When Life gives you Readings, Find a Library

I live alone. I chose to live alone, and for all intents and purposes I truly enjoy living without a roommate. I have the freedom to walk around in my boxers as I please while singing nineties pop songs at the top of my lungs. On a more practical level, I thought that living alone would allow me to live in a haven of focus and concentration. A space where I could hide away and focus on my studies without distraction. It turns out that my apartment will probably never become a distraction-free study space.
A photo of a lap top screen in front of a television screen with a lady on the television
super meta, I know!
But to compensate for the bounty of distraction that I face in my apartment, I have learned the value of essentially living in various libraries, and by various, I mean three different ones. So I thought I would write about them.
Painting of an umbrella (representing and labelled as "self-care") in the rain.

Staying on Track with Your Self-Care

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I think maintaining the self-discipline to actually keep yourself well, both mentally and physically, can be hard at times. Knowing about and trying out different self-care strategies is great, but sticking to them can be another thing. As we’re writing all about self-care this week, I started thinking about why some of the self-care activities and strategies I’ve experimented with haven’t stuck while others have…
Painting of an umbrella (representing and labelled as "self-care") in the rain.
by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs.
I love looking through her art journals (click through for an example) when I'm looking for inspirations for my own "art journals" (I use quotations because my attempts are more chicken scrawl than art, to be honest).

Tutorials 101 or How I Went From a Skeptic to a Believer

I didn't know if I was going to like tutorials when I came to U of T. I've been notoriously known for not participating in class and it was never for any reason except for the fact that I preferred to listen rather than input my thoughts. When I received those syllabi for the first time, my heart dropped. How could participation in tutorials be worth 15% of my final grade? I dreaded going to that first tutorial because I had so many questions. What was a tutorial? What was a TA? How would I participate? What if I said something ridiculous? Never fear, I have the answers here (Ha, I rhymed).
Picture of University College
I once had a tutorial in the basement of UC, which was difficult to find. Can anyone relate? (Source: uc.utoronto.ca)