Hey there readers!
This week, I think it’s important to stress the amount of time i is needed to plan things for YOURSELF throughout the year. Right now, it’s about a month into the semester of my junior year. I’m taking two labs a week, a total of 8 hours plus time outside of class to finish the labs. With two other humanities classes, the time to finish assignments doubles. This last week was a doozy. So over the weekend, I planned to take time to tend to my needs and take time off from stressing about school and stress about myself for a couple hours. It was a great decision because I’m finally getting the breather to address what groceries I need, what I’m running low on (laundry detergent, face wash…), and what supplies I need to finish all my projects of the week for school.
In the whirl of assignments and 3 jobs, I lose the time I put toward myself. my birthday is coming up fast; october 5! And it is during the fall break for my college. I’ll be visiting my best friend in Salem, OR to celebrate both of our birthdays! Her’s is a day before mine. So exciting!
But for this post, I do want to stress the importance of a breather to focus on your needs. My freshman year, my RA would talk about strategies for self-care. I thought there would roughly be enough time to shower, dress, and take time to breath in a normal college schedule. That is very incorrect. It’s hard to think about the time in between classes as a non-productive period of time. You’ll tend to work on assignments, readings, or general busy tasks. Then it’s the weekend and you’ll be planning out assignments for next week, figuring out a dish to cook with the small ingredient you do have because you didn’t go grocery shopping for the week, and realize a nice afternoon reading takes till the evening and you forget about other things. That’s where I was this past weekend.
So, to change the tides of tiredness and stress, I’m doing it differently this weekend. I took time to stretch today, my back feels so supple. I cooked a nice omelet for breakfast and sipped a cup of coffee. It’s a grace time for the most part because I had two exams on Friday and quizzes throughout the week. It’s the evening of my “myself” day, and I couldn’t be more ready to face the tasks tomorrow. I have work at 9 till 1 and a couple other jobs for the week that I can start to block off time for. Homework seems a little less daunting because I feel pampered and primed to deal with the tension of planning. It was a very great idea. And I praise my old RA for planting the idea seed,
Hope this advice is useful!
My best