Student Blog
School/Life Balance

Resolutions ⟩
January 8, 2013, by Ricky

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

As of today, I am beginning operation Get Fit (Registered Trademark by Ricky — not really). So I know we’ve been in the New Year for a few days now, but I was on vacation up through yesterday — well . . . technically, I started work yesterday, but yesterday was the BCS Bowl (which turned out to be a disappointment) and I knew I’d be enjoying several delicious beverages and a few unhealthy snacks. Anyhow, as of today, it’s go-time! Operation Get Fit is a work in progress, but the foundation includes daily physical exercise, meditation, and eating healthy. The focus right now is maximizing mornings. My ideal morning includes some exercise, a warm shower, and a solid breakfast. I always feel more productive and satisfied with my performance if I start the day with a good jog. This might actually have something to do with my sensory preferences — I may just be giving my body what it needs to start the day. The real challenge with my fitness goals is being able to make the time. My schedule is pretty tight, with school, work, the fiancée, and living so far from everything. But it is as they say, “Where there’s a will there’s a way.” There is always a way. One strength is having a gym nearby wherever I’m at. And another strength is the fact that I love the gym. I get so pumped when I walk in and see super-fit people grinding on the machines and weights. I get even more pumped when I see people that are in non-ideal shape hitting it hard. I’m like “yeah, get your health on!” I guess I’m lucky to feel this way because I know some people who hate the gym. Anyhow, as most college students probably do, I am really reconsidering my living arrangements as of late — I may just rent someone’s couch for the remaining semester. Anybody got a living-room couch for rent? Haha. We’ll see how it all works out, one thing’s for sure, I am getting FIT! I’ll be getting married this summer and I want to be in top shape. Next on the list: figuring out how to grow some more hair. 😊

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The Circle of Life ⟩
December 29, 2012, by Paula

School/Life Balance

The long break from classes has been a great opportunity to accomplish goals from the semester which are pushed aside for studying and more accessible study breaks with friends. It has been so great spending this time at home with my family and visiting with friends from different points in my life. My family made it through the whirlwind of Christmas celebrations — spread through about 5 days of festivities. With things calming down a bit, this week was the perfect time for a date with my mom in San Francisco. We traveled in to the city and browsed the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, grabbed lunch and then went to the matinee of The Lion King at the Orpheum Theater. Having grown up in the Bay Area and spent almost 20 years living in the area, it is still nice to act like tourists occasionally.

The show was amazing. I do not have any background in theater, unlike many of my peers (and fellow-student ambassador, Kendra, who is definitely a pro) and I have only been to two performances but I have so enjoyed it each time. The effects, costumes, and coordination of all sights and sounds is just mind-blowing! This performance was unique to the one I had previously seen because there were children in the cast. As I sat watching with my mom, I was taken back to my childhood — which was full of Disney movies — and I wondered how things may have been different if I had been interested in theater instead of the many lifelong occupations I still cherish and pursue. Here were 9 year old children involved in a touring production who were bringing it all to the table and loving it! It was so great to see and I found myself wondering if their parents were also in theater and if the adults in the cast had also begun their careers in this art as a child. This job is clearly rigorous, with frequency of performances and the demands on the body and mind to commit to characters, and it is incredible that these professionals do what they do. Viewing and experiencing these performances is a new occupation of mine — although it may not come to fruition until I have a salary. :] I encourage you to give a new occupation a try before the new year!

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Break Time ⟩
December 18, 2012, by Amber

School/Life Balance

Well, school is officially out for winter break and I am free for the next month. Whenever I have a long break from classes, a seemingly endless list of things I want to do immediately forms in my mind. Among the items on my list: play the piano, craft several Christmas presents, re-learn Photoshop, read a novel, catch up with a dozen different friends, and travel to two other states for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Needless to say, I never seem to accomplish even a fraction of my “to do” list. What I have managed to do so far is spend two days at Disneyland and organize my paperwork and binders from the fall semester. And it’s already time to leave on my three-week, three-state jaunt. I am looking forward to visiting family and friends that I don’t see as often as I would like. And nothing beats the celebration on Christmas Eve when my entire extended family gets together, each with their trademark potluck dish in tow. It’s a wonderful, warm time of year and I’m going to enjoy every moment of it.

My cat is not as thrilled as I am about Christmas.

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FIN ⟩
December 14, 2012, by Ricky

Classes School/Life Balance

Ahhh . . . nothing like being done with another semester. On the real, these last two weeks were the roughest yet (for me). The schoolwork wasn’t that hard, it was the volume of stuff that piled up towards the end that did it. That, and my time management skills (or lack thereof . . . no, definitely lack thereof). I was done on Wednesday — it’s Friday now, and I am still recovering. My battle scars were comprised of tightness in the chest, tension in all parts of my body down to my little toes, and some peculiar behavior in my eyes — darn you laptop screen! (fist clenched . . . ever so tightly). My adversary consisted of the following:

Week 1
Monday — early final (yay)
Thursday — group presentation
Friday — community program poster presentation + proposal (oh, roughly 100 pages)

Week 2
Wednesday — 10 page paper
Wednesday (yes, same Wednesday) — 10 page case study

To some, it may seem like just another finals period, but in my lived-experience, I no likey :( The happily-ever-after in this story is that I am still breathing. I am always amazed of what we are capable of when we are put to the test (literally, in this case). Plus, there’s always room for it to be worse. I always tell myself that it isn’t really that bad until I get that bad metallic taste in my mouth . . . you know what I mean? You’ve read Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, right? Anybody? Anyhow, thank you all for the chance to vent a bit. Now for a little recess . . .

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How do you make the season bright? ⟩
December 12, 2012, by Kendra

Community School/Life Balance

Happy 12/12/12! This time tomorrow I will be blissfully done with all my final papers/exams, etc. And this time in one week I will be waking up to see the Olympic Mountains outside my window, spending my first Christmas away from my family with my husband. So many exciting changes to look forward to, and as I endeavor to make change I think on the traditions that have helped make this time of year so precious to me.

Some traditions I hold dear are food and presents (shocking I’m sure!). My family loves to gather in the kitchen and cook for hours on Christmas Eve. While we have a feast for Christmas Eve dinner we also feast throughout Christmas day, making it a relaxing, elastic waistband kind of day. But despite years of making homemade cinnamon rolls and potato soup and ceviche, we still have yet, after 20+ years of making Christmas dinner as a family, to find the perfect Christmas Eve dessert. Even though there is no perfect sweet treat to look forward to each year, it has become its own dysfunctional tradition: what new-fangled dessert do we try this year? We’ve done chocolate pudding, coconut cake, cookies, chocolate cake, and homemade ice cream. And despite all of their delicious success, we still prefer to try again next year. This odd little tradition is very close to my heart.

Another tradition I hold dear is wrapping presents. Odd right? But since I was 16, I’ve sat in my mother’s work room for hours upon hours making perfect hospital folds and sealing packages with invisible tape while my mother makes the most beautiful bows and the TV plays ‘Christmas in Connecticut’ or the ‘Muppet Christmas Carol.’ It is our quiet time between cooking and holiday parties, when we can reminisce and cry at a movie we’ve seen at least 20 times together.

This year I won’t be wrapping presents for hours or finding the perfect imperfect dessert, but I will be taking these traditions to my new family and in years to come sharing these traditions with my children. That is what makes the season bright for me.

So as people fly home, drive home, stay home for the holidays I wonder what are your holiday traditions? What do you do with your family to keep the season bright? What meals do you cook? What church service do you attend? How does your family open presents? How do you show your loved ones gratitude and love during the season?

Peace, Love and OT to all and happy break to students!

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