#classes

I’ve never been an A+ student. The highest GPA I’ve ever gotten in a year is 3.7, both semesters. I’ve never been someone to sit down and study really hard for hours on end, but now that I’m in college, those habits need to change.

My goal this quarter is to get a 3.8 GPA. Like I said, I have literally never had grades that good before, but I’m hoping that my incredible interest in my classes and change of habits will get me there. I know a 3.8 is really, really hard to get, especially in college, but I’d rather aim high than low.

So, here I am, avoiding homework by cleaning my dorm and blogging about college. Here’s to another 9 weeks!

Fin.

College stress is a notch or two up from high school stress. It’s different than the stress in the world of professional work, too. Learning to deal with college stress requires looking at stressful situations from a slightly different angle than you have in the past. Here are some tips to help you deal with stress when you’re going to college.

1.) Prevent as Much Stress as Possible.

While a lot of stress is unpreventable, you can head off quite a bit of it just by planning ahead. For example, college students get stressed out when they know they have a paper coming due the next day, and they haven’t started on it at all. That kind of stress is preventable. By breaking down a large project like this into manageable chunks and working on it a bit every day for a couple of weeks, you can probably have that paper finished even a couple days ahead of time and not have to worry about whether you’ll be able to turn it in on time. Another example is having enough supplies, like printer ink, on hand to do your work. Your professor isn’t going to accept the excuse that your printer ran out of ink when you try to turn your paper in late.

2.) Take Breaks.

While you’re studying, take five or ten minutes for a break for every half hour or hour you study. Your brain will be better able to focus on the material at hand, and you won’t get so stressed out that you’re having a hard time understanding some of it. Likewise, take breaks for exercise and to be with friends and family during the course of the week. Do something you enjoy doing, such as sewing or biking, to keep your stress level down.

3.) Keep the Goal in Mind.

You’re likely to feel like the world is about to crash in on you when you have three finals in one day coming up. It’s vital that you remember why you’re in college, why you’re doing all this work and studying. You’re doing it to graduate, get a job you enjoy and that can meet your financial needs, and make a positive difference in the world. You may have other goals than these for why you’re going to college. Whatever they are, keep them in mind when you feel stressed by all that you have to do to reach those goals.

4.) Take it a Step at a Time.

You may get overwhelmed thinking about all that you need to do. Break up your projects, your semester, your year, and your college career into pieces that you can digest. If you can see your way to the end of the term, to the end of the year, you’ll be able to see your way to the end of your college career, to the stage at graduation when you get your diploma. Set deadlines for small chunks of big projects that you can reasonably meet. Mark important days like the last day of finals with a night out with friends.

5.) Take Care of Your Health.

Chunk the Ramen noodles into the trash. It doesn’t matter if you’re struggling to make ends meet financially. You need to have some proper nutrition in you if you’re going to manage stress well. You’re more likely to get sick if you don’t eat and sleep well, which only makes stress worse. Get some fruits and vegetables into your grocery cart this week. Cook up a massive batch of healthy soup you can freeze or eat throughout the week. Find creative ways to get the right food and rest that you need.

6.) Get a Support Network, and Help Others.

Sharing your stress with family and friends is a good way to manage it. You can talk about it, and perhaps they can offer you some relief, say, by forming a study group with you to help you study for an upcoming exam. Just having someone listen to you vent about your troubles can make you feel better. You may also feel better being able to help someone else in your circle with a stressful situation. Consider volunteering on campus or in your community to get that helper’s high as well.

College students have to deal with stressors that others do not. If you work on top of going to class, you have even more stress you have to prevent and manage. Just keep the goal in sight, and prevent as much stress as you can to keep yourself well.

There are times when being a good student is what it takes to pass a class or earn a good grade on an essay. “Good” doesn’t necessarily mean earning A’s throughout the semester, though, or that your professor is likely to want to help you out if you need her to. If you really want to get on your professor’s good side, you’re going to have to work hard. Slacking off is not going to make her happy. Here are seven tips to help you get your professors to love you.

1.) Go to Class. We know, basic, right? Show up to class, and your professors will remember your face as belonging to a person who actually is present for lectures. It’s natural for the professor to believe that you genuinely care about learning and your grade if your seat is warm every time she calls roll. If you demonstrate you care, you can expect to earn some brownie points.

2.) Go to Office Hours. Don’t ever tell your professor that you didn’t know when office hours were, and that’s why you failed your last test. They’re on the syllabus. You could ask the professor himself or the teaching assistant. Ask another student. Go to the professor’s website to find out when office hours are. There is no excuse for not going to office hours if you need help. If you make the effort to show up to office hours to ask questions about the lecture, text you read, or about an upcoming test, it shows that you want to establish a personal connection with the teacher and that you really want to do well in class.

3.) Ask Questions in Class. If there was something you didn’t get from the homework, make sure to ask your teacher. Do this during class if you can because there are likely to be other students who need an answer to the same question. If you don’t ask during class, go to office hour or send an email to ask. You could also leave your professor a voicemail if he prefers phone calls to emails. This helps your understanding of the material and again shows that you are paying attention to the material and truly want to comprehend it.

4.) Answer Questions in Class.

You can be of great help to other students if you can answer their questions during group work or when the professor leaves it open for a student to answer another student’s question. Also, pipe up when the instructor asks a question about the material being presented. This indicates that you read the assigned homework, listened in class, and that you have a good understanding of what you’re supposed to be learning.

5.) Do Your Work. 

You can’t get by on a wing and a prayer in most classes. You’ll need to actually do your homework and turn it in. Doing the work and reading assigned shows that you’re serious about understanding what your instructor is trying to convey. If you need help, make sure you ask ahead of time so that you aren’t begging for an extension.

6.) Demonstrate Maturity.

Cut out the wise cracks in class. Your schooling is your most important job right now, so treat it accordingly. Act professionally, just as you expect your professor to act. While it’s totally cool to laugh and have a good time in class, it’s also important to remember that you are at college to learn. Acting inappropriately can also negatively affect everyone else’s learning, and you don’t want your professor to remember you for being the class clown. 

7.) Get Help When You Need It. 

Contrary to popular belief, your professor doesn’t really want to see anyone fail. She is not out to make your life miserable. If you need help, ask for it. Your professor may offer to tutor you or direct you to resources on campus that can help you get a passing (or better) grade. Don’t avoid talking to your professor because you think he won’t want to help you out. In reality, he wants to see you succeed, and taking ownership of your education by asking for help will definitely help you get on his good side. 

Straight To Chopping

July 20, 2018

If you don’t understand the title, click on the video camera

Hello there everyone!!! Today has been quite a day and I thank Spinraza for my newly discovered data. As you can see in the photo above, I actually took a selfie photo of myself in the mirror of my bathroom. I was actually a normal (ew) teenage girl for a few seconds! This isn’t something that happens very often, folks, so mark it on your calandars! I’m kidding about marking your calandars, or am I?

Anyway, the reason why I am so excited about this, and other things, is that if you look closely at the photo of me there, you may notice something different about me.

Is it my hair?

No.

Although I do believe an older man called me, “young man” yesterday…. May need to keep my hair a bit longer in future???

That’s off track.

Is it my shirt?

No.

But it is the shirt I wore for my last injection. So that’s kind of significant.

Is it my makeup?

Just kidding, I don’t wear that. Much.

If you guessed before reading about all these little random thoughts, brownie points for you. If not, then you definitely aren’t Sherlock.

I am sitting up much straighter than I am normally able to tolerate.

Why is this a big deal? Well this means that my upper body is beginning to have a bite of the good stuff. Meaning Spinraza is actually sharing the love and allowing me to sit a bit more normallyregularly straight. I used to sit up straight and tall, but that was directly after I had spinal surgery and then I got a new chair that was technically a loaner and it screwed up my posture which lead me to this moment in time.

Don’t get loaner chairs, kids. It’s a trap.

But something that really surprised me was the fact that my physical therapist…

I know you’re reading this so here’s a hello from across the Internet to you! Have a Reid wave you Criminal Minds mutual lover you ❤️

I’m sorry but that had to be done…

Anyway, my physical therapist emailed my grandmother about the photo I edited with all four injection photos side by side:

That one ☝

She noticed that my posture changes with each photo. Keep in mind, as she said, that I could have been seated differently, or maybe I wasn’t as tired one day compared to another… But let me give a little recap of each injection and how stressful each one was in comparison to another.

Thefirst injection photo was taken after a relatively easy procedure. I had severe anxiety that day before hand, but after it was all over, I’ve never felt so relaxed… This was taken at around 11-11:30am for a 10:30am appointment.

Thesecond injection photo was taken after the doc decided to use a shorter needle, so that was a bit uncomfortable compared to the first one. The headaches after that procedure was absolutely hellish, but other than that it was alright. This was taken at around 9:30-10am for an 8:30am appointment.

Thethird injection photo was taken after the doc couldn’t get a clear enough image of the entrance to my spinal fluid and accidentally hit a nerve (literally and metaphorically). That one was not fun. This was taken at around 11-11:30am for a 10am appointment.

Thefourth and final injection photo was taken after the worst pain experienced in my entire life, and that’s saying something since I was a reckless child and have had my chair topple onto me numerous times. For some reason my back went into complete spasm. Luckily this occurred when the needle was taken out, not being put into my spine. I never screamed so loud and for so long. Okay, maybe when they’d put more medication into my foot IV after my spinal surgery, but I whimpered more than screamed.

Anyway, I underwent a lot of pain after three of the injections, and a lot of stress. But my posture noticeably is different in each picture. Oh, and no, my dad most likely had nothing to do with the fact I look fairly straighter in my chair as he also sees everything that happens to me during the procedure as I ask for him to be in the OR in case something happens and I need him. Which I did this last injection so it was the right move on my part. So he is as stressed out as I am, and tired.

My other deduction about my seating is the fact that it got ruined after I was put into a loaner chair for about a year and my excellent, newly fixed posture went in the toilet since the company I used couldn’t completely accommodate the way I sat until my actual chair was ordered. They tried to fix it once I got my chair that I would really use and I absolutely could not tolerate sitting any straighter than the Leaning Tower of Deziree.

My terrible 5 minuet edit depicting a long dead joke. But it was worth the effort.

The next bit of news I have for you all is that I tried something that my previously mentioned physical therapist suggested. I made a video of me doing said activity, but Tumblr is a pain and wouldn’t let me add a title or photos along with the video so I posted it just before this post. The link to it is here for those of you who want to see it immediately this second instead of at the very end. Either way, you will see it. The commentary is comedy, so enjoy.

Lastly, I finally completely finished semester 1vof my senior year!!!

Now all I have to do is finish two classes to be completely finished with high school. Beyond excited to actually be able to do what I want to do for six months and just read because I will have nothing else to do. Actually, I should really start doing that now as I have more time… Hmmm…