Break the Monotony – Last Month of School Edition

With the semester coming to an end, it’s easy to get caught up in the vicious cycle of studying – where your only breaks are spent planning when to next study. You wake up, go to class, study for exams, repeat. It becomes too easy to focus all of your energy into studying and before you know it, you’ve finished your finals and done nothing fun with your final months of school!!! And for those of us who are graduating, or have senior friends who are abandoning us – it’s crunch time.

Yes, we are here for our education but that doesn’t mean we have to lock ourselves in our rooms until we have La Chatelier’s concept ingrained in our memory or we’ve all but perfected our ten-page essays. I admit that I find it easy to get caught up in the monotony, but I have realized that I need to fully take advantage of the end of the semester and here are some of my suggestions:

Capitalizing on “Me Time”

1. Read a book— You can dedicate as much or as little time to this as you want! It’s a great mental escape from all the school work, but if you really wanted to, you could pick up an interesting book from your major to provide you with some extra information for an upcoming essay or something to talk about in an interview. 

2. Watch an episode of a TV show —This is a great, mindless activity for when you have fully utilized all of your mental capabilities for the day. If you plan on going back to work after you finish you can feel good about only having wasted 20 minutes, and if you want to call it quits on work you can veg-out until the “are you still watching?” icon pops up. 

3. Practice mindful meditation —So last week I was enlightened by this meditation instructor that SAHI brought to campus for health week. Mindful meditation is essentially a way to focus on yourself and escape the stresses of reality. No, this isn’t some instant fix-all for your stress, but it will minimize some of it for the time being. The instructor defined anxiety as focusing an inordinate amount of negative energy on the future, stressing out about events that haven’t even happened yet. By practicing mindfulness, you focus on the present, realizing that the present is the only thing you have control over. This is obviously my interpretation of what she said, but if you want to hear it from her, look up Tiffany Andras-Myers! Or download the app Insight Timer to try and practice on your own! 

4. Work out —I know not everyone is a fitness guru who runs half marathons for fun and can bench press 120 lbs. BUT just about everyone is capable of taking a walk through Lullwater or doing some laps around the quad. The weather is finally turning the corner so try to take advantage of the warmth while you can. 

Setting Aside Time for Friends

1. Having Dinner with Friends —You have to eat dinner anyway, so why not do it with friends? You can try out a new restaurant or make dinner together if you have some extra time, and then roll it into dinner and a movie. And if you’re stuck on campus Cox is always a great call (start using your Dooley Dollars before you run out of time).

2. Workout —If you don’t feel like working out on your own do it with a partner! Go on a run through Lullwater and catch up while you break a sweat! Also, feel free to take walking breaks because talking and running can be an extra strain. Plus, its better for you to spend more time being active than a shorter time going all out. 

3. Have a Movie Night —Netflix is constantly coming out with new movies, take a Friday night and pick one to watch with some friends! It’s not likely that you are going to have some pressing school assignment due Saturday morning.

While the semester is nearing its end, make sure to do something fun and escape from all the school work that is piling up. There are so many people you are going to miss over the summer so make sure to spend some time with them! And if you really need some alone time make sure it isn’t monopolized by studying, do something fun, do something for you!