Tag Archives: scheduling

Spring Semester & Scheduling

Posted on by
Reply

Happy January everyone! I am currently blogging from Fairbanks, Alaska where I spent my winter break resting and relaxing in the snow! I am about to start traveling back to Daytona Beach and I had such a good break I miss my family already! My only complaint is that it was too short. 

One of my favorite memories from winter break – snow shoeing with my favorite person!

I have exciting news! I am about to begin my last semester of my undergraduate education, I graduate in May! I am so excited after 5 years of working towards my B.S. in Aerospace Engineering to be so close to having my degree and starting a new chapter of my life. As always, this semester will be a busy one but I am excited for all the growth to come. I have big plans for staying busy and going full speed ahead, with rest of course, until graduation. 

Current academic progress one semester away from graduation!

At the start of every semester to help plan and best organize my busy times I create a schedule! I suggest utilizing your class schedule as a base to start building off of. From there I add in my commitments in order of priority, including ROTC obligations, RA duty and meetings, Peer Mentor work for UNIV 101, scheduling in my work hours for my job at the Eagle Flight Research Center, and of course all other obligations besides work. For me, this includes time to do homework, study, do yoga, eat breakfast/lunch/dinner, and a workout schedule for when I will be at the gym in fitness classes, doing cardio outside, working out in my room, or resting. This semester one of my goals is to be more mindful and take more time for myself by scheduling in walks at least once (but hopefully more) every week. Taking walks is nice because it also allows for time to catch up listening to some of my favorite podcasts!

This semester I also have a goal to get more sleep. I typically go to bed very early on days when I don’t have RA obligations such as staff meetings, which are scheduled late in the evenings to ensure all RAs are out of class, which keeps me awake past my usual bedtime. Another RA responsibility that concludes late in the night is RA duty, which requires staff members to perform building rounds, answer phone calls for lock outs, and sit at their residence hall lobby desk. Typically RAs have duty one weekday every two weeks, in addition to about 11 weekend duty days spread across a semester. RA duty days are assigned at the beginning of each semester based off of responsibilities like class schedules, ROTC, and labs or flight blocks.

I have come to realize I function best on a lot of sleep, especially when I’m busy with classes and working out regularly. Thus, when I wake up early for ROTC obligations like PT or LLAB, I try to go to bed as early as possible.

I am exciting to make my life schedule for this upcoming semester and look forward to having everything planned to set myself up for success. Good luck this semester, will report back soon folks!

Online Classes & Decompressing

Posted on by
Reply

Happy June everyone! I’m currently blogging from Norfolk, Virginia where I am in the midst of online Arabic classes, and a study-filled summer with school, Language Partner meetings, tutoring sessions, Program coordinators, professors, and (of course) homework. Pros of online classes in the summer include that they can be done from the comfort of your own home. Cons of online classes include that sometimes it is difficult to be inside and sitting in front of a computer all day, especially when the weather is beautiful.

I find balancing online classes and course loads are almost harder than in person obligations because your brain is being exercised all day, while your body is stagnant. With the pandemic, society began to shed a light on mental health and prioritizing self care in a practical ways by incorporating small “wins” into everyday life.

This summer my small wins have been squeezing in YouTube workout videos before and after my 4 to 6 hour sessions of online classes, playing with pets in between my 5 minute computer breaks, and trying my best to stay off the computer and in front of a screen when I don’t have to. I’m the only student in my current online language program level so when I’m in class, tutoring sessions, or meeting a language partner it requires 100% of my attention. To balance being plugged in and continuously staring at a screen all day, I’ve been enjoying the silence of walking my sister’s dog after class or meditating, and trying to get as much sleep as possible.

Taking a break in between classes to pet my sister’s pup Daisy!

I typically get tired by the end of the day from studying so I look forward to good food, exercising, and hitting a hot yoga or spin class to decompress. My day consists of opposites: only working my brain, then only working my body. While I would prefer more variation in my routine, right now this is what’s working for me with my current schedule.

In addition to classes I’ve been keeping up with behind the scenes work for Orientation Team and Student Court. I’ve been trying to squeeze in reading, watching new movies on Disney + (like Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon), doing face masks, taking salt baths, sun bathing by the pool, walks on the beach, and other fun ways to decompress like listening to music and doing yoga. BUT, sometimes I’m exhausted from classes and I don’t have the energy to do much but sleep after a long day, and that’s okay too because when I’m tired it’s my body telling me I need rest, even if I haven’t done much physical activity.

I’ve found when my routine changes semi-drastically (cue the intensive summer language program), my go-to ways to decompress can sometimes feel more like things on a to-do list than actual time to relax. Relaxing can look different in different phases of your life, and even day-to-day, hour-to-hour, or minute-to-minute. Recognizing and checking in with where your body and mind are at, in order to know what you need is extremely important because it is always changing! Sometimes our go-to activities become more “things we have to do” and less so “the ways we decompress”.

Daisy teaching me how to stop and smell the flowers, even when we’re inside!

I’m at a changing phase of my life, so I’m still figuring out how to navigate decompressing from being constantly plugged into my computer and my phone all day. Using technology to communicate with my teachers, tutors, language partners, program coordinators, AND everyday life and school obligations (not to mention keeping in contact with friends and family which typically happens mostly online) is challenging, but the key is balance, which is a process.

Keep on keeping on folks, will report back soon!