Student Blog
School/Life Balance

Sleepy head ⟩
February 20, 2013, by Alisa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

I haven’t been getting good sleep, and partly because I get woken up in the middle of the night. I’m holding the duty phone as a resident advisor, and I’m worried that the phone will ring in the middle of the night. It affects me in that I don’t want to wake up in the morning. The hardest part of waking up is getting up. Today, my alarm clock went off at 7:45, but I didn’t actually get up into 8:16. I set a new record, where I got ready in 6 minutes just in time to catch the tram. It helped that I had my clothes all laid out the night before. I usually catch up on sleep on the weekend, but sleep is something that I’ll be more conscious now. On average my body needs at least 7 hours to be able to fully function. In my undergraduate career I have pulled one all-nighter, and in grad school about once a semester. It’s just me having poor time management skills since I often get distracted by all the wonderful opportunities at USC. Sometimes there just not time in the day to accomplish everything that I wanted to. Yesterday, Kal Penn was speaking on-campus. Today, I’m attending an event at USC where Landon Donovan will be speaking! I’m looking forward to that.

I can’t believe I’m leaving for Thailand in a week! It seems that there is so much more to do between now and when I leave, but I tell myself I’ll get through it. I set smaller goals for myself and tackle them one at a time. Of course, I reward myself for accomplishing those tasks. For my externship in Thailand, I’ll be shadowing my aunt who owns a health spa and is involved in many charitable organizations. I’ll be learning about corporate social responsibility and leadership in the health and wellness industry. I’ll also get to spend more time with my beloved grandmother as well.

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Discovering New Places ⟩
February 19, 2013, by Amber

Living in LA School/Life Balance

Over the long President’s Day weekend, I mostly did one thing: schoolwork. However, I did want to do at least one thing out of the ordinary to feel like I properly celebrated the holiday. My husband and I both love being outdoors and hiking, and the weather this weekend was beautiful, summery, and clear. So we decided to go for a hike. I had heard that a park near our neighborhood had good trails, so I looked it up. It turns out that Elysian Park is the oldest and one of the largest parks in Los Angeles. In less than 10 minutes, we were enjoying a wonderful hike with lots of shade and great views of downtown. It was refreshing and a great way to spend the holiday! Please leave a comment and let me know what you did over the long weekend!

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Happy Valentine’s Day ⟩
February 14, 2013, by Alisa

Getting Involved School/Life Balance

First off, Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy Single Awareness Day! Happy Rotic Day (romantic without the “man”)! Happy whatever else you celebrate!

To be honest with you, I’m feeling a tad bit overwhelmed with all the roles and responsibilities that I have, but without these roles and responsibilities, I would probably be bored. Despite learning about time management in class, I still feel that I could improve. As I share about my time management, I would like you to consider how you spend your time as well.

Other than being a student, some of you know that I am also a resident advisor to undergraduate students. While some nights that I am on duty are peaceful, I realize my sleep gets disrupted when I get calls at 2:30 AM. Other than being on duty on certain nights, I also get to do programming (the more fun part!). Some things happen for a reason, and the opportunity to be involved in Relay for Life was presented to me, and I took it. Yesterday, I attended a team captain’s meeting for Relay for Life. In my undergrad I was also a team captain for the Chinese American Student Association, raising over $400 for cancer research.

As a resident advisor I also plan to organize a blood drive in the near future! I got the inspiration from my attempt to donate blood on campus last week. The Pharmacy school along with Hungtington Hospital organized a blood drive, and I was so excited to donate. Little did I know, I have failed to drink enough fluids, so the blood wasn’t coming out as fast as it should. I felt disappointed that I have wasted everyone’s time, but it sparked an idea for me to help organize a blood drive as an event in my residential community. I had no idea that blood was expensive (~$300/pint), and that they’re always in need of blood. Yes, 1 pint can help save 3 people’s lives! Here’s a cool fact from the American Red Cross website: If you began donating blood at age 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached 76, you would have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 1,000 lives!

What I’ve learned from being involved in different roles and responsibilities is that it’s important to be optimistic. I’ve managed to find something positive out of a seemingly negative experience. I treat it as a lesson, and everyone is my teacher. In my life I have had my share of failures. I joked to my friends that I am usually second best. There was one time I went in for a scholarship interview for the second time, and I recognized the interviewers from the year before. They asked me, “What will you do if you don’t get selected?” I answered, “I’ll apply again next year.” Yes, we all laughed. Lo and behold, I got the scholarship to go to Thailand!

Wishing those of you who are applying and waiting to hear back a good luck! If you don’t get in the first time, tell yourself it’s okay. There are other options, and you can always apply again. Have a most awesome day!

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New Digs ⟩
February 7, 2013, by Ricky

Housing and Transportation Living in LA School/Life Balance

Some of you might remember me venting about all the things I had going on last semester. Winter break gave me some time to reassess and consider making a few changes. I concluded that the likely best thing I could do was rent a room nearby campus, just for the last semester. But being the budget-conscious ex-accountant that I am, I was still hesitant . . . up until my first week of classes. After sitting through all 6 classes for the first time, I was like, “oh heavens no. I need to move closer . . . and then I have the comp exam to worry about . . . oh my . . . looks like I’m moving to LA.” All I really needed was a place nearby to lay my head and shower — I planned on going back home on weekends anyway. I came pretty close to renting a couch in someone’s living room — so glad I didn’t. I ended finding a great place down the street from campus, with my own bed and bath for a very affordable price. It’s in “not-the-nicest” area of Los Angeles, but it’s really not so bad for a guy who can hold his own. It’s close, clean, gated, has pretty much all my preferred amenities, and my landlady is great. While I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, I just thought I’d let ya’ll in on the fact that options like this exist. While searching for a place, I looked on Craigslist, asked classmates/friends, and checked for postings around campus. Take note of that last point because the best places I saw came from ads in the med-school buildings across the street from our building. I’ve only been living there for 2 weeks and so-far-so-good. I’ll be sure to give ya’ll an update later down the road. Cheers!

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Socially Occupied Beings ⟩
January 30, 2013, by Alisa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

Getting back into the swing of things can be rough. I feel that I’m still getting used to it.  At times I feel that I have many roles and responsibilities, and I just need a time to breathe. After reading Mary Lawlor’s “The significance of being occupied: The social construction of childhood occupations” in class, I begin to view myself as a “socially occupied being.” It made me consider the things that I’m involved in. Almost everything that I engage in has a social component. I remember one time my friend jokingly said, “Are you in school to socialize, or to study?” My theory is that 5 years from now, am I going to more likely remember the time when I did things myself, or the experiences shared with others? Sometimes the motivation to study by myself is just not there, and I end of procrastinating. In other areas of my life, such as exercising, I find that I’m more motivated to work out if it’s done in a group setting. For the past 2 years, I’ve gotten the work out plan at the school gym, which means that I get to take various group workout classes. Some of my personal favorites are yoga and Zumba, where we also danced to Gangnam Style. How trendy, right? I’m getting a little bit better. Recently I attended a wedding where the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen surprised the guests with Gangnam Style as well. It was awesome. What about you? How do you occupy your time? Do you consider yourself a “socially occupied being”?

Lawlor, M. C. (2003). The significance of being occupied: The social construction of childhood occupations. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 57(4), 424-434. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.57.4.424 Show abstract

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