Keep Smiling

     Spring is here and it is time to get motivated again. I go through these phases of becoming a fitness extremist where 100% of my energy is focused on working out and not consuming any white flour or sugar. The reason it has never lasted longer than a year is because 1) the winter is depressing and I chose to eat those devilish foods 2) I work out excessively and get really bad shin splints and muscle aches 3) I find something else to obsess over. Since I have quite smoking a little over a year ago I have gained a lot of poundage. Now the whole idea of quitting smoking was to get healthy not to bring on heart disease, so it is definitely time to get back on track.

     As a student I find that incorporating exercise and eating a lot of fruits and vegetables with a large intake of water makes my brain function better. I am more enthusiastic and energetic to do things and I can focus and remember a heck of a lot more when studying. In my five year plan it is my goal to get into shape this year and regain my soccer career as I once did. Now that this intense program is over I will be able to manage the balance of more physical activity into my daily routine along with everything else.

    I can already feel the endorphines bouncing around thinking about the feeling of being healthy, looking healthy, and having a permanent smile on my face. Also, kicking my famous banana corner kicks, hip checks, and defending until the death brightens that smile even more.

This picture is for you Gosia, you are right below the coach on the left. It is blurry but maybe it will bring back a memory.

 

Give Back

     I have two weeks left of school and I have made my future plans so I don’t stress out about what I am going to do last minute. After my intership, which I predict will be amazing, I have other aspirations I want to fulfill. I will be keeping in contact with W.A.R.M. to continue to volunteer when I can, but I will also be getting involved at the Distress Center in St. Catharines. I have accepted my offer to Fleming College in Peterborough to become a social worker, and I want more volunteer experience in that line of work.

     In September I will be finally moving out of my house. Besides the obvious benefit of continuing my education and finding my dream career (number 1 goal), I will gain  independence and learn the life skills I might be lacking. The Public Relations Program has definitely inspired my aspirations in a sense. I debated the social worker course for a year and now I am sure it is what I want. In PR I learned the skills to teach others and it has given me more confidence to speak publicly and in a motivational way. The target for all of this is to give back to society.  Since I have learned so much about myself this year and what I am capable of achieving, I can now use what I know to the best of my ability to help others reach their potential.

 

Student Blogger

     I never knew any bloggers, read blogs, or thought I would become a blogger. This experience of sharing my thoughts to many others was scary at first because I was totally putting myself out there, but now that I have done it for a few weeks I find it somewhat self-soothing. I get to vent on topics that people might not usually want to listen to, so because it is written it is their choice to read it or not. After I read my posts I look at what I am taking for granted or just selfishly bitching about and reassess my opinion. I like to be grateful for what I have and seeing it in writing helps me to do so. I enjoy reading some of the other student posts as well because I can usually relate in some sort and I get to rehash old memories.

     I do have various journals that I break out when I am in the mood. I was writing daily awhile back but to much has been going on in the past few months so I couldn’t sit still enough to write down my thoughts anymore. I look at this as a journal that I might decide to continue when this assignment is over. I can type a lot faster than I can write and I can get down a lot more stuff quicker online. This idea is however still up in the air.

     I was not a fan of social media as you can see from my facebook post. I always thought people just want attention and want to be nosey knowing everyone else’s business. I am still against facebook but blogging is a bit different where you can learn from being involved in it and get to know people for who they really are, not what they are trying to be. I am more open-minded to this whole internet thing and maybe one day will even find a love match. (Have heard many good stories but I am just being fecetious).

    Two more weeks left of school and I will definitely be blogging about my future goals post-post graduate and what I hope to accomplish before this course is up.

Stay tuned.

 

No time for a Kitkat

       To be quite honest, I do not party like I used to. For me, spring break is no longer about getting wasted everynight, going somewhere hot with friends, or  really doing anything out of the ordinary at all. Being in this post-graduate certificate  program has definitely made me more responsible and mature in a way, because those things are not even at the bottom of my list of things to do anymore. I used to love to use any excuse possible to ditch school and do more important things like picking up guys or going on a late night road trip. For the first time in my life I can actually say I am a student, not one pretending to be one.

     With all the work to be done in Public Relations I really didn’t have time to stray even if I wanted to. I learned a lot about priorities having the schedule free week in my hands. I  did feel funny without the structure but I made my detailed daily lists to keep me on track with my assignments and errands that needed to be done, and I was successful. The time management skill I have acquired makes everything run so smoothly. I have to admit, I wasn’t completely honest when I said I didnt do anything out of the ordinary because I do have to amuse myself somehow you know.

Ready… Just Breathe

 

Together Forever

 “Torture” is the word I used to refer to when having to read a book during my pre-teen and adolescnet years. When I was instructed to read a full novel and do an indepth report afterwards, I would cringe and would hope that time would stop. I got away with reading the back cover and using my talent of b*llsh#ting to get through a few of them, but the better number of them I would slowly read and fight through the pain. I am not sure if it was my short attention span, slow reading skills, or my skewed perception of only boring geeks read books, but I remember it being such a horrible experience.

 About a year ago I decided to read some books on buddhism and other forms of  faith. I then proceeded on to health books, articles, websites, and so on. It then progressed to the point where I am now reading a novel every few weeks, preferrably non-fiction as that peaks my interest a bit more, and I capture the words for the first time. My brain is now hungry for stimulating material, and being a confused student, I at least have a sense of what will keep me young, yet mature for the rest of my life. Reading is like food for the brain and the more you feed it the stronger it will get. I now appreciate what this spectacular world has to offer. So even though my I have not found my niche in life (being the professional student that I am), I am satisfied knowing that my curiousity will get me through to the next chapter of my life.

 

What time is it?

Up at 6:30 a.m., bus at 7:30 a.m., classes 8:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m, 7: 00 p.m. dinner, homework 7:30 p.m. until 10:00 p.m., 10:15 p.m. snooze time. Luckily with the grad certificate program those days only come three days a week. Mondays and Fridays I wake up at 7:30 a.m., appointments until 10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. I volunteer in St. Catharines for my special event, 4:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. work, home and in bed by 2:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday I get up 10:00 a.m., eat and walk the dog by 11:30 a.m., do some homework until 2:00 p.m., nap until 2:45 p.m., then work 4:o p.m. until 1:00 a.m.

This is how I wanted my life to be, days full of activities and excitement, but somehow it’s just not enough. When I wrote the above schedule I realized that even though I like to keep busy, I am missing out on the excitement part, the spontaneity  that I yearn for, the social gatherings, road trips, hockey games, they are just too few and far between. I mentioned in my first post the possibility of going away to school. I recently got accepted and am moving away for two more years to fulfill the role of a student. I am waiting for the scale to level and to find that balance between student life and having a life.

I am sure you have heard before from your parents, “You need to get your priorities straight.” Well school last semester was #1 on my list and I rarely saw my friends, exercised, or spent time with my family. This semester with the schedule I presented to you I did add in a few things to lessen the stress load and decided not to focus on just one thing. My band with my brother named Semily (Sean, Emily) in Guitar Hero gets about six  hours of my time a week, taking my dog on daily walks about 5 hours, visiting my Nana on the weekend before work, going to a hockey game on Thursday nights instead of doing homework, shopping, and going for coffee with friends whenever possible takes on quite a few more hours. This definitely has helped the scale rise a bit but just not enough. Sometimes I just want to ditch the whole time management thing and throw it out the window. But for now, this is student life.

 

Social Mania

We all want to feel included in our social groups and want attention from our peers and it is completely natural. I am sure you have all heard the term good press or bad press, any press is good. You must wonder if we spend a little too much time trying to impress others instead of truly expressing ourselves the way we know how. The best example of how we do this is on Facebook. Addictions are a serious matter, and not just drinking or using drugs. This form of social media is the main focus for many students lives, always checking, updating, joining groups, uploading pictures, their day revolves around it. It is a great way to communicate with those who are far away or those old friends whom you’ve lost contact with, but it is taking away from the other things that matter in life.

When Facebook came out in mid 2007, it started to gain popularity quite rapidly. I thought it was just another type of MSN icq chat, but it turned out to be much more. I boycotted Facebook from day one sticking with the more personal forms of communication. I finally gave in the summer of 2008 which lasted about three months. I became one of those people I just described and decided to again go without. If you are one of those creepers I have described, I am not bashing you, I am merely expressing my concern for the way our age group spends their time. Whether it be a full fledged addiction, or a way to pass the time when you are bored, I think we should not forget about the importance of human contact and take the time to breathe in the fresh air.

Just a thought.

 

Planning my Escape

Today in class my teacher Linda posed a question to all of us, “Who still lives at home or wishes they still did?” I was one of the lucky few who raised their hand. At age 26 I am still living with my parents and I sometimes feel a bit smothered, but I  enjoy it at the same time. Weird? I have never left my home for longer than three weeks and feel that I am never going to leave if I don’t do it soon. No worries, I have passed the thumb sucking blanket carrying stage. But I have a plan!

Being a student and financially unstable, as we all are, I have decided to be a loyal customer to my long time love, ontariocolleges.ca. Now maybe this is prolonging my journey into adulthood, but I can’t think of any other way. I know I am not willing to just move out for the sake of moving out without finding my passion in life. So, in the last few weeks I have researched schools that can hopefully lead me to the place I want to be. Far, far away in independent land.

Right now my dad makes me dinner every night when I get home from school and takes care of my dog Henry when I am not home. Could I really give this up?