Edited by Tanmaya Ramprasad
It’s the start of fall, which is my personal favourite season meaning: a new school year, sweater weather, everything pumpkin and exciting times of change and challenges. Personally, I’m the type of person to get easily overwhelmed at the thought of deadlines, projects, and just looking at my calendar in general— seriously it gets jammed packed! Autumn is the perfect time for change and stepping out of our comfort zones from the summer and really diving into all the fresh things to come!
This time around, I decided to make it different and think about the top things I want to accomplish this season. By being completely transparent and setting some time aside to create my goals and ideal outcomes, I can understand how I’m feeling and figure out ways on how to combat those tough emotions at times. Therefore, I decided to take a minute to set three wishes, also known as goals for the new semester. With a bunch of activities on my plate, it’s extremely beneficial to plan and be aware of what’s going on so I can constantly stay in the loop.
- Staying Focused
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This may seem like a given but it’s harder than it seems. With classes converting to online, it’s really testing my attention span, which I might say is extremely short thanks to TikTok being way too addictive and a click away. Even though there are many distractions on our screens, we also get lost in the space around us at home! This fall, our bedrooms are the new classrooms, so it’s never been more important to organize and declutter the space around us. I’m an Apple product stan and use my iPhone calendar religiously and stand by time-blocking! I created a bunch of calendars within it to see what I have going on from self-care time, socializing, classes, and clubs and how to prioritize and see where my time is being spent. I set a short timer daily before classes to make sure my environment around me is neat to clear my mind and rid of any anxiety. Some wise words of advice I can give are open the windows, throw on a cute but comfy matching set, have a glass of water set aside and a workspace free of other electronics and unrelated coursework. This motivates me, even more, to do my best when I’m feeling prepared like a student going to class— but from my bedroom!
- Finding Support
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This may be the most crucial piece of advice and probably the most heavily weighted goal I set myself this semester. Online classes are a foreign thing for most of us as we lose that luxury of face to face communication with our professors and classmates but there are ways around it! If I’m feeling stressed out about assignments or not understanding concepts, I make study groups over Zoom or iMessage groups too; communication is essential right now during this pandemic. If you need a chill night to think about something other than school, try hosting a Netflix party with a bunch of girlfriends and just release any tension from coursework for a second (our Her Campus U Toronto chapter watched Legally Blonde and it was the best thing ever!).
- Be Confident in Yourself
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For me, I’m a perfectionist and try taking on as many tasks as I possibly can to stay busy and proactive. This semester I have a few activities going on from a virtual internship, joining Her Campus, juggling classes every day, and working part-time as well; so, in a nutshell, you can say I’m a busy bee. With these going on and a jam-packed calendar, I find myself more often than not feeling down or unmotivated like I can’t do it all. From my last internship call, I heard some hopeful words of advice that stayed with me about bouncing back. Basically, there’s a bounce factor for everything in life and we need to acknowledge tasks aren’t always easy, but we need to bounce back with a positive attitude and believe we’ll get through it. From a perfectionist perspective, even if I don’t succeed at something right away, I need to remind myself that failures are some of the biggest lessons ever and things happen for a reason for better outcomes later on. I need to recognize my blind spots/weaknesses and don’t get stuck because of them.
By being honest with myself and letting these three goals out into the universe, I feel much better and believe I can have a great season with reminders and ways on how to be my version of successful. I think of this as a sort of manifestation and hope it can inspire you to do the same by focusing on what you want to accomplish this fall and a roadmap on how to get to that final vision of yourself.