Life With A Dog

When I messed up my back or ribs from binding this is what I would do to fix it. (I’m not going to mention safe binding practices, I hope you all know those by now):

1. Stop wearing your binder. Try to take a break for at least 24 hours if possible. For me, not binding meant not leaving my room. Sometimes you just can’t take a break for a full day, but have your binder off for every second you possibly can. 2. Stretch! Do some yoga, or some other back stretches. Google it, you’ll find a million results. 3. Lay down. Seriously, do it. And stay there. Stop sitting in your computer chair with that horrible posture, it’s going to make things worse. Combine this with the next step and you’ll feel great… 4. HEAT. Heating pads are your best friend. Go buy one right now, they’re between $15-$30. I used to sleep on one overnight when the pain got really bad or if I had a day of excessively long binding. Also, take a hot bath or shower before bed. 5. Sleep flat on your back. Most of the healing and repair to your back will happen at night. A good night of properly positioned sleep and a heating pad may be all you need to be pain free the next day. If the pain is so bad you can’t relax your back muscles enough to lay flat, or it hurts when you lay on your back (I had this problem a lot), put a small pillow or towel under your lower back. You can also prop your feet up, it might make you more comfortable, but it’s not necessary. If you really can’t sleep on your back, sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees and your back extended (not rounded) so your spine will be aligned properly. Don’t sleep on your stomach or in the fetal position, it will make things worse. Make sure your neck is properly supported and try to avoid having your head turned to one side all night. If your neck hurts, your back will hurt too.

When I messed up my back or ribs from binding this is what I would do to fix it. (I’m not going to mention safe binding practices, I hope you all know those by now):

1. Stop wearing your binder. Try to take a break for at least 24 hours if possible. For me, not binding meant not leaving my room. Sometimes you just can’t take a break for a full day, but have your binder off for every second you possibly can. 2. Stretch! Do some yoga, or some other back stretches. Google it, you’ll find a million results. 3. Lay down. Seriously, do it. And stay there. Stop sitting in your computer chair with that horrible posture, it’s going to make things worse. Combine this with the next step and you’ll feel great… 4. HEAT. Heating pads are your best friend. Go buy one right now, they’re between $15-$30. I used to sleep on one overnight when the pain got really bad or if I had a day of excessively long binding. Also, take a hot bath or shower before bed. 5. Sleep flat on your back. Most of the healing and repair to your back will happen at night. A good night of properly positioned sleep and a heating pad may be all you need to be pain free the next day. If the pain is so bad you can’t relax your back muscles enough to lay flat, or it hurts when you lay on your back (I had this problem a lot), put a small pillow or towel under your lower back. You can also prop your feet up, it might make you more comfortable, but it’s not necessary. If you really can’t sleep on your back, sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees and your back extended (not rounded) so your spine will be aligned properly. Don’t sleep on your stomach or in the fetal position, it will make things worse. Make sure your neck is properly supported and try to avoid having your head turned to one side all night. If your neck hurts, your back will hurt too.

- Secure bags that have contained foods/containers they can stick their head in.

- Safely restrain your dogs in the car (via crash tested harness or a strong crate. Do not use wire kennels as they will bend and can easily impale your animal).

- Stop knowingly letting your dogs eat things that make the general population of dogs sick, on a regular basis (dark chocolate, raisins, acorns, cooked bones etc)

- Be aware and educate yourself on pet CPR.

- Don’t let your dog off leash near a busy road if it will not recall in certain circumstances. Find a safer area.

- Be more aware to your surroundings in general when your dog is off leash.

No need to be paranoid, but take notice. Ive had neighbours throw chicken into my yard that i had no idea was poisoned or not. Ive had aggressive dogs i didnt notice charge after us.

Dont let your dogs play with sticks. They can literally kill themselves (you can google and find several cases). Bring a toy! Have risk free play times ❤

So my brother is having trouble studying, and he asked me what I did to study. I make excellent grades, so this method has been working for me, but of course, some people learn in different ways. However, I thought I’d share. :)

Before class

I always try to read ahead in the textbook so that when I arrive to class, everything isn’t completely new. (Emphasis on try)

I also try to look at the Powerpoints, if available.

Depending on the type of subject, sometimes I combine the relevant information from the textbook and the powerpoints into one master sheet of notes, and if the professor adds anything extra, then I’ll just add that in with a sticky note. This is only for those classes where the professor follows the powerpoints very closely, though.

During class

I don’t care how messy the notes I take are, as long as I get everything down that I want to. If I’ve read something in the textbook or seen something on the powerpoints that the professor is talking about, then I usually just write down what it is and now what s/he says about it, unless they’ve said something in a way that I think is super easy to understand.

I usually write notes in one color. Sometimes, I might use another color to add in what I consider “extra info.” This is stuff that’s not necessarily relevant but it helps explain the material better, such as examples and illustrations.

After class

Use these expert tips to maximize your productivity in school!

1. Create a calming, peaceful, clean space for yourself to study. This space can be in your room, in the kitchen, at a library, at school, at a park, at a café – anywhere you feel comfortable and safe.

2. Keep your books, notes, and homework organized. Organization is crucial to academic success. 

3. Set feasible, short-term goals for every study session to boost confidence and efficiency.

4. Annotate all of your reading materials. Underline, highlight, and circle to increase retention. 

5. Always check your work and read out loud to minimize typos, grammatical errors, and bad syntax. 

6. Make color-coded flash cards for every unit in your class. 

7. Minimize distractions: time yourself for forty minute chunks during which your phone is off and your computer is away.

8. Take a break for ten minutes after every forty minutes of studying to walk, stretch, and take your eyes off your study materials. 

9. Start studying by talking out your answers to the topics. This boosts your confidence and retention.

10. Draw concept maps to see how different topics are interconnected.

11. Read out loud to yourself from course materials before going to bed to increase retention.

12. When you’re revising your writing, save every draft so you don’t lose any ideas.

There are many people who attend a community college prior to transferring to a university. Doing this is a great way to save money and cuts down on the items needed to purchase for college. Since most people attending community college continue to reside at home, many items are not necessary to purchase. Many of the items on this list are school supplies, honestly.

Backpack/book bag

Binder

Calculator (check course syllabus for specifics)

Colored Pencils (you’d be surprised) 

Cup for pencils

Desk Organizer 

Dry Erase Board and Markers

Envelopes

Erasers

Folders

Folder/Letter Holder

Glue

Hole-puncher (3 hole)

Highlighters

Index cards

Index card holder

Markers

Mechanical pencils/wooden pencils

Notebooks (8)

[college ruled] paper

Paper clips

Pencil case for backpack/book bag

Pens (blue, black, and red ink)

Permanent Markers

Post-it Page tabs

Post-it Notes

Post-it Note Dispenser

Ruler

Scantrons (if your professors require you to buy your own)

Scissors

Staples & Stapler & Staple Remover

Tape & tape dispenser

Hi, guys! So I realized between the last #Study Saturdays post and this one that the task of making a study schedule would be made a lot easier if you first had a study routine. So this week I will explain how to make a study routine. Next week will be about study schedules. 

Also, I am defining the two a bit differently. Study routine is more fixed and study schedule is both more detailed and depends upon your work for that week. 

(P.S. I didn’t go to public school – I was homeschooled – so I’m not very knowledgeable at how to study for that. This post is based on my experience at college.)

There’s so many different methods to do this. I will explain two of those ways.

The first step to creating any study schedule is having a place to write it down. I recommend working everything out on paper first and, if you prefer digital calendars, to then transfer it to Google Calendars or whatever electronic calendar you use. (The great thing about Google Calendars is that you would be able to make a separate calendar for your studying that’s apart from your personal calendar.)

If you prefer written, then there’s some great free printables made by Tumblr users for the express purpose of making a study schedule. My personal favorite is this one by @theorganisedstudent, or you could browse through my #free stuff  tag, because I have a thing for printables LOL.

The second thing is to write down the times. My day usually runs from 7am to 11pm right now, so for every hour I am awake I make a slot for. (However, using printables means you have a limited amount of time slots, so you have to find a way around this. I ended up not including the times of day when I had classes and went by an hourly basis. If you could go by every 30 minutes, that would be great too!) 

I started by blocking in all of the permanent fixtures in my week – things like class times, work, extra circulars, commute times, and sleep (I go to sleep a lot earlier on the weekdays than on the weekends). These are events that happen regularly every week and will most likely not change.

Now here’s where we split into different methods.

Method 1

Method 1 is the looser and more flexible one. It’s great if you have teachers that like to change due dates and suddenly announce homework not mentioned in the syllabus (grr). 

There’s three types of “sessions” we’re going to be working with in Method 1:

Study sessions: The title is pretty self-explanatory.

Fun sessions: These sessions are so you can have set times where you just enjoy yourself and don’t get over-stressed by school.

Responsibility sessions: These are for chores, running errands, and just general “getting stuff done.”

Each session’s time will be more or less depending upon what your life is like. For example, although I am currently working right now, during the fall and spring semesters I am a full-time student, so I will be able to devote the bulk of my energy to school. But if you have a job, you probably won’t be able to spend 6 hours a day studying.

Look at the free, unblocked time you have every day and add up how many hours that is. Now it’s time for the math-y part.

Here’s how I calculate how long each session should be:

Study sessions: They say for every one hour you spend in class, you should spend two hours studying. I will be taking 18 hours, so I multiplied that by 2 and then divided it by 7 (for every day of the week). I roughly estimate I should be doing about 5 hours of studying a day then. (EW.) These should then be divided into 2-3 hours long each. (And note that doesn’t mean you should be studying 2 hours straight. I recommend either using the Pomodoro technique or studying for 50 minutes, taking a 10-15 minute break, and then repeating.)

Fun sessions: This is pretty fixed. You need to about 6 hours every week just to relax and chill. You can divide this up however you want and place these 6 hours anywhere you choose. I like to have 30 minutes every evening to just pamper myself and then the remaining 3 ½ hours I spend with my best friends on Sunday.

Responsibility sessions: I don’t have a lot of adulting I have to do right now (thank goodness), so this takes me about 1-3 hours a week to get all my errands run, my space tidied, and my chores done. I usually reserve these tasks for Saturday.

Now that you have roughly the blocks, it’s time to place them into your schedule. There’s really no other trick for this than to work and rework it until it suits you. Be realistic, but don’t overwork yourself. Try to leave one day a week (I choose Sundays) where you have a significantly lighter workload, and use this day to recharge.

Notice that within your studying blocks, you don’t have to decide what subject you will be focusing on. If you don’t feel like working on X right now, you don’t have to – you can work on Y. It’s for this method that a study schedule (which will be discussed next Saturday) is most useful.

Method 2

The first step to Method 2, which is a bit more rigid (and which I personally work better with, since I like structure) is to take a look at your subjects and rank in levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. Factor in whether a subject requires a lot of reading or is a struggle to understand or takes practice (like math). @thaniastudies has a great method for ranking classes here. 

Hard classes get 2 hours per day of studying.

Medium classes get 1 hour per day of studying.

Easy classes get 30 minutes per day of studying.

Then block in your schedule. This is really up to you LOL, customize it as you want. Because this method says what you should be studying, it’s requires more discipline, but if you ever have those moments when you look at your workload and don’t know where to start, this should help conquer that feeling.

Hello! If you’re just starting out at college or you’re returning to college, I hope you can find this list helpful. This is sort of a checklist – and by no means should you include into your backpack everything on it. But, using your own judgement, you should be able to choose which of these items would be most useful to you in your backpack. :)

I hope everyone has wonderful back to school experiences!

School supplies

textbooks

folders/binders/notebooks

pencil case with appropriate contents

planner

mini stapler

sticky notes

Tech

phone

laptop (w.case)

tablet (w.cover)

charger

USB

headphones/earphones

calculator

speaker (for those impromptu student lounge parties)

Hygiene

tampons/pads

makeup

deodorant

hand sanitizer/hand wipes

tissues

spare pants (leggings) in case of period mishaps

jacket

nail file

mints

lip balm

lotion

Tide-to-Go pen

glasses/contact case

ponytail holders

sunglasses

Other

snacks

water bottle

keys

student ID

wallet

books (for fun)

umbrella

gum

lunch

this also applies to high school in a lot of ways, esp in organization and involvement

I read this book by cal newport called “how to win at college” in prep for my freshman year & u should definitely read it yourself because there are lots of important points i don’t cover in this post, but if you don’t want to, this is my summary of what I think were the most important points he made. 

STUDY HARD, BUT YOUR GRADES DON’T MEAN AS MUCH AS WHAT YOU LEARN OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM. he prioritizes getting vital experiences such as

- joining a club and eventually taking responsibility in it and becoming a leader

- apply for scholarships every year (he said 10 a year) 

- volunteer, but not for your resume. do it to learn and become a better person. 

- get involved in research, and get involved in your major department (like go to the events and lectures, even if they aren’t mandatory)

- write outside of class regularly because writing is super important (example- submit to your school newspaper) 

STAY ORGANIZED AND ON TOP OF YOUR SHIT

- he really really REALLY emphasizes not procrastinating and studying / starting papers well in advance of deadlines. his rules are to 

- - >start long term projects immediately after they are assigned and continue to work on them by following a reasonable schedule (he says to finish early, revise, then finish again), 

- - > take 3 days to write shorter papers (aka you have abt 2 weeks to work on them and they range from 2-15ish pages) (aka make preparations pre writing, then write a rough draft on the first day, revise and focus your writing on the second day (make sure your arguments are very clear!), and polish your paper on the third day), and

- - >take 2 weeks to study for an exam. study in shorter blocks during the first week, like maybe an hour or so each day. over the weekend, add more hours. the few days before the test, study in 2-3 hour chunks to really cement the already familiar information. 

- get a filing cabinet for your papers instead of just piling them on your desk and having to search for them later. 

- have a HIGH QUALITY notebook and a folder for each class (or whatever stationery keeps you organized) and keep all your folders/notebooks/binders neat and organized. 

- empty your inbox and organize your emails 

- schedule your free time- aka have specific times that you choose to relax and spend with friends rather than unintentionally relaxing during work time, or worrying about work during relaxation time. 

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

- you NEED sleep, you NEED healthy food, and you NEED exercise. you really shouldn’t put anything ahead of these things. 

- NEVER pull an all nighter. if you’re studying ahead of time, this should be easy. all nighters aren’t glamorous, they’re unproductive, really stressful, and unhealthy

- keep in touch with old friends, and remember to call your mom

- make sure to spend time with new friends and take care of them. be there for your friends. 

- keep your room neat and make your bed!! 

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS GET THE SAME FEEDBACK WHEN THEY GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH ME

Neither of my supervisors had never gotten it before either. They had to think for a while, and then it turned into them telling me how great I am and what they love about me.

This stuff is real. I would also say: none of it is lying. This is taking experience that you normally downplay and write off, and putting it in accurate words they’ll understand.

It’s hacking the capitalist system. Why ISN’T helping a kid with homework “tutoring”, when the only thing missing is a paycheck?

It’s especially important for anyone who isn’t a cis white man, because many of us are so thoroughly trained to feel like we are not good enough.

Privilege tells people they can fake it, and that they’re good enough just as people and can learn the skills on the job. Abuse and oppression tell people they aren’t good enough as people and that even their high skills are probably below average, and that unless they had the specific job title or were using certain skills officially, nobody will think it counts.

This is actually answered in our FAQ.

3. Can a Service Dog help with [blank] disability?

Probably. Almost definitely really. A Service Dogs must do tasks to mitigate a disability (or disabilities) and there are an almost unlimited amount of tasks a Service Dog can do. Tasks are different for everyone but here are a couple of lists that could help.

Please take the time to read through before sending an ask. We know it’s a pain to have to go read it, but it is full of helpful information that will likely get your question answered much faster.

Some tasks dogs can perform for people with POTS:

-alert to syncope episodes -elevate your feet once you have passed out to return blood flow to your brain -provide balance support -help lead you to a safe place to sit/ lie down (before I pass out I get really confused and then I lose my hearing and then I lose my sight) -retrieve dropped items (because bending down can cause syncope or dizziness) -fetch medicine/drinks when one is unable to get up (when I feel really dizzy I can’t get up and someone normally has to get me water or Gatorade before I feel well enough to stand, when I’m alone I basically crawl to the refrigerator lol) -force you to get out of bed when you’ve been sleeping for hours on end -get help if you are incapacitated

Other benefits for people with POTS (that are technically not tasks):

-help with the anxiety and depression associated with the disease -get you out more (get you out of bed when otherwise you’d have slept the entire weekend away) -force you too exercise (exercise therapy is a big thing for people with POTS) -make you feel more comfortable walking around without being worried you’ll pass out alone

My mother would gossip to the other parents about my stomach pains, the rashes, my bowel movements and bed wetting when i was a child.

I begged her to not share these things but she would insist maybe one of those catty women would know a way to help.

My grandmother laments my strict diet and shelves of medication to her bible group and I simmer when they make jokes at dinners.

My father complains about the medical bills to his buddies, I hear him on the phone telling a man I’ve never met about the anxiety attacks I have always hidden from my friends.

My sister explains to the people ar the grocery store why I walk so slowly, why I limp, why my breathing is so loud even when i ask her to stop.

My grandfather asks people to pray for my crooked spine, my failing lungs, the way my joints have begun to give up.

They do it because they need to explain why I’m not normal, they do it to vent about the burden.

They say it’s public information since anyone could see.

But that woman in the store didn’t need to know about my bowel movement when i was 13 and burning red with embarrassment.

The church ladies didn’t need to know the amount of pills i take in a day.

I deserved an increment of privacy.

But if you’re disabled in any way you are seen as a small child. Private information is nonexistent, they speak like you can’t hear them, like it doesn’t matter how embarrassed you may be.