media, I've realized that this lifestyle that so many people want to obtain, just simply does not exist. Essena stated that she was completely consumed by being insta-famous. She would constantly be focused on checking her instagram to see the amount of likes her pictures were acquiring. She was obsessed with taking the 'perfect picture'. She would pay people to take excessive amounts pictures of her to make it seem as if  she was living life in the moment and just happened to catch the perfect picture-when in reality she spent long hours at photo shoots and many days not eating to maintain what society portrays as the perfect body.

This story just really opened up my eyes and in a way changed my views on social media completely. You could be having the worst day ever, and post a picture of you staged at the beach and give off the portrayal that your life is absolutely amazing. I've realized that I would much rather call up a friend, let them know I'm having a bad day and vent, rather than post a picture and hope that the amount of likes I get will make me feel better about my self, or my day..whatever it may be. I hope this article changed your view as well, because we deserve to be actually living life and not worrying about what other people views upon ourselves are. As Essena implied, go out and enjoy life through the real world; there are so many beautiful things to see, and so many great things to do, stop hiding behind a computer, or phone screen and LIVE LIFE.

Stay Safe this Weekend!!

Now I know everyone must be pumped for this weekend. I mean Halloween is one of the biggest holidays for college students, and probably also one of the most dangerous weekends of the year, especially in Isla Vista. As I'm sure you know, Isla Vista has been know to have riots among other things during the course of Halloween weekend, which can not only ruin your weekend if you get caught up in a fight or riot, but may also lead you to more consequences, ranging from safety issues, to a night in jail, ect.
I was in Isla Vista last Halloween, so I'd like to offer a few tips for all of you who plan to spend your weekend in Isla Vista.

First of all, I'd like to point out that even though you may not think that the city will round up over 200 cops and patrol officers to keep an eye on Del Playa Road, they will stand to their word. There was an abundance of police roaming all of IV last year for Halloween, however, this does not mean that you won't have FUN. All of the cops are super friendly, and if you aren't causing any trouble or doing anything illegal, they will be your friend..maybe even play frisbee with you (as they did with my group of friends last Halloween). Just remember that they're there for your safety, and you should be happy about that.

Next, If you plan to stay with a friend in IV, make sure you are able to get a wristband (which they obtain through their landlord or leasing office). If you don't have a wristband, you won't be let into most apartment complexes, as each complex only hands out a certain amount of wristbands to try and limit out of town visitors. I found this out the hard way last year. I really didn't think they would have security checking for wristbands at literally every entrance of the main complexes.

The final point I'm going to make is to just make sure you stay with a group of friends and take care of one another. Although we don't ever think anything will happen to us or our friends, things actually do happen. Remember that there are going to be a lot of people, and a lot of out of towners, and you never know peoples intentions. So always stay with your friends or in a big group of people, and never set your drink down because I have heard of people getting drugged in Isla Vista. Just watch out for yourself and your friends and be aware of your surrounding and you will be aye okay!

Other than that, I hope everyone has a fantastic and SAFE halloween!!

Polaroids

Last weekend I was shopping on state with my family and of course, with three girls shopping, we got drawn in to Urban Outfitters. I am way past the point of having too many clothes, and by that I mean there is not space for another hanger in my closet, and I have to use the drawers in my desk for extra clothes storage... But anyways, because of this I strayed from searching through all of the clothes, and headed over to look at the knickknacks... and thats when I came across the polaroid camera. 

Purchasing this camera was probably one of the best decisions that I've made. I am a very artsy person, so the fact that I can take pictures and have them print instantly for me to hang up all over my wall is very exciting! Aside from being able to to have the pictures in the palm of your hand instantly, polaroids are, in a way, much more meaningful and sentimental when compared to snapping a shot on your phone. Polaroid film is super expensive and you only get about 15 film strips in every box. So every picture you take only gets one shot, so every photo is intentional and thoughtful-and thats the beauty of the polaroid. Another great thing about having a polaroid camera, and actually having the prints of the photos is that you don't risk loosing a bunch of your pictures and memories if your phone or computer were to crash.

So I'm sure I will be posting lots of polaroid pictures, since taking pics is my new favorite past time!

I hope everyone's having a great semester, and remember, just keep grinding out that school work, it will pay off in the end, and thanksgiving break is almost here! WOOO!

HOW TO PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER

I think most of you can agree that we have reached that time in the semester where it seems like all you are doing is homework and studying and stressing about the next quickly approaching midterm...

Lately I have been dedicating so much time to studying and class work that I barely have time to eat let alone do anything else. And in addition, I haven't gotten a good nights sleep in a while due to all of the grueling hours I have spent on homework lately.

Now I know that pulling an all-nighter definitely isn't the healthiest thing for anyone, however, we are in college and puling off a few all-nighters is going to be inevitable so I've decided to share with you a few things I do when I realize that I have way to  much homework piled up to get any sleep.

Numero Uno:
Prep your environment-
Grab anything you think may be of use to you in the next long hours of studying; this includes chargers! So many times I have forgotten my laptop charger and have gotten to the library to only to realize my computer was at 20% battery--not only does this start your night of terribly and put you in a bad mood when you have to turn around and go back to grab your charger, it also takes away precious time from your night.
If you are staying at home to study, make sure you are in an area with the least distractions as possible. Also, when I am at home studying, I always make sure that I turn all of the lights on and bring out the fans (since I don't have AC) to keep the room well-lit and cool in efforts to help me stay as awake as possible.

Dos:
If you are doing homework that needs to be done on your computer such as writing an essay or researching over the internet make sure you turn off those little notifications that appear in the upper right hand corner of your computer. If you are constantly seeing that you have a social media notification, you will be so much more likely to click on the tab and deter your study time. While I'm talking about using technology wisely... you can make your phone useful to your study time. Use it to set a few alarms to make sure that you don't dose off. You can also use your phone to play relaxing music so that its not dead quiet while your eyes are fighting to stay open. However, put your phone on airplane mode so that you don't even have to worry about being distracted from the many things on your phone that could help you procrastinate your work... you've already done enough of that....

Tres:
Fuel properly:
Make sure you have snack. Whether or not you believe it, your body is burning energy by not only using your brain for your homework but by also trying to keep awake. Another must is caffeine. Come on, this is college people. I don't even think I need to say anything about this one. Caffeine is a new food group for college students and is nonnegotiable when it comes to pulling off an all-nighter.

Most importantly remember, that life will go on after this grueling night. Sure you may be tired the next day, but you will have finished your homework, AND you most likely will not have another night like this for quite a while because you will remember how tough it was!

Good luck to everyone who is pushing through midterms right now. YOU CAN DO IT! And remember, if an all-nighter is necessary it is not the end of the world and you will grind through it!