Last semester sucked the life out of me. I felt like a robot going from Point A to Point B. I never took a break from working; I would get to my time clock and have to take a moment to think about whether I was clocking out or clocking in. I got excellent grades and accomplished many things, but at the cost of neglecting my friendships and my health.
With that being said, my goal for this semester is to dislodge the gigantic stick from my ass and have some more fun! Instead of making a New Year's resolution to change who I am, I want to be more of myself. It's easy to lose myself with demands from bosses and professors who all claim that the things I am doing for them are the most important things of my life, but this semester, I want that to stop. I will be in control of my own life this year.
How am I going to do this??? I have a few ideas-- let's see how they go!
Unplugging and being creative. Last semester consisted of many late night text messages from classmates and Facebook messages related to work and school during what I thought was my relaxation time. Being constantly connected, I never truly got a break. Don't get me wrong-- I love helping out my classmates and coworkers and many times I am messaging my classmates and coworkers asking for help. However, I needed an escape.
This semester, I vow to take at least half hour of "me time" every day where I turn off my phone, stay off Facebook, don't check my email and do something completely unproductive that does not contribute to professional development or my health or anything else. I need at least a little bit of time every day to be chill and creative: read, draw, write, blog, craft, Netflix, whatever. If I could make time to fit in one more lesson plan every night last semester, I can make the time for more creativity this semester. (Besides, good educators are naturally creative, right?)
Yes man. I was surprisingly quite inspired by this movie. I realize that I'm super anal like Jim Carey pre-inspiration and I also realize that I want to be more like Zooey Deschanel's character who is free-spirited and kind of crazy. I can I be like that? Well, the answer, according to the wisdom in the movie (movie wisdom is always accurate, of course) is to say "Yes." Don't say no to doing fun things! Of course, being a responsible adult, there is a line. I will say no when I really do have to study, when I really do not have any money, or if it involves any sort of shady schemes, obviously.
Health as a priority. Sounds so boring. doesn't it? Over the summer, I ran three miles every day, played softball once a week and sometimes on the weekends and really watched what I ate. That was easy to do with an 8-5 desk job that demanded literally nothing from me. I felt (and looked) great and had much more confidence. However, once the semester started, I began eating out a lot more-- on Tuesdays I had classes from 9:30 am to 10:00 pm with no break, so it was Einstein's bagels, Quizno's, and Starbucks for this girl. Also, with many days similar to that, I was only getting to the gym about once a week. I felt awful and uncomfortable in my own skin. This semester, my schedule is fortunately a little less insane. My goal is to get to the gym at least every other day. I picked up some Pinterest tips from The Watering Mouth and Parents for low-calorie snacks that don't need refrigerated so I can stop spending my money and calories at overpriced campus shops.
That's it! I think it's pretty sad that I actually have to plan out how I'm going to be more of myself, hopefully it helps. How do you maintain your sanity?
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