Congratulations on finishing exams and another year of university! The end of school definitely calls for a reward, but while junk food and 24 hours of Netflix are certainly tempting options, I don't usually feel great after a full day of…
In Which I Close a Chapter
It's hard to believe we're at the end of the year. I feel like I say this every end of April, but school went by so fast; scarily fast. It seems like just last week I was putting on boots and trudging through the snow-- oh wait, that was last week! Jokes aside (though Canadian weather is not a joke sometimes), I wanted to squeeze out one last blog post for the wonderful folks who read my work all year. This blog post will be my advice to you consisting of the 4 most important lessons I've learned in my third year at this wonderful university.
Managing Exam Anxiety
Here’s a new tongue twister for you – try saying “Exam Anxiety” five times really fast. Can you do it? I sure can’t. Unfortunately, “Exam Anxiety” isn’t just a tongue twister – rather, it is something that affects many students…
My Mindfulness Journey
Three years ago, I was going through a rough semester and my boyfriend's mother gave me a book called Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a stress reduction and mindfulness expert. Prior to this point, I'd thought of…
In Which I Survive Election Season
It's that time of year again.
You probably have seen it: posters of smiling faces scattered all around campus, Facebook advertisements and endorsements all over your news feed, people stopping you on your walk to class to ask if they could just take five minutes of your time.
Yep, I'm talking about election season.
Essays, (Research) Essays Everywhere
I am drowning in essays, every single word coming out of the pages of my novels and off of the multiple Microsoft Word documents I have open all at once. It...is...essay season! In all honesty, I don't mind writing essays…
On Missing Class
One of the things I love most about university is the independence. Unlike in high school, you don't need to ask anyone's permission when you want to go to the washroom or get a drink. You also typically don't get…
Reflecting on Midterm Season
My favourite thing about the first few weeks of March is that it falls right in between midterm season and finals season. This is the optimal time to reflect on the study patterns you exhibited during midterm season to help you determine the…
Three-Hour Lectures
Back in the day (literally just a few months ago), when I was in high school I would have eight hours of lectures a day, with five hours of class straight with no breaks. Today, taking three-hour lectures are often…
Do I really need that? A look at the business that is fitness
Lifting gloves:
Disclaimer: “Trolls” on the internet love to pick on people who wear lifting gloves - just ignore them. Whether you need lifting gloves is for you to decide and is no indication of how much you can lift, how “beast” you are, or anything of the sort. Many bars and barbells have a knurled surface (is that a fun word or what?). You’ve probably seen it, the pattern of thousands of diamonds that cover most of the bar, it’s there so athletes can get a better grip on the bar. This knurling, however, doesn’t make for a particularly pleasant grip and can cause the hands some discomfort – to reduce this discomfort, some people choose to wear lifting gloves. Others wear gloves to improve their grip when their hands start to sweat, and others wear gloves for entirely different reasons. Point is, if they’re going to benefit you, go right ahead. Don’t feel the need to put on a brave face while the bar exfoliates your hands. It doesn’t make you any more awesome than the guy or gal next to you whose hands aren’t the same shade of bright red.
Brand-name apparel:
I’m not even going to go there. Your body is just as strong and just as amazing in your highschool gym shorts as it is in Lululemon yoga pants that set you back $140, or bright green UnderArmour sweats.