Testimony to Life

We have all had those moments in life where our schedules begin to get extremely hectic to the point where we can’t even find time to breathe. For the past couple of weeks, this has been me. For the past couple of weeks I have done nothing, but run around with my head cut off hoping that I will at some point find a moment of clarity and everything will simply fall into place. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, so for all of you who are just like me and have a crazy busy schedule here are my tips on how to be able to breathe, yet get everything you need done with.

Disclaimer: I am a third year college student who is taking some rather time consuming classes as well as a film course so my scheduling tips may or may not work for you and that is okay. Please feel free to adapt them in any way you deem necessary.

1. Use Your Eating Time Wisely

           While you eat breakfast, lunch or dinner make this your downtime. Don’t bring your textbook to the table or think about that horrible moment at work. Don’t think about how long your list of things to do or how to plan out your meals/the next day. You can think about all of this later when the time comes for you to tackle that task. For now, just sit enjoy cooking the meal you plan to make. Then savor the time you have to scroll through social media or read a book while you are eating the delicious meal you just prepared yourself.

2. Tackle One Task at a Time

           I know for some of us, myself included, and it is hard to focus on one thing when you have so many that need to get done. While I am studying for one exam I tend to think of what I need to read for my other classes and whether or not the film my group and I are working on is coming together properly. Then the next thing I know I am trying to remember what it is exactly that I should be memorizing for the exam that I have coming up only to find out that I have no clue. Therefore, I have to go back over it which ultimately puts me back a minimum of 10 minutes. If you focus on one thing at a time you are bound to understand what it is you are doing and get it done a lot faster than you think.

3. Plan a Schedule Ahead of Time

           At some point prior to when you need to be studying and you know your life will be a little hectic make a pretty intricate schedule so you know when you should be doing what. If you know you’re going to be working/have class at specific hours, plug them into your schedule. That way you can work around the hours that you can’t change and get the most out of your day. For me, I work at a restaurant, therefore I am working mostly nights or afternoons so I know not to schedule many important school things around those times. I go to class every day, but I have a lot of free time besides Tuesday – which means I am capable of getting all of my studying done then as well as my film making.

4. Get Some Sleep

           I know it’s cliché to say it, but it is important to get sleep. When you are well rested you will feel as though you have more energy and you can get a lot of things out of the way. I am capable of feeling well rested with 5.5-6 hours of sleep, which is not the amount that people need, but it works for me. Granted I do drink a cup of coffee every day, but I still bust out as much as I can do before I feel myself start to get a little bit drowsy. Whether it be from not getting a full 8 hours or just because I am doing mundane tasks who knows.

5. Don’t Feel Bad if You Don’t Finish Everything

           My last tip is simply this: if you don’t finish everything and it’s the end of the day and you’re ready to go to sleep, sit yourself down, look at your list and decide on what is so important that needs to be done as soon as possible tomorrow morning. Then once you have those at the tip-top of your list, figure out what is so-so important. Which will then be followed by the not-so-important-but-still-needs-to-get-done group. Once that is done you will be able to get some sleep and wake up tomorrow refreshed and rejuvenated and bust out all of those really important jobs first making you feel accomplished within the first couple hours of your day, which will make you feel great early on leaving you with a positive attitude the rest of the day.

 I hope these few tips helped all of my lovely busy scheduled spirits like myself. Trust me when I say that I know what it feels like to be going around and around hoping that at some moment you will be able to get of the ride and just sit. For, now we will just have to manage and enjoy the ride no matter how stressful it may seem.

                                              Kisses,

Many people throughout their young adult lives always ponder the question of “How will I ever...” It could range from questioning how will I ever afford that new car? How will I ever come up with enough money to pay off this month’s bills? Yet, it is how will I ever survive the life of college that I find many adolescents asking me as the new fall school year approaches.

As I enter my third year at college I have grown accustom to the way that things run around college campuses. Small disclaimer here, just because I know the knowledge of one does not mean I know the knowledge of all. While the fundamentals are normally the same throughout colleges, each and every one has a special uniqueness about them that separates them from the others. So, how do you survive the inevitable change from high school to college life? Do you just simply wake up one morning and say that you don’t care and up and move all of your belongings into a new room where you will reside for nine months out of the year? No, of course not. Instead, you follow these simple steps.

1. Acceptance

           If you don’t start accepting the fact that your best friend in the entire world will not be a quick ten minute drive away in order to give you a shoulder to cry on, you will not make it. If you don’t accept that your mommy and daddy are not going to be there every step of the way to help you in life you will not survive a week in college. No one is going to feed you three meals a day, you are going to have to either cook for yourself or walk yourself down to the cafeteria and make yourself some food. In order to survive college you need to accept that you are on your own, no matter what.

2. Being Alone Isn’t A Bad Thing

           Many people, especially freshman abhor the idea of being alone. When it comes time to eat food, this idea becomes the most heinous thought that could ever cross a college students mind. Yet, it is in fact completely and utterly, 100% okay to walk yourself down to the cafeteria grab a bite to eat and sit at a table all by yourself. Many people do it, and you will soon come to realize that as your grow in your college experience you will be eating alone quite often.

3. Learn Time Management

           If you haven’t learned time management by now thanks to all of the activities going on around high school than I would learn them as fast as you can. Budgeting your time wisely will make college life a whole hell of a lot easier. In high school you went to school for seven straight hours. In college everything is broken up, which means you need to plan when you are going to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner; what time you will be waking up for school as well as when to go to bed; how many times can I party without letting my grades slip (we all know you plan to go out); when will you pencil in study time as well. If you don’t manage all of these things and a lot more you will begin to feel your life spiral out of control. For me, I found that busying myself with stuff (job, maximum amount of units, hanging out, going to school events) it made managing my time so much easier. I was so busy that I had no choice, but to pencil in every little activity I was doing for the day, from when class was to what time I was to do my laundry.

4. Don’t Be Shy

           I know how hard it is to try and not be shy especially when walking into a new environment, but in college you just have to try. If all you want to do is smile at someone than smile, no one ever said that you had to strike up a full blown conversation with someone about how some politician isn’t running in the most strategic way. If you are an awkward person when it comes to conversation, do not fret! Many people will get the hint and attempt to make you feel as comfortable as possible by asking questions about yourself and hoping to be able to discuss your interests and who knows from there you may find a new friend or someone that you can simply smile to as you past one another around campus.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask questions

           It has been said many times before: ask questions if you do not understand. I have been hearing this phrase since middle school by my teachers and in all honesty it is probably the best advice someone can give. Professors love to talk about their subjects, it’s why they got a degree in it for crying out loud! First, let me tell you this: know when to ask a question in the classroom and during office hours. If you have a simple questions that you just need a small clarification about then ask during the class period. On the other hand, if you have a question that starts dragging on and you notice yourself having a full on conversation with the professor, notify him that you will talk to him after class if he is available or during his office hours about the matter. Trust me, no one in your lecture class is going to want to sit there and listen to you and the professor talk about why a match and gasoline are capable of creating a flame.

6. Sleep Is A Necessity

           While the movies show that students can pull and all-nighter with seventeen cups of coffee, I recommend that you actually get the sleep need to a human to function properly. In my two years I have stayed up until the first rays of dawn poked through my bedroom window plenty of times. The one thing I learned from it, was that taking an exam or having to go to my other lectures with absolutely no sleep and a very caffeinated blood stream was not the way to go. It has actually be proven through research that your mind retains information while in sleep, which is why if you study before bed you will either wake up with memories of what you have learned or dream about the material.

7. Change of Scenery

           Mixing up where you study or where you eat lunch can be a good thing. As humans we are creatures of habit therefore we are bound by nature to remain in the same routine we have created for ourselves. Is this a bad thing, not all the time, but it will never hurt to branch out and try something new. In studying it would help to try the library if you always remain in your room or if the day is warm and sunny you can take those books you were assigned readings and do them on a blanket in the middle of the quad.

 8. Join A Club or Get A Job

           Having a little extra cash on the side is never a bad thing, so go out and get yourself an on or off campus job. Not only will you be rolling in the dough you will be getting a little escape goat from school, meeting new people and teaching yourself time management, which we discussed earlier. If getting a job doesn’t sound like the perfect fit for you, think about joining a club. It can help you make college feel a lot smaller since you will begin to know a lot more people, while still giving you that out to escape from you academic duties but still enforcing those time management skills.

9. Caffeine Is An Ally

           Whether you are sucking down a much needed soda, buying your 5th Five Hour Energy or Rockstar, or having that first cup of joe in the morning in order to wake you up having caffeine in your system will become a part of your life. No matter how much sleep you seem to have gotten the previous night you have found that you are still a bit of a walking zombie at some point in your day. For me, I always start my morning off with a cup of coffee, but later on in the day I will switch to an iced green tea with a bit of mango syrup added to it to enhance the energy that will later come.

10. Enjoy Your Time

           As cliché as it sounds, enjoying your moments in college is important. You will never get to experience this type of life experience ever again. High school was one part in your life and college is another, after this it is either graduate school or a real-world job. For those going into the work force school is over for all of us, now that doesn’t mean we won’t be learning anymore, but we won’t  need to be purchasing all those expensive textbooks or sitting in classrooms/lecture halls listening to a professor go on and on about whatever it is you are learning about in class that day. Yet, college isn’t just about sitting in a room learning, it’s about getting to know who you are on your own, without mommy and daddy guiding you every step of the way. You will make mistakes and have to deal with the consequences, but you will also achieve so much whether it is in the work force, classroom, or personal goals. Enjoy the time you have with the friends you have made, go out to a party on campus and have a little too much to drink (please stay responsible though), take an adventure to a new and foreign place, taste new foods that you wouldn’t normally have. As long as you are having fun you will be more than capable of surviving your years at college.

                                               Kisses,